By the Numbers -- UltiVillage COTDs
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about women's online presence in the ultimate community. Lindsey Hack wrote an insightful piece ("Second Class Citizens?") for MSSUI's new website, calling for women to promote women's athletics in general, and the women's ultimate divisions in particular. Lindsey specifically mentioned a disparity in UltiVillage Clips of the Day (COTDs) between the genders. I wanted to see the numbers for myself, so I performed an analysis of all the UltiVillage COTDs since August 3, 2007, looking at the gender and division the COTD featured and the corresponding hits to that link. This is what I found:
There were a total of 57 COTDs posted, 43 (75%) of which were of men playing and 8 (14%) of which were of women playing. 6 COTDs (11%) featured both genders (e.g. tournament trailers) or did not show ultimate being played (e.g. UCPC conference talks), and were thus excluded from further analysis. Of the remaining 51 COTDs, 19 (37%) were from the college division and 32 (63%) were from the club division. Women's play was shown in 2 (11%) of the college COTDs and in 6 (19%) of the club COTDs.
As of this afternoon, the average hit count for the 51 COTDs was 2,733. For men's COTDs, the average was 2,833. For COTDs highlighting women's play, the average hit count was 2,194. COTDs featuring men playing in the club division had the highest average hit count (3,294), followed by women in the club division (2,404), then by men in the college division (2,128), and finally by women in the college division (1,564). The difference between the different divisions' hit count ranges was quite large. For women's college clips, the range (and entire data set) was 1,491 to 1,636. For women's club clips, the range was between 1,954 to 2,700. For men's college COTDs, the range was between 304 and 4,144. For men's club clips, the range was between 2,355 and 5,258.
I think that some of these differences are structural as opposed to indicative of the interest level people have watching women or men play ultimate. It makes intuitive sense that the club divisions would have higher hit counts than the college division because the club COTDs have been posted online for longer, allowing more time both for more people to access the links and for people to access the links multiple times. The two women's college COTDs and seven of the men's college clips have been posted less than a week. Additionally, by having so few women's clips posted, UltiVillage is probably selecting for viewers more interested in men's clips. People who are interested in women's ultimate may be less likely to frequently check the site out since it doesn't often provide clips showing women playing ultimate. Other structural factors include the title and timeliness of the COTD. Across the board, if a COTD title only included the names of teams and no specific mention of a player or play, that clip was likely to register fewer hit counts than the average for its relevant division. Also, the hit counts of COTDs culled from footage for a single tournament generally dropped the further away from that tournament the COTD was posted. These points are relevant when considering the gender of the clips because women's clips are often posted longer after a tournament than men's clips and fewer women's clips' titles include details about the play being featured on the COTD.
Seeing the numbers, I had two main conclusions. (1) Men's COTDs are consistently viewed more frequently than women's COTD. (2) The difference in hit counts between men's and women's COTDs does not fully support the ratio between men's and women's COTDs posted to UltiVillage.
My first conclusion sort of speaks for itself. Although I was expecting to find that men's clips were more popular, it was nice to see that a few of the women's club clips were quite frequently watched. Overall, I am still a little disappointed that more people haven't checked out the free women's clips. There have been some really great clips posted, although the site currently only displays the clips through August 20, 2007.
My third conclusion is specifically a call for UltiVillage to post more women's clips. Rob Barril has responded well in the past to requests for more women's footage, so hopefully increasing the discussion about what the numbers show will help the cause. The ratio between average hits of women's COTDs and men's COTDs is 77%. I'm confident that ratio would rise if more women's clips were available (to get followers of women's ultimate more interested in frequenting the UltiVillage site). That ratio would also likely rise if women's clips were posted closer to the date of the relevant tournament and if their titles were more descriptive of the exciting plays they contain.
