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:
And what is the ratio of women's sports in general in other mediums (maybe TV)? How many women's basketball games are on TV vs. men's and what are the ratings for each?
I'm not saying that either is more or less exciting to watch than the other, I'm just throwing out there that I am not at all surprised at the ratios you mentioned.
Further, I'll go out on a limb and hazard a guess that the 2006 women's, mixed, and masters DVD sold less than the 2006 open DVD by orders of magnitude despite a much larger potential audience of players in the same divisions (3 vs. 1). Why would this be?
I think to a certain extent people watch the COTD because it is the only fresh ultimate on the web. If you only have one station, you watch it, regardless of what is on...
(this is long, sorry, but I like to talk and have a lot to say most of the time)
First I want to say that I am terrified of posting about this issue but I have some objective thoughts that I want to contribute.
I think that there can and should be more women video footage available. However, getting Rob to do so is a tough sell not because he isn't interested in women, but because he is interested in making money. It is his livelihood and he is going to devote his energy and market what sells. If marketing more male ultimate makes business sense, that is what he is going to do. He isn't being sexest, he is just being a member of western society. He told me that when/if he gets to shoot UPA events he is obligated to shoot equal parts men/women which I think is a good case for him to be endorsed by the UPA. I think he is doing a fantastic job and he is above criticism at this point.
I also want to say that what Rob has done, what I have done, what Gambler has done for ultimate is not something that is unique to just us. Anyone can do this. I started out using a free blog site and talking about ultimate objectively, thats it. I have never played at club nationals, I don't have any championships or callahan nominations. That isn't what it takes. People think you have to be a stellar player to chronicle this game and that isn't the case. Chris Berman can't make an open field tackle, Peter Gammons couldn't hit a slider, but they can sell sports media like none other. People with investigatory ability, good writing skills and general interest are the ones that are going to develop the fan base in this sport. Not players, they have to play, don't expect them to document themselves.
I have been read a lot as well as criticized a lot for not including certain things into my blog but I am trying. My latest article is about womens ultimate and it is my 3rd. I also want to say that anyone can do this, if you want more women's ultimate content, the burden is on you (anyone who wants it) to provide it. Gambler's icultimte.com website was a FANTASTIC resource for women's ultimate, I just think it came a little too early. It came at time when people could not or did not have the ability to investigate ultimate or watch it or have country wide interest in the sport. I know how difficult it is to collect and obtain ultimate material so I can see why it has basically been abandonned, but it isn't impossible. All it takes is determination.
The main problem is that people do not know how to be fans. The reason COTD's do well when they mention a name is that people like superstars. People like to watch people. If you want women to watch ultimate, they need to know who is playing. That is why I name drop so much. Fans need to know who they are watching. Watching an elite team play ultimate is no different from watching your own team play ultimate unless you know who the individuals are. Plays are made by individuals and unless there is some knowledge of who is making that layout or sky, there is no continuity and no maintained interest. If you want women to follow women's disc you have to teach them how, you have to literally tell them who to pay attention to. It might seem stupid, but people that are really into this sport forget the information gap and the idea that not everyone sees the game the way they do. I assume everyone knows about certain ultimate stories, but I can only do that if I write about it because no one else is. Therefore, blogs and websites exclusively devoted to women's ultimate need to be established, just like iculimate.com. I am sorry, it is an up hill battle, but if you want women to be fans and watch ultimate, you have to create the fan base, that is why I want to write about you and your sister, gambler. People like human interest stories, that is how you develop interest in humans. I want all ultimate to be viewed like Baseball but I am going to have to build the fan base. The same can be said for women's disc.
It definitely sucks, but again, if you want something you have to do it yourself. You can criticize Rob, but the only way things are actually going to change is if you give women a role model to follow. My interest in ultimate came because I read a very influential article about Mike Grant. I learned about him, and then Furious and then a bunch of other teams and now 6 years later I am flying all over the country to watch ultimate at all levels. Telling people to watch women's ultimate without giving them help is like yelling at the rain.
