Certain TV camera angles banned: women's sport faces a contradiction

Certain TV camera angles banned: women's sport faces a contradiction

The new rules, reported by France 24 and El Periódico, ban certain angles, shots and slow-motion replays in women's sport to prevent the sensual of athletes. But the cure may be worse than the disease: the audience, the very factor that sets the price of advertising, has no time for good intentions. Limiting the visual resources of the spectacle reduces the appeal of the broadcast and, with it, advertising and broadcasting rights revenue.

The contradiction is plain to see. Many athletes compete in minimal clothing, as in beach volleyball, and nobody regulates their attire. Punishing the camera operator for pointing at what the eye can already see is absurd. If the goal is to stamp out hypersenshyper, the logical step would be a minimum dress code, not censorship that penalises the professional doing their job. Some analyses go further: will beach volleyball players end up in burqas?

The double standard is also uncomfortable. In men's sport, close-ups and aesthetic replays are routine and nobody talks about sensual. The rule only affects women, reinforcing the idea that the problem is not the eye but the female body. And that has a direct economic cost: without an audience there are no sponsors, and without sponsors women's sport loses the battle for real equality at the elite level.

It is a risky move. If viewing figures collapse, women's competitions will lose visibility and the promotion they so badly need will take a step backwards. Perhaps the solution is not to ban camera shots but to educate the way we look. In the meantime, the remote control has already voted.