Not the Revolution We Needed: How Sky Sports’ Halo Channel Reinforces Outdated Stereotypes and Fuels Gender Bias in Motorsport.

On the 13th November Sky Sports announced its new TikTok channel Halo - "the lil sis" to Sky Sports.

This blog post is about the way Sky Sports really missed the mark on this one and how failures like this knock women in male-dominated fields back by miles.

You would expect Sky to have taken this opportunity to highlight real female experts across this landscape, from race drivers to engineers working tirelessly behind the scenes, but instead they created Halo, a "pinkified" TikTok account with a poor media strategy showcasing sporting clips of males.

Consumers made public note that Sky was 'dumbing down' the sporting content in hopes to engage more women. Viewers shared that by doing this Sky was reinforcing stereotypical ideas that women simply wouldn't be able to understand the sporting content unless made simple, silly and pink. §

Halo could have been a great outlet that broadcasted roles that deserve centre stage in this industry, instead it reinforced the idea that women's motorsport is a side category. The channel featured not one female race driver, engineer or production expert and focused heavily on aesthetics, reinforcing stereotypes about women's interests. Instead of fully integrating women into high level racing analysis, engineering discussions, performance breakdowns etc. it placed them in a "soft space" on the sidelines once again.

I took a wider view at the entire channel and straight away could see that the line between integration and separation had been blurred. Through creating a separate female fan focused channel, Sky have sent a message that women need need to play in their own field and in a different corner of motorsport media rather than in the mainstream coverage. In my opinion, true integration would come from women being visible in core broadcasts presenting F1, analysing data or reporting from the pit lane for example.

"Equality means inclusion in the main stage, not a separate room built nearby."

Just three days after the announcement of the TikTok channel, it was deactivated and a statement was released accepting the errors they had made.

This major error from Sky Sports highlights the importance of the story I am telling. Women wanting to break away from societal stereotypes in sporting media and beyond.

Full Throttle will highlight the multitude of roles in the automotive and motorsport industry that are brilliantly executed by women, my interviewees are female voices that are encouraging women and girls to stand proud and loud in this industry and be unapologetically themselves. My interviewees all proudly share their love for the sport without 'dumbing down' their knowledge and passions through pink tones and trending sounds on social media.