You can disagree with me, you can hate me, you can call me ignorant, but I will say that a lot of people read my stuff. I am not being arrogant, I am being honest. Elite players send me emails supporting what I do, they post responses, they give me interviews. People refer to my stuff on other blogs and I have been asked to write for other websites. I only say this because I think I have credibility and I want people to listen to me. Regardless of what you think of what I write, i actually am trying to help in all respects. This is how it works. And if it doesn't work this way, show me a better way, because if someone can package the sport better I am all ears.
I saw a documentary about gender in sports media recently, and it claimed that only 8% of the national sports media's coverage of sport was devoted to women's play, while the other 92% covered men. If those are numbers are accurate still (they were from 2003), your COTD study suggests that the problem of media coverage for women's athletics is a broad problem, and that in fact, Rob goes above and beyond what he "should" do based on the trends of the national media. Hopefully the numbers continue to converge toward 50% as the years go on (as the documentary claimed). Ideally, Rob's coverage of women should grow based on rising consumption of said media rather than as media welfare.
I probably didn't make this clear enough from the start, but I am definitely a huge fan of what Rob has done with UltiVillage. I understand that UltiVillage is his livelihood and that he needs to make smart business choices.
That said, one subtext of my post is that I think it would be a good idea to market more to women through the COTDs. I see the COTDs as the main marketing tool of the UltiVillage website. They get people coming back to the site and get them interested in the footage shown for a fee on UVTV or on one of the DVDs. UltiVillage currently has women's footage on its DVDs and UVTV subcriptions, so why not use the COTDs to better market that content?
From a purely business perspective, why ignore a huge potential market? There's not too much cost associated with posting COTDs, but the reward of helping build a women's fan base could be significant.
At risk of being pilloried by the general reading public I'm going to say something that I view as fairly obvious.
People watch sports to see skill and athleticism. In strict terms (speed, explosiveness) men are more athletic than women. Additionally a great deal more men than women play the sport. So, on average, the male players at an elite level are going to be even more skilled and athletic because they have a larger pool to draw from.
This isn't because men try harder or have some magical ability tied to gender... it's just the hard realities of genetic differences and the size of populations.
As Match pointed out, Rob's goal is to make money... and athleticism sells. Probably doesn't hurt that a large portion of his audience is male and more likely to identify with other men.
I feel like the reality of biological differences in athleticism between genders is danced around in ultimate circles, especially mixed, without ever being acknowledged. Ultimately I think that hurts the players, teams and sport.
I have nothing but respect for the women that play this sport. They are great athletes and work hard. I view my argument as a statement of fact, not an attack on gender.
If you disagree with me do say so, but please attack my argument, not me.
Frankly, I'm tired of the argument that men are better athletes than women so the media should only focus on marketing men's athletics.
Yes, on average men are taller, stronger, faster, and jump higher than women. As a result, the men's division of ANY sport looks a little different than the women's division. But different does not necessarily mean better.
Just take a look at women's volleyball and women's tennis. In both of these sports, the women's division has arguably garnered more fan support and more attention than the men's divisions. Part of this is because fans often find the longer rallies more interesting in the women's game than the quicker points of the men's game. So in these cases, the different game that women play is viewed more favorably than the men's. [Some will also say that the outfits worn by the women's athletes in tennis and volleyball have also contributed to the sports' success, but I refuse to believe that is the primary reason for being able to watch women's tennis on prime-time TV.]
Fans also like to see displays of exceptional skill--regardless of gender. Top women's soccer players like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain had more name recognition during the 90s than the top men's players in the US. That's because the US women's team was amazingly good, while the US men's team was only mediocre on the international scene. I'm sure the average guy on the US national team back then was still probably faster and stronger than the average women's national team member, but that doesn't mean his team was more exciting to watch.
It's just not all about being the fastest, tallest, or strongest.
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