Sky Sports Halo: A ‘for the girls’ movement gone wrong

Sky Sports’ TikTok trial demonstrates how gendered branding may alienate the same population it claims to target

SportsOpinionMarla Lugert — Published January 13, 2026 3 minutes

The channel’s swift failure demonstrates a fundamental mistake in judgment: Sky Sports treated women as an unchanging and trend-obsessed demographic, rather than as serious sports fans. Their methods reveal how not to market gender based content: using trending audios, bright colours, and cliché trends, insulting female fans rather than relating with them. 

Halo was introduced as the “little sis of Sky Sports,” targeting young women who were supposedly new to sports fandom. The channel originally declared its goal was to “build a welcoming community for female fans.” 

But while Sky planned the launch to cohesively bond with the growing interest of women in sports, Halo’s strategies sparked immediate controversy. Their posts featured bright pink lettering, “girly” emojis such as hearts and references to TikTok trends captioned as “hot girl walks.” 

One notable moment featured a video of soccer player Erling Haaland’s goal, with a bright pink caption plastered across stating “How the matcha + hot girl walk combo hits.”

Halo’s marketing leaned heavily on gender stereotypes. Calling the channel the “lil sis” of Sky Sports dismissed women’s knowledge and passion for watching and playing sports before they even saw a video. The use of bright colours and viral references decreased the overall experience of being a sports fan or athlete, reducing their hobbies to shallow gender-based clichés. 

But the intent wasn’t just tone deaf; it was blatantly insulting. It assumes that women need sports to be simplified or “feminized” in order to engage with them. That stereotype underestimates numerous female fans who follow sports daily with constant passion, knowledge and refinement.

While Sky Sports may not have intended to undermine their female audience, Halo’s execution demonstrated a lack of meaningful insights. Despite stating an aim to “champion female athletes” and help widen the horizons of female sports, their first posts solely concentrated on male sports stars. 

A definite disconnect exists between Halo’s intent and its execution. The outcome, however, was that audiences, primarily women, saw right through their marketing strategy. The channel didn’t celebrate and promote women’s sports and their athletes; it simply wrapped global sports content in a pink hue.

As opposed to advancing gender equality in sports and its surrounding media, Halo reinforced its division by creating an independent channel “for women.” By doing so, Sky directed female sports fans into their own niche corner, instead of trying to incorporate them into the main Sky Sports brand and its neighbouring streams. 

The isolation, covered as “inclusion,” undermines the genuine efforts to incorporate women sports fans into global fanbases. It declares that women need their own channel and broadcast because they don’t belong to the core audience, primarily men. Halo supports marginalization rather than inclusion. 

Some might claim the channel targeted younger or casual female fans, and that highlighting that specific group would draw in new viewers. But if that was their true intention, Sky should have done so without falling back on misogynistic stereotypes. Countless ways exist to make sports more accessible. Using bright lettering, colours and trends is not the right approach. 

If Sky Sports genuinely wants to involve female fans, it should consult its audience before launching a targeted channel, regardless of its intentions. Getting real feedback from passionate female fans would help Sky find new approaches and strategies to make their content accessible from all angles. 

The quick dissolution of Sky Sports Halo should serve as a reminder: you can’t fabricate inclusivity and gender equality with trends and pastels. Respect comes from proper inclusion and representation, not from creating channels “for the girls.” And while Sky’s original attempt fell well short, serious coverage of women’s sports and integration of female fan bases remains important as always. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 46, Issue 7, published January 13, 2026.