Whisper and BBC Sport have won the Best Sports Programme Award for their coverage of the 2022 Women’s EURO at the 2023 Broadcast Awards.
The awards, which ‘celebrate the very best in British programming and channels’ and which also ‘recognise the UK’s most ground-breaking content’, took place last night at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.
The Women’s EURO coverage beat off some strong competition, such as ITV Racing, The Hundred and Monday Night Football on Sky.
Across 31 live matches and over 100 hours of coverage, Whisper and the BBC produced a huge range of features and analytical content, creating stars and role models from across the England team and beyond and giving the audience a reason to feel invested.
The retention of viewers watching five or more games on TV across the tournament was impressive (40%), which was comparable to leading entertainment shows such as Britain’s Got Talent (39%) and Bake Off (44%).
TV audiences grew from 3.6M for the first game (England v Austria) to 17.4M for the final (England v Germany), with 6M on digital platforms, making it the most-watched women’s football game on UK television of all-time.
Sunil Patel Co-Founder and CEO, Whisper: “It was amazing to be able to share the journey and talent of the incredible Lionesses with viewers. We began working with the Women’s Super League and Lionesses back in 2017. Since then, we have loved playing a small part in helping to grow the sport.
“For the EURO, we aimed to deliver wall-to-wall coverage, with a host of roaming cameras charting the 16 teams progress, an embedded crew within the England camp and expert storytelling across the board.
“Coverage included a diverse presentation team including Gabby Logan, Alex Scott, Ian Wright, Fara Williams, Jonas Eidevall, Laura Georges, Anouk Hoogendijk and Vicky Losada, behind-the-scenes content and stardust from the world of entertainment.
“The end result was a historic moment for English football and a breakthrough moment for the women’s game.”
