Women’s football is on the rise, but significant barriers are holding back progress — including a lack of media coverage and limited access to women in football. A staggering 65% of European girls cannot name a female role model in their chosen sport, though they can name a male one. Additionally, 40% of people cite a lack of media coverage as the primary barrier to accessing women’s sport (YouGov). With just 2% of print and 6% of TV football coverage dedicated to the women’s game (WST), achieving gender parity in football media remains a distant goal.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup was set to be the most exciting tournament the women’s game had ever seen. With England one of the favourites to win, it presented a pivotal opportunity for Google Pixel to spotlight their newly formed partnership with the Lionesses and tackle the visibility gap in women’s football content and media coverage.
However, potential broadcast blackouts and challenging time zones threatened to limit tournament coverage, leaving England fans disconnected from the action. To overcome these barriers, we tore up the traditional tournament playbook and reimagined how the game could be brought to fans.
We formed ‘Pixel FC’, a collective of content creators and presenters dedicated to increasing both the quantity and quality of women’s football coverage. Our Pixel FC squad were flown to Australia for five weeks to cover the Lionesses journey. Partnering with GOAL, we produced daily, engaging, social-first content — all filmed on Pixel devices — delivering an incredible 128M+ views.
