Podcasts
Although women are struggling to find work in traditional sports broadcasting markets, the 21st century has provided new outlets. Podcasting has become an integral part of media consumption, allowing listeners to listen to what interests them, rather than what broadcasting companies choose to release. By giving listeners this kind of power, it allows female sports broadcasters to have a platform where their opinions are heard, and more importantly respected, even if they are not being backed by a major broadcasting company.
For this analysis, I compared 50 different podcasts using the following criteria:
- There must be at least one female host
- The podcast must be categorized as a "Sports & Recreation" podcast
- The podcast must still be active
Gender Divide
Of the 50 podcasts I looked at, 31 of them are led by an all women cast. While many of the shows featured men as weekly guests, it's monumental that more than half of the shows had women running them given the climate of sports broadcasting. Podcasting has few barriers to entry, allowing women to thrive on the medium because they can easily record their show and post it online without being restricted in the ways common to sports broadcasting. Rather than having to rely on a broadcasting company to support these women, they are able to express their opinions freely, creating a grassroots fanbase that actively seeks these women's opinions.
Publisher
That being said, not all of the 50 podcasts that I examined were independently published. Among the 50 podcasts, ESPN publishes 13 of them and FOX Sports publishes 3. These companies make up half of the four major sports broadcasting companies in the United States, suggesting that while women might not have a home on television for these networks, their expertise is still valued by the companies, although still to a lesser degree than men, as ESPN alone has over 100 podcasts that they publish. Still, 22 of the 50 podcasts I examined are published independently, further suggesting that the independent landscape of podcasting allows women to thrive as sports broadcasters.
Charting
While the podcasting does allow for women to thrive as sports broadcasters, the podcasts being published are failing to gain notoriety. Only 13 of the podcasts I examined charted in the top 200 Sports & Recreation podcasts, with only 1 charting on the overall top 200 podcasts. This indicates that although podcasting allows for anyone to be involved, including women, the Sports & Recreation podcasts that feature women are not only not gaining any major listenership compared to their male-dominated competition. However, this might not be the listener's fault, as only 6 of these 50 podcasts made it onto the Sports & Recreation home page. By not promoting these female led podcasts, it makes it difficult for listeners to find them, further restricting the role women have in sports broadcasting. Additionally, no podcasts from these 50 made it onto the overall front page of podcasts, further showing the difficulties for these shows to find new listeners.
Subject
Finally, I examined the individual topics each of the 50 podcasts cover. Unsurprisingly, 21 of them discuss all topics relating to Sports & Recreation. That being said, I found it interesting just how varied the topics were among the podcasts that only discussed one main subject. While this project only covers the four major sports in North America (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL), only 11 of the podcasts are dedicated to those sports, with no podcast covering solely baseball. The variety of topics suggests that female sports broadcasters have a wide set of interests, meaning they have an extensive set of knowledge about multiple sports or one that is not often discussed at a national level. This may be a result of women finding more accepting sports outside of the major four where their opinions are valued, or because they have to differentiate themselves by following sports outside of the major four in order to find jobs. Regardless, over half the podcasts are still dedicated to all sports or just the major four (21 and 11, respectively), showing that podcasts are a home for women where their thoughts can be recognized by listeners without broadcasting networks suppressing their talent.