Markgraf said expanding coverage of women in the media can allow them to be more selective with brandsDAVID DUROCHIK
The first Twitter live stream of a girls’ high school volleyball game under the brand @3stripeslive drew 4 million global viewers, Pac-12 Networks anchor and host Kate Scott said on Day 1 at the Intersport Brand Engagement & Content Summit. Adidas, Twitter and Intersport launched the series in April as a way of popularizing and expanding coverage of women and girls’ sports, following on the popular high school football “Friday Night Stripes” live streams in '19. It will include six live streams of high school girls soccer or volleyball. Twitter Head of U.S. Content Partnerships Laura Froehlich said Adidas research found that just 4% of sports coverage is dedicated to women. “That is unacceptable to me,” Froehlich said. “So we said, absolutely, we’re on board, let’s do our part to make sure we raise that number.” ESPN and NBC broadcaster Kate Markgraf, an Adidas brand ambassador, said expanding coverage of women’s sports allows athletes to be less aggressive and more selective in building their own brand. “The onus was always on us to be engaging, captivating and likable,” said Markgraf, a member of the '99 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship Team USA. "So we were turning nothing down, to the detriment of our performance. And nowadays, athletes are controlling their brand, and controlling their access points."
