Will Australia have a shared cultural moment around the Women’s World Cup?

July 13, 2023 11:26

Welcome to a Friday edition of Unmade. Today: A week out from The Women’s World Cup kicking off in Australia, can we hope for a rare mass moment? Plus, a big bounceback on The Unmade Index.

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Home advantage but will the World Cup become an Australian moment?

There was a fascinating line in a news article published yesterday about a scandal gripping Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE.

The broadcaster’s best paid presenter, Ryan Tubridy, had received far higher salary than had been disclosed. It’s been a matter of a series of parliamentary hearings, and has gripped the country. The televised committee hearings have even been shown in pubs, like some sort of sporting event.

“There are very few shared moments in national culture now,” Brian Foley from the Vintners’ Federation, the trade body of the pub industry, told the BBC.

That’s a great observation.

You can’t choose your cultural moments, and the level of interest doesn’t always make sense from the outside.

There’s also a shared cultural moment unfolding in the UK at the moment, with feverish coverage of a scandal involving the UK’s most prominent TV newsreader, Huw Edwards.

In this case, the human cost is much higher. Since tabloid newspaper The Sun, which is owned by News Corp, revealed allegations about a then unnamed BBC presenter, social media became gripped by a macabre (and defamatory) guessing game about the person’s identity.

The Sun had published claims that the 61-year-old presenter of the BBC’s flagship News at Ten show had taken advantage of an inappropriate relationship with a teenager, who has since turned 20.

Edwards announced The Queen’s death to the world

However, after police failed to identify any criminal behaviour, the issue also became a question of in what circumstances people should be entitled to a private life, even when they’re famous and that private life is complicated.

On Wednesday, Edwards’ wife yesterday confirmed he was the person being talked about, at the same time revealing that he was in hospital with mental health issues.

Nonetheless, the saga is still preoccupying the entire British news agenda, as it has all week. It’s a shared national cultural moment.

The same country was gripped by an altogether much more uplifting shared moment, this time last year.

Already obsessed with the men’s version of soccer, the UK threw itself behind the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament, which was being hosted in the UK. It was the first time women’s sport had reached that level of national obsession there.

(By the way, a quick diversion: I can’t bring myself to say soccer for the entire article. It’s football. I don’t mean AFL. I don’t mean NRL.)

The English team won the cup, bringing home the country’s first major football honour in nearly 60 years.

Next week, Australia has the potential for a similarly shared cultural moment.

The Women’s World Cup kicks off, hosted in Australia and New Zealand, on Thursday.

It doesn’t yet feel like an Australian national preoccupation, in the way that the Women’s Euros did for England.

And there are more barriers to it breaking through. Although Australia is waking up to top level women’s sport – AFLW has moved forward fastest – the men’s codes still tend to get the attention and the marketing investment. I’m yet to spot a piece of marketing around the Women’s World Cup or the Matilda’s out in the wild – even from Matildas sponsor CommBank. There’s not even anything on the CommBank home page.

Then there’s the place of football in Australia, somewhere behind AFL, NRL and cricket when it comes to viewing, if not participation.

And the viewing barriers won’t help either. The main rights are held by Optus Sport, with same games paywalled and others free. The Matildas games will also be on Seven.

That split rights ownership may cost Australia its cultural moment.

Neither broadcaster is acting like the event is going to be huge.

The Optus SubHub “What to watch this July” press release featured six Netflix shows before getting to the footy. (Admittedly, it led with the tournament in a seperate sports-focused press release.)

And Seven West Media’s trade website couldn’t have sounded any less excited. It’s Olympics or bust for Seven.

Which is not to say there’s no interest.

Tickets for the matches involving the Matildas sold out quickly, including tonight’s friendly against France. TV viewers will have to find that one on Ten’’s secondary channel Bold, or stream it on Paramount Plus.

Those who are into the sport are treating it as the huge deal it is.

But imagine the level of hype and anticipation if the men’s game was about to kick off on home soil in less than a week’s time.

The defining question would be not one of whether one would be watching, but where one would be watching. It wouldn’t just be on the back pages, it would be the front.

But that could yet change. Australians are bandwagon jumpers when it comes to sport. If there’s a good run, interest could yet switch from the aficianados to the office watercooler chat. If.

There’s the potential for the Women’s World Cup to become an Australian cultural moment. If it does, there are brands and marketers who missed out.

Stellar performances across the board on the Unmade Index

Seja Al Zaidi writes:

Better than expected US inflation numbers rippled as far as The Unmade Index yesterday. While the ASX All Ordinaries rose 1.55%, the Unmade Index, which measures the performance of locally listed media and marketing companies, rose by 3.30% to land at 659.4 points.

The biggest winner in the sea of green was communications agency group Enero, which has been one of the more embattled stocks on the Index as of late. It rose 9.15%.

ARN Media jumped 4.62%, while Domain, the second largest stock on the Index, lifted by 4.10%. Nine also saw a notable jump, its share price increasing by 7 cents (or 3.54%).

The only stock to sink yesterday was Sports Entertainment Group, sliding 10.87%.