Sky Sports has binned its controversial new TikTok channel Halo after just three days following extensive backlash online.
Sky Sports Halo was launched on Thursday, branded as the “lil sis” of Sky Sports and explicitly targeted at female sports fans. “We’re about ALL sports and championing female athletes. We’re here for the culture, community and connection. We don’t just watch sports – we live it,” read the announcement post.
But the perception of segregating female sports fans along with the channel’s “lil sis” branding, pink glowing text and content referring more to matcha, “hot girl walks” and Labubu toys than actual sport sparked an almost universally negative response, with fans arguing it was patronising and sexist.
Despite earlier backing the channel Sky Sports then climbed down, sharing a post on X on Saturday reading: “Our intention for Halo was to create a space alongside our existing channel for new, young, female fans.
“We’ve listened. We didn’t get it right. As a result we’re stopping all activity on this account. We’re learning and remain as committed as ever to creating spaces where fans feel included and inspired.”
Posts including one TikTok titled “Explaining 2008 Crashgate in girl terms”, in pink text along with pink nail polish emojis, went down badly among viewers. Another video featured a clip of Manchester City players Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland combining for the latter to score against Bournemouth, with the caption “How the matcha + hot girl walk combo hits”.
Fans argued the content was regressive and undermined the important work done over the past few years to put women’s sport in the spotlight and to push for gender equality.
Girls on the Ball, a women’s football platform with 51,000 followers on X, posted: “The branding (one day can we please be past the pink/peach stage?!), the premise, the copy… Can’t imagine this is what women sports fans want and taking a brief look at the comments it seems like we’re not alone.”
Another commenter’s post on X with nearly 10,000 likes read: “Sky Sports Halo has got to be one of the worst concepts I’ve ever seen. So condescending. Creating a dumbed down sports channel for women is unbelievably sexist. Incredible that it was approved and that it’s still live.”
The original post on Sky Sports’ website launching the channel read: “Sky Sports has launched Sky Sports Halo, a brand-new TikTok channel created specifically to engage and entertain female sports fans, providing an inclusive platform for women to enjoy all sports, while amplifying female voices.” The post itself has since been deleted.
The broadcaster’s head of social media, Andy Gill, had earlier attempted to defend the channel, saying: “I couldn’t be prouder and more excited about this launch. Proud, because this has been driven by the women in our team and embraced and supported by ALL across the business. And excited, because of, well, the possibilities.”
However, the channel has not survived the weekend.