Of course, COTD hit counts are only a vague and inaccurate proxy for the money that UltiVillage makes off of selling UVTV subscriptions and DVDs. Rob surely makes his decisions of what clips to post based off of predictions on what will help generate buyers of his content. I don't have access to the information on UltiVillage DVD sales and UVTV download rates, but based solely on the COTD public information, it seems clear to me that women's clips could be better supported (both by UltiVillage and the general public).
There were a total of 57 COTDs posted, 43 (75%) of which were of men playing and 8 (14%) of which were of women playing. 6 COTDs (11%) featured both genders (e.g. tournament trailers) or did not show ultimate being played (e.g. UCPC conference talks), and were thus excluded from further analysis. Of the remaining 51 COTDs, 19 (37%) were from the college division and 32 (63%) were from the club division. Women's play was shown in 2 (11%) of the college COTDs and in 6 (19%) of the club COTDs.
As of this afternoon, the average hit count for the 51 COTDs was 2,733. For men's COTDs, the average was 2,833. For COTDs highlighting women's play, the average hit count was 2,194. COTDs featuring men playing in the club division had the highest average hit count (3,294), followed by women in the club division (2,404), then by men in the college division (2,128), and finally by women in the college division (1,564). The difference between the different divisions' hit count ranges was quite large. For women's college clips, the range (and entire data set) was 1,491 to 1,636. For women's club clips, the range was between 1,954 to 2,700. For men's college COTDs, the range was between 304 and 4,144. For men's club clips, the range was between 2,355 and 5,258.I think that some of these differences are structural as opposed to indicative of the interest level people have watching women or men play ultimate. It makes intuitive sense that the club divisions would have higher hit counts than the college division because the club COTDs have been posted online for longer, allowing more time both for more people to access the links and for people to access the links multiple times. The two women's college COTDs and seven of the men's college clips have been posted less than a week. Additionally, by having so few women's clips posted, UltiVillage is probably selecting for viewers more interested in men's clips. People who are interested in women's ultimate may be less likely to frequently check the site out since it doesn't often provide clips showing women playing ultimate. Other structural factors include the title and timeliness of the COTD. Across the board, if a COTD title only included the names of teams and no specific mention of a player or play, that clip was likely to register fewer hit counts than the average for its relevant division. Also, the hit counts of COTDs culled from footage for a single tournament generally dropped the further away from that tournament the COTD was posted. These points are relevant when considering the gender of the clips because women's clips are often posted longer after a tournament than men's clips and fewer women's clips' titles include details about the play being featured on the COTD.
Seeing the numbers, I had two main conclusions. (1) Men's COTDs are consistently viewed more frequently than women's COTD. (2) The difference in hit counts between men's and women's COTDs does not fully support the ratio between men's and women's COTDs posted to UltiVillage.
My first conclusion sort of speaks for itself. Although I was expecting to find that men's clips were more popular, it was nice to see that a few of the women's club clips were quite frequently watched. Overall, I am still a little disappointed that more people haven't checked out the free women's clips. There have been some really great clips posted, although the site currently only displays the clips through August 20, 2007.
My third conclusion is specifically a call for UltiVillage to post more women's clips. Rob Barril has responded well in the past to requests for more women's footage, so hopefully increasing the discussion about what the numbers show will help the cause. The ratio between average hits of women's COTDs and men's COTDs is 77%. I'm confident that ratio would rise if more women's clips were available (to get followers of women's ultimate more interested in frequenting the UltiVillage site). That ratio would also likely rise if women's clips were posted closer to the date of the relevant tournament and if their titles were more descriptive of the exciting plays they contain.
Of course, COTD hit counts are only a vague and inaccurate proxy for the money that UltiVillage makes off of selling UVTV subscriptions and DVDs. Rob surely makes his decisions of what clips to post based off of predictions on what will help generate buyers of his content. I don't have access to the information on UltiVillage DVD sales and UVTV download rates, but based solely on the COTD public information, it seems clear to me that women's clips could be better supported (both by UltiVillage and the general public).
posted by Gambler at 2:00 PM
6 comments
