One year on, what have we learnt from Sky Sports’ Halo TikTok account

On 13 November 2025, Sky Sports launched a new TikTok channel under the username @skysportshalo, which was created with the purpose of giving female sports fans an inclusive space to learn about the industry. They were welcomed into the social space by the main Sky Sports channel, which introduced the account as ‘the lil sis of Sky Sports’.

What should have been a platform to enhance the voice of women in sports quickly became a stereotyped, tone-deaf channel in the space of 24-hours. When fans started to voice their concerns around the content shared, the official Halo channel responded with comments such as “can’t believe you brought that kind of energy”.

Over the past six years, we have seen a shift in the marketing industry leading to a more personable approach to brands. One of the best (and maybe first) examples of this being done at a high level is Duolingo in 2021 when Zaria Parvez joined their social media team.

With the introduction of the Duolingo owl, the brand made a complete shift in the industry from being a language app that everyone had downloaded and deleted at some point in their life to a leader in the social media world. Not only was this shift reflected in their videos, but it was also mirrored through the way that they interacted with their audience.

Brands of all sizes have since started to embrace this new way of marketing, and most of the time it works. In cases such as Halo, they missed the mark. Within three days of opening the Halo TikTok account, the Sky Sports team issued a statement and removed all content.

“Our intention for Halo was to create a space alongside our existing social channels 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.” — @skysportshalo (deleted apology post)

What’s next for women-led content

Since the disaster of Sky Sports Halo, we have yet to see any major brands replicate a women’s ‘explainer’ campaign in the sports industry. While some questioned whether it was right for Sky Sports to close the Halo account rather than fixing the problem that they caused, it is clear that no one wants to be next in line to do the same.

Maybe the larger problem at play here is the initial need for such a platform. Instead of amplifying educational content on the main Sky Sports channel (which currently has over 5m followers on TikTok alone), why did they feel the need to create a new account?

When writing this post, the main Sky Sports TikTok account has a total of three posts out of their most recent 60 posts about women. With two of these posts being about the WSL, one of them is about what football team celebrities such as Margot Robbie and Anne Hathaway support… Now, it’s worth noting that we are 3 days out from the Premier League kicking off, yet we still have 8 posts about other male-focused sporting moments such as F1, golf, and boxing.

So, was the real problem that Sky Sports needed a new channel dedicated to amplifying women's sports, or did they simply need to look closer to home where the real problem was…

Can the industry do anything right for women?

Yes. Let’s not pretend that it is a difficult task at hand here, but as we are still seeing brands getting it so wrong, I think it is important to highlight when others are doing it right.

At the 2025 Super Bowl, a 60-second ad was estimated to cost up to $16 million. This is exactly the price Nike paid for their first Super Bowl ad in almost 30 years, and they spent that whole time sharing stories about women athletes.

This wasn’t the first step Nike took, and it certainly wasn’t the last. It only takes one look at the official Nike TikTok account to notice this. An account with over 9m followers, not a sub-account. What we are seeing is a brand that not only says that they care about the representation of women in sports, but shows it.

They aren’t alone in this. We’ve seen similar efforts from brands directly in the sports industry as well as ones that aren’t directly associated with sports, such as Dove or Unilever.

What brands can take away from this is that it is not hard. Do better.