Agrandissement : Illustration 1
Article source: "Un baromètre de la consommation du sport féminin et du para-sport révélé par l'Arcom", L'Equipe, 24/01/2024
More than half of the French population, (55%* of people aged 15 and over) watch or listen to women's sport, both live broadcasts and other types of programmes. This is the headline statistic in a study on sport in the media conducted by ARCOM, the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication. The study shows that 22% of people watch or listen to women's sport at least once a week, while an additional 15% do so once to three times a month, the majority of them tuning in for the biggest events, such as the football and rugby world cups, the Tour de France Femmes, Roland-Garros (French Open tennis), the World Athletics Championships, and so on.
When it comes to parasports, the ARCOM study reveals that 47% of the French population watch or listen to content related to parasports events, but only 12% of them do so on a weekly basis. However, 60% of French people answered that they intended to follow the Paris Paralympics, compared to 67% for the Olympics as a whole.
A Potential Watershed
"We believed that the Olympics provided the opportunity to mark a turning point in these areas; it could be a watershed, so that the splendid idea of a legacy could also apply to the representation of sporting events in the media," said Roch-Olivier Maistre, the chairman of ARCOM. He explained that in 2024 ARCOM would be suspending both of its specific programmes encouraging greater media coverage for women’s sports and parasports. “It is up to you, the media, to put them into practice, as it were, in the coming months!”
Online Abuse
The ARCOM study also highlights the problem of online abuse surrounding sporting events. The study shows that 53% of viewers and listeners have posted a negative comment online. Of those, 12% have posted an insulting message about an athlete and 13% regularly send personal criticism via direct messaging. Finally, 32% of the French population consider it normal for public figures to be exposed to this sort of criticism, as "the price you pay for being famous".
On a more positive note, the study shows that 72% of those who view or discuss sport via social media have published a comment to congratulate an athlete or a performance.
Translated by Paul Vasselon and Alexis Hourson
Editing by Sam Trainor
* Editor's note: the original article contains a slight error in this statistic, giving 53%, rather than the figure in the published survey (55%).