Women’s sport is on the rise and TelkomONE is the first South African streaming or satellite service to launch a channel recognising that 84% of sports fans are interested in female-led sports.
W-Sport’s market research also found that women’s sport was deemed more inspiring, progressive, family orientated and less money orientated than men’s sport.
“The pace of change in women’s sports necessitated that we launch W-Sport sooner than later,” says Wanda Mkhize, Executive Smart Home & Content at Telkom.
“With female sporting role models like gymnast Simone Biles achieving much greater mainstream exposure for both their sporting prowess and courageous social stances, it was time for W-Sport to help inject equality and diversity into local sports,” Mkhize adds.
Available now, TelkomONE viewers can immediately enjoy W-Sport’s dedicated feed for Sub-Saharan Africa that features 3 000 hours of content annually which includes 1000 hours of live events and 300 hours of football matches from the best leagues in the world.
“W-Sports vision is to be the global leader in women’s sports broadcasting and to passionately champion equality and diversity,” says CEO W-Sport Kelly Butler. “Our content will entertain, engage and inspire audiences and we are very proud of this launch association and partnership with TelkomONE,” she adds.
“We knew something had to be done when a FIFA Women’s World Cup football match drew a paltry 1.2m viewership audience on satellite. With the 2021 Confederation of African Football’s Women’s Championship League on the way, the recent launch of W-Sport on TelkomONE with its fresh perspective on women’s sport is just perfect timing,” Mkhize says.
W-Sport has a very strong line up of premium live football, basketball, motorsports, volleyball, cycling and triathlon. “TelkomONE is very pleased to be the first to offer South African viewers the first multi-platform service devoted to women’s sport. Just 5% of traditional media coverage is devoted to women’s sport so let’s all get watching,” concludes Mkhize.
Unveiled in November 2020, TelkomONE also offers a range of top-notch free content including SABC and news channels, as well as a selection of paid-for movies and TV shows under TelkomONE’s AMP category. Access is priced from R7 for AMP Daily (includes 90MB Telkom streaming data) to R49 for AMP Monthly (includes 1.8GB Telkom streaming data).
The service features a content library including 1 000 hours of VOD content as well as 29 linear channels, 30 audio channels and 22 radio channels. TelkomONE is available via a browser at TelkomONE.tv or through the TelkomONE mobile app available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Also read: TelkomONE Is Introducing Free Catch Up Service
