Attracting Young Women “The Holy Grail”, says Fox Sports CEO

Attracting Young Women “The Holy Grail”, says Fox Sports CEO

Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany would love nothing more than to attract more young women to the network, but could broadcasting more female sports do just that?

Speaking to B&T straight after Fox Sports 501 was named Australia’s pay TV Channel of the Year at the 2016 ASTRA Conference in Sydney yesterday, Delany said the number one (and obvious) challenge for the network is to help maintain growth for Foxtel, and one of the ways Fox Sports is doing this is by staying young.

“When you’re a sports network, you can find yourself bound to middle-aged, white males,” he said.

“In the AFL and NRL, we regularly start grooming current players to be representatives of Fox Sports – not just to come on our shows, but literally become interviewers and commentators, and then once they retire they come straight onto our benches. We’ve got a good tradition of doing that.

“We are doing our best to attract more young people and more women to Fox Sports – those two things are very important to us. The Holy Grail would be to attract young women to watch sports.”

Delany also noted the possibility of a new era of female sports, and is optimistic about the uptake of these sports by the female audience.

“Women are playing mainstream sports that aren’t just sports that women play,” he said.

“In terms of women’s AFL, women’s NRL, and women’s rugby and rugby sevens, I don’t see why they wouldn’t take off, so long as they’re engaging with the tribe that represents them on the field.”

On a different note, does Delany believe more broadcasters will force sports to change their format and rules to make them more appealing and commercially viable?

“Absolutely,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk in the NRL about breaking the sport into quarters, and I for one would be interested to see what that would look like.

“That said, a big part of rugby league is inducing tiredness into the players, which causes errors, which can lead to points being scored, so I don’t know.

“There are other sports like cricket and netball which have brought in rule changes, so I don’t think it’s so much TV, but the market asking for these changes to bring the sports up to date.”

Finally, Delany said it is unlikely that Fox Sports and subscription TV will be affected by the federal government’s planned overhaul of Australia’s media ownership laws, he has urged our prime minister to just get on with it.

“I would just encourage the government to be brave and start doing the overhaul,” he said.

“These things are probably never popular, but the sets of laws that we have date back to the 90s when only free TV existed and pay TV was on the horizon, and now with the web and fast broadband, all of these things are completely ridiculous and alluding to all sorts of distorted situations where certain players have quite a strategic advantage over others, and that can’t be a good thing for this country.”




Latest News

Limited Tickets Still Available For First Ever Industry Pantomime
  • Advertising

Limited Tickets Still Available For First Ever Industry Pantomime

With just over 24 hours to go until the world premiere of Addy Lala and the Mood Tea Thieves, limited tickets are still available for the pantomime, which will run for one night only at the Everest Theatre in Sydney’s Seymour Centre on December 5th. All in the industry are encouraged to come along to […]

Palin Communications joins GlobalCom PR Network
  • Marketing

Palin Communications joins GlobalCom PR Network

Specialist Australian health PR agency, Palin Communications, has joined GlobalCom PR Network with a view to delivering meaningful, consistent, impactful, global health campaigns across a range of countries and regions.

2045: A New Melbourne-Based Creative Agency Founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore
  • Marketing

2045: A New Melbourne-Based Creative Agency Founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore

2045, a Melbourne-based creative agency founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore has just launched. The agency takes its name from the year futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted organic and artificial intelligence would converge. Lead Image: 2045 Team Evans was formerly a Partner and Executive Strategy Director at DT (now AKQA), before co-founding B.B.E in 2015. […]

New Years Eve fireworks
  • Marketing

National Breast Cancer Foundation Announced as Charity Partner For NYE Sydney

The National Breast Cancer Foundation has been announced as the Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve. The Australian not-for-profit organisation is represented by the pink ribbon and raises money to fund world-class research towards its vision of zero deaths from breast cancer. Research that saves lives through a better understanding of how to prevent […]

Emporium Unveils Unique Christmas Campaign: “Every Tradition Starts Somewhere”
  • Campaigns

Emporium Unveils Unique Christmas Campaign: “Every Tradition Starts Somewhere”

This holiday season, Emporium Melbourne has announced its festive creative campaign that celebrates and encourages the Melbourne community to embrace their personal ‘untraditional traditions’ – the unique traditions that make Christmas truly special for them, and their family. The campaign’s tagline, “Every tradition starts somewhere”, reflects Emporium’s commitment to embracing, inspiring and applauding diverse traditions […]

Reddit Updates Conversation Placement Ads Formats
  • Technology

Reddit Updates Conversation Placement Ads Formats

Reddit has announced updates to its new ads placement with Carousel Ads and Product Ads. These new units, placed in the heart of Reddit discussions, provide an even more dynamic and compelling way for advertisers to scale to relevant audiences, deliver deeper value to users, and drive stronger, full-funnel performance among the hundreds of thousands […]

Full Throttle Into 2024: Drive.com.au Announces 12 New Products In 2024 Upfronts
  • Media

Full Throttle Into 2024: Drive.com.au Announces 12 New Products In 2024 Upfronts

Automotive Network Drive has announced its 2024 upfronts, its biggest in more than a decade, with a suite of more than 12 new products that underpin its vision to be the number one automotive network in Australia. Now in its 27th year and with a monthly audience of 2.45 million, Drive is leveraging its reputation […]