Overview
- Sky Sports halted its new Halo TikTok channel within days, deleted most posts and issued an apology saying it “didn’t get it right.”
- The early videos leaned on pink graphics, wellness references and Barbie-style imagery, with five of the first 11 posts featuring male athletes including an Erling Haaland clip captioned about a “matcha + hot girl walk.”
- Internal meetings were described as heated, with staff — particularly women — reported to have confronted senior figures Mark Allford and Andy Gill over how the content was approved.
- Allford said a young, all-female project team created Halo to engage new sports fans, as critics questioned the lack of robust audience testing.
- Commentators and women’s sport advocates called the presentation patronising, noting the risk to Sky’s credibility even as it remains a major investor in women’s sport.