Sky Sports Halo was launched originally as Sky Sports’ “lil sis”, a safe and positive platform for female sports fans. However, Halo received so much backlash that it had to be axed after just three days. With the account removed, we can question whether it was an honest attempt at trying to reach a new audience, or a way of patronising female fans.
One of the main issues with Halo is that it was launched as a platform to “champion female athletes”, but of its eleven now deleted posts, five featured men. This is contradictory considering Halo promised to “amplify female voices”. It is hard to promote women’s sport when nearly half of the posts were centred around men’s sport.
The content was aimed to reach a young female audience, but what looked like inclusivity on paper came across as patronising and sexist. The posts were littered with hearts and pink subtitles, oversimplifying the sport for women. One video featured Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki’s link-up play for Manchester City, with the caption “how the matcha + hot girl combo hits”. This way of describing sports felt condescending to many fans. One F1 fan stated on X, “clearly Sky Sports doesn’t understand that women can watch a sports clip and understand it without referencing Labubus and matcha.”
The patronising tone of the videos left fans in frustration. One user commented “Can’t believe this is what you think female fans like”, to which the Halo account responded, “Can’t believe you brought that kind of energy”. The reaction to criticism further highlights how Halo is not a positive environment for fans.
Female fans and athletes have spent years trying to distance themselves from men’s sport and make it clear that women’s sport can be seen as a separate entity rather than men’s “little sister”. Halo did the complete opposite by posting dumbed-down content and not focusing on women.
The downfall of the Halo account was celebrated by a lot of fans on platforms such as X. This reaction shows that many female fans believe a simplified version of sport is unnecessary. Women are capable of understanding a football clip without pink subtitles.
Halo apologised for the account, saying their intention was to create a space for new, young, female fans, but they “didn’t get it right”.
So, to answer the question, was Halo a sign of inclusivity or misogyny, the answer is clear from the public reaction. Making a separate platform to dumb down sport, while not even focusing on just women, is sexist. The account has been deleted and most fans in the comment section were against the idea. But that the concept and the fact this account was ever approved in the first place suggests there’s still a long way to go for female fans and athletes.
