Last Night's Winner: Women

In sports, everyone is a winner-some people just win better than others. Like female sports fans out there, who are finally getting an ESPN of their very own. Say hello to espnW, coming soon to (maybe) a television near you.

It was inevitable. They've already got an ESPN for regular people, an ESPN for extreme sports (once upon a time), an ESPN for old people, an ESPN for college students, and even an ESPN for the foreigners. So why not one for the ladies? Hell, even Deadspin has Deadspin XX.

espnW (yes, that's how you're supposed to write it: the lower case totally worked for The Deuce, right?) will begin life as a section of ESPN.com, and hopefully lead to its own branded programming, and perhaps even a dedicated channel one day.

You see, women just aren't watching regular ESPN. The viewership is 76 percent male (not to be sexist, but I would've thought it would be higher), and only two types of programming have majority female audiences: the spelling bee, and cheerleader competitions. For reference, the most male-dominated audience is for men's college lacrosse, with 88 percent of viewers having at least one Y chromosome.

They're still sussing out the content and form of espnW, but what better way to build a women's brand than by getting in touch with your feelings? ESPN VP Laura Gentile is leading a retreat at a Southern California resort, to meet with athletes and marketers to figure out exactly what kind of sports can sell tampons.

Gentile says "the retreat, where we talk about women finding self-esteem in sports and about getting a pedicure, is a reflection of what we want to do with the espnW brand - find a more holistic way of looking at sports."

I don't even know what the fuck that means.

ESPN aims for female audience with espnW [USA Today]