Sky Sports dumps dedicated women's sport TikTok channel Halo days after launch

Sky Sports's new dedicated TikTok platform for women has been binned just a few days after its launch.

Halo was promoted as the "lil sis" of Sky Sports UK and was "created specifically to engage and entertain female sports fans".

The TikTok account, which was launched at the Sky-sponsored TikTok awards last week, was on the weekend rendered inactive after enormous backlash that spanned the gender divide.

Just a single black text tile remained with an apology from the media giant.

"Our intention for Halo was to create a space alongside our existing social channels for new, young, female fans," it read.

"We've listened. We didn't get it right. As a result, we're stopping all activity on this account. We're learning and remain as committed as ever to creating spaces where fans feel included and inspired."

The videos paired trendy pop culture references with videos of people playing sports. It had neon pink captions and text boxes that talked about "hot girl walks" and matcha in its content.

Sydney-based sports broadcaster Georgie Heath, who runs a podcast and social media channel about women's cricket, described her first impression of the account as "very strange".

"It's sort of as if someone has just sat down in a boardroom and typed into ChatGPT 'things that girls who like women's sport also like,'" she said.

"It makes women's sport into this weird sort of gossip meme page with hot girl walks and matcha.

"You almost feel like it's going to be, the next post, 'here's the diet of this person or … if you want to wear pink on game day, this is how best to that'.

"And why does it need to be this sort of side page that's like an abscess on the side of sports?"

The ABC has contacted Sky for comment.

Right idea, wrong approach

Heath said while Sky Sports had missed the mark, she welcomed traditional media reflecting on the sports content they created and who it appealed to, with female audiences still a relatively untapped market in the space.

In September, men in Australia spent more than five times the amount of time consuming sports content online, according to data from Ipsos.

Heath said she was keen to see more in-depth behind-the-scenes chats with players, coaches, umpires and other officials — particularly, in women's sport.

The podcaster said the player profiles she published performed well with non-cricket fans and provided a gateway into engaging more with the sport itself.

"You learn about their journey and the random routine that they do before a match and then it sort of adds to that narrative that you can bring into women's sport," she said.

Heath said broadcasters should look to the existing social platforms of women's sports teams for inspiration and embrace the funny moments that naturally presented themselves in games, rather than orchestrating humour in the edit suite.

Sports journalism graduate Kristen Gott said she had found the channel disappointing.

"I'm probably as girly as they come," she said.

"I love makeup and Barbie and matcha and all that stuff, but I watch sport for the same reason as men do — for the sport."

Gott said she would like to see more consistent coverage of women's sports, and more educational content breaking down the rules and terminology of different sports.

"I've grown up in cricket and I know I only really learned what square leg and what leg byes were this year," she said.

"I would love to go on my 'for you' page and see cool modern viral interactive content that's engaging, but not in a way that's dumbing sport content down."