Sky Sports receives backlash for ‘tone deaf’ and patronising female-targeted tiktok page

Sky Sports Halo was officially rolled out this week but it has received a very negative reaction since launching.

The new page was intended to grow the female audience in football but instead it appears to have patronised existing fans.

What is Sky Sports Halo?

Sky Sports Halo was created specifically for female sports fans according to Sky, with the channel utilised to ‘champion female athletes’.

With that being said, nearly half of the first 11 videos on the channel are about men’s sport – which raises questions as to what the page is really for.

The branding of the page has received a lot of backlash already from supporters. Through the first posts on ‘Halo’, there are a lot of patronising images with different pink and fluffy filters used.

Certain captions throughout the page are also very strange, such as: “Thinking about Zohran Mamdani rizzing us and Arsenal up”. There are also various posts with ‘matcha hot girl walk’ and ‘bromance of the century’ captions.

It is clear that Sky Sports are trying to grow their brand in women’s football but the new Halo channel seems to be going the wrong way about it.

Sky Sports Halo receives backlash

It is fair to say that the initial reaction to Sky’s new channel is a negative one.

The quote tweets on X (formerly Twitter) have exposed the page for its patronising branding, with plenty of fans taking notice.

One fan wrote: “I need to know who signed off on this, they’re literally just posting highlights of stuff with captions about matcha this is like the worst thing you could do lol.”

Another frustrated supporter said: “‘We’re all about sports and championing female athletes’ sky sports says, as it unveils the most exclusionary, infantilising and misogynistic platform ever made.”

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About Oliver Taliku 367 Articles
Olly Taliku has worked with highly respected sports and gambling websites where he has produced hundreds of articles, as well as being published with Burton Albion and Chesterfield FC. At Burton Olly worked closely alongside the women's team, producing mainly matchday content including reports and interviews. He also has experience as an accredited Premier League and EFL writer for Prost International where he worked during the 2021/22 season to produce matchday content as an on location reporter. Olly specialises in women's football as well as long form SEO content plus news and tips. While he enjoys writing about all football, Olly supports Arsenal passionately as a lifelong fan of the club.