WOMEN IN SPORTS Cover story: Female athletes break barriers; front office progress slower Announcing: Women left on sidelines Marketing changes: With more women tuning in, advertisers shift gears during games Fleeting fame: Olympic gymnasts find celebrity short-lived King's win: Net gain for women Photo gallery: Billie Jean King

"I think my games were on home movies when I started to play," jokes Orender, noting ESPN/ABC now telecasts dozens of WNBA and college women's basketball games every season.

TV coverage of women's sports isn't the only thing that's changed in the 35 years since tennis star Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes."

Female fans make up a growing percentage of sports viewers, even for traditionally male sporting events such as the Super Bowl.

The advertising agencies on Madison Avenue increasingly view sports as a vehicle to reach female consumers.

Just ask the NFL.

More women watched at least part of the New York Giants' victory against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII than there were total viewers for the 80th Academy Awards in February: 69.7 million vs. 64.2 million.

League research indicates 45% of NFL fans in 2008 are women and they make up about 35% of avid fans. Beauty-product brands such as Dove have advertised during the Super Bowl to reach female viewers.

"At the game level, we don't do anything specific to tailor it more broadly to a female audience," says Mark Waller, the NFL's senior vice president of marketing. "Yet we have as mixed a fan base as you can get."

Rather than asking female fans to buy baggy jerseys made for men, the league has established a lucrative business at NFLShop.com selling jerseys, shirts, hats and purses designed for women. There's even a pink "fashion jersey" for the player who's sold the most jerseys in NFL history: quarterback Brett Favre of the New York Jets.

The Olympic Games traditionally have catered to a female audience.

Women's gymnastics, figure skating and beach volleyball typically generate the highest TV ratings