6,100,000 viewers prove Women’s World Cup is not just popular... but inspirational
THERE’S been a bit of a debate about the unfair comparison between the TV audiences for the English men’s and women’s games on Sunday.
Some have whined (although not ones with the high-pitched voices that so grate on Jason Cundy) that you can’t compare the 1.2million who watched the men play Switzerland on Sky with the 6.1m who tuned into the BBC for the women’s game with Scotland, as viewers had to pay for the former.
So, say the nay-sayers, let’s not use false comparisons to try to boost the popularity of the women’s game.
And they’re right. There is no need to compare the two.
Instead we should compare that 6.1m, and 37.8 per cent share of the total TV audience, with last December’s X Factor live final which averaged 5.5m viewers, and a 24 per cent share. Or last year’s finale of Peter Kay’s Car Share which peaked at 6.4m, a number BBC’s Head of Comedy, Shane Allen called “phenomenal.”
We should also look at the last World Cup, and the 2.4m peak BBC One audience the Lionesses drew in the semifinal against Japan.
And we should conclude, not just that 6.1m was a very big audience for what is still a minority sport, but that it’s another positive sign that women’s football in this country may be on the cusp of a big breakthrough.
The point in its development when
instead of being patronised by comparisons with the men’s game, it is judged on its own merits. It’s long overdue.
At the World Cup eight years ago Formula One driver Nico Rosberg wasn’t even comparing the women’s game with the men’s, but something else: “It’s like the Paralympics.. people who are not quite as good.”
And there were plenty, including some football journalists, who agreed with him.
At the last one, in Canada, despite, or maybe because, a successful England team were starting to make sceptics take note, the women were still being hugely disrespected.
Reports on newspaper websites were often met with jibes about the standard being on a par with
boys’ under-15s school sides and voices on phone-ins argued that showing games live on the BBC was another case of PC Gone Mad.
But this time it feels like a coming of age.
The stadium attendances in France may be lower than expected, much of that is due to typical UEFA incompetence and indifference.
But the media coverage back home has been extensive and intelligent. An extension of the excellent BBC punditry by the many women voices, like Sue Smith and Alex Scott, who we now trust, due to hearing them on couches throughout the Premier League season speaking as much sense as the fella in the jumper next to them.
It helps that the football is of a higher quality than four years ago with Phil Neville making his team play out from the back as opposed to the Sam Allardyce-style punting in Canada. He knows they can do better than they did in the second half
The women’s game is on the cusp of a big breakthrough
against Scotland when they visibly wilted, hence the on-pitch rollicking.
If they do, with some exciting talents playing an open pass-and-move game, the country’s imaginations could be captured.
Lifting the World Cup will be difficult for England with favourites USA and France looking seriously good. But winning it may not be the most important goal.
The further they go in France the bigger the TV audiences will become and the more likely they are to inspire girls to emulate them and a nation to respect the sport.
Thus leaving a far more lasting legacy.
One where we stop comparing the Ellen Whites with the Harry Kanes and just appreciate excellence in its own right.