Why We Really Don’t Need A Page Like Sky Sports Halo

For a brief two days, it seemed all the hard work society had done when it came to female empowerment took a giant step back after Sky Sports launched their new social media account, Halo.

The sports channel set up Halo, as what they said would be Sky Sports’ “lil sis”! The idea behind the account was to educate women about sport, to encourage them to be more involved and make the industry more inclusive for women. They also said it was a platform for championing female athletes and to give them the recognition they deserve. While the intention behind the account could be seen as a good, the execution was delivered in all the wrong ways.

@skysportshalo Meet Sky Sports Halo – Sky Sports’ lil sis ✨ #skysportshalo #sportstiktok #sports ♬ original sound – Halo

If you haven’t seen the account, the only way I can describe it is: what I imagine a man would think female empowerment looks like. With a core goal of empowering women to get into sport, and highlighting the amazing female athletes from all over the world, the only thing I could see from the TikTok were videos of Charles Leclerc talking about his new fiancé, glittery pink captions on videos with trending audios referencing matcha and hot girls walks, and famous male sports stars “rizzing us up”. In 2025, how has this even happened?!   

There was no factual information on match game results and analytics or real insights into women in sport. Instead, the account posted patronising content that seemed to dumb down the sport for women, which frankly is offensive, especially since female sports stars have been absolutely phenomenal these last few years. Just take a look at the Irish women soccer team or Rhasidat Adeleke, athletes who show exactly what female empowerment in a male dominated industry looks like. There is no need for content to be meme-ifiied to get women involved in sports.

@jamesclarkefootball Does anybody actually like this? #skysportshalo #skysports #footballtiktok ♬ BETA 777 – beaty

While there is inequality throughout the sports industry and fewer young girls are actively not getting involved in sport, creating a platform focused on “girl humour” and the male gaze is not the approach to take. Women’s sports don’t need another account, they should be shown on main channels with female pundits, with more showcases done on female athlete profiles.

Halo’s intentions may have been good, but their targeted demographic and their marketing approach was completely wrong. I cannot name one woman, who is either into sports or not, who would have found this page helpful or informative. If they wanted to focus on women who, like me, are not into sport, a more factual approach without the patronising tone would have been better. And if they wanted to gain reaction from women who are passionate about sport, maybe they should have taken a leaf out of Girlactico’s or Her Sport’s books on how to correctly highlight women in sport.

 

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This Sky Sports page became a hot topic all across social media at the weekend, with every post wondering why they took this direction. Who even signed off on this project? Who allowed this to make it to our screens?

It wasn’t long before Sky Sports deleted all their material from the Halo account and posted an apology post saying their “intention for Halo was to create a space alongside our existing channels for new, young, female fans. We’ve listened. We didn’t get it right”. The comments under the post, which have since been switched off, wondered why the apology didn’t include glittery text or emojis, which according to Sky Sports, is the only way women can understand messages.

@emmag_f1 Sky sports Halo- who actuall thought and approved of this!! #f1news #f1contentcreators #f1tiktok #maxverstappen #landonorris ♬ Communications Satellite/Computer/Robot Sounds – Sci-Fi – DJ Sound Effects

The fact that this page was launched in 2025 is laughable. Have we not proven enough times that things don’t need to be simplified for women to care? Or that we don’t need matcha, hot girl walks or Pilates princesses in every caption to grab our attention?

The only takeaway we hope that is page has highlighted is that women are already involved in sport, and more recognition needs to be given to them on the main stage to get more young girls involved. A separate channel that produces girly pop content that has nothing to do with sport is simply not the angle to take.