The Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) has published the first results of a barometer of the consumption of sports programs by French viewers and Internet users. Less interest in women’s sport, lack of awareness of parasport, cyberharassment of athletes… The body reviews the issues six months before the Olympic Games, traditional and best showcase for disciplines usually less popular.
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Follow on your screen a 100% female sporting event or para-sportyes, but the approach must still be encouraged, unlike the hatred of athletes online… Arcom, the French policeman of audiovisual and digital media, and committed to diversity and inclusion on the part of TV, radio and websites, revealed the first results of a barometer of the consumption of sports programs by viewers and Internet users.
If interest in women’s only competitions is real – 55% of those questioned watch at least one from time to time – it remains lower compared to sports spectators in general (73%), and is mainly concentrated on large international events, the proportion of fans of recurring events such as national championships falling to 39%. Hence the importance of the Olympic Games, followed by 58% of women’s sports fans, in highlighting women’s performances.
“ There is really only this event that can give this visibility equally with men, notes Aurélie Bresson, the director of the magazine Sporting. We must therefore take advantage of this to promote these exploits “. As for the Paralympic Games, watched in 2021 in Tokyo by 40% of respondents, they are quite simply vital for the visibility of athletes with disabilities since no other competition of this type is usually broadcast in France, with the exception of in 2023 with the World Para-Athletics Championships, organized in Paris.
Online hate alert
Arcom also draws attention to the worrying phenomenon of cyberharassment that athletes regularly experience. 53% of French people admit to having already published at least one negative message on social networks about an athlete, from simple criticism to insult.
“ For a third of those questioned, it is normal for a well-known person to be exposed to this type of risk as an athlete, explains Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, president of the Public Protection and Diversity of French Society working group at Arcom. There is a connection to the comment which denotes a line not always easy to understand between respect and a sort of desire to express oneself freely. »
The latest example is judokate Romane Dicko, 2022 world champion in excess of 78 kg and already guaranteed to be at the Paris Olympics, was the target of racist, sexist and fatphobic remarks for having published a video on Instagram where she performs a ballet pas de deux Nutcracker with classical dancer Victoria Dauberville.
She decided to file a complaint, but the legal response still appears insufficient to counter the rise in online hatred, a “ dangerous drift, which can destroy vocations », Alarmed Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris Games Organizing Committee.
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