Fox Sports has been at the forefront of bringing women’s college volleyball to linear television.
It helps that, as the majority owners of the Big Ten Network, Fox has access to the best women’s college volleyball inventory in the country. And as a new season approaches next fall, the network is looking to capitalize on the growing fan base surrounding the sport.
One strategy that Fox has used in recent years is using NFL games to lead into top-flight women’s college volleyball matchups. Last year, Fox had a Wisconsin-Minnesota volleyball match lead out of an NFL game, where many viewers saw the Green Bay Packers play the Minnesota Vikings. Others had Michigan-Ohio State lead into an NFL game. Combined, 1.7 million viewers tuned into those women’s college volleyball matches.
Talking with Front Office Sports, Fox Sports VP Derek Crocker outlined the virtues of the strategy.
“We’ve seen with other properties where obviously you can use the strength of the NFL lead-in to really expose new viewers to sports that are growing—like women’s volleyball,” he said. “Seeing those numbers and how well it did really showcased the power of what women’s volleyball could be. We were really encouraged by it.”
Across all of its linear channels, Fox aired 86 women’s college volleyball matches last season. This month, Big Ten Network will be airing spring volleyball matches for the first time. There is a clear commitment to the sport from the network, and rightfully so.
In December, ABC secured the second-most-watched women’s college volleyball championship of all time, with 1.3 million viewers. This is another example of the ascending nature of women’s sports more generally. In recent years, similar growth has been seen in sports like softball and gymnastics.
And if networks like Fox continue to promote those sports to sizeable audiences, like before or after an NFL game, that growth trajectory is likely to continue.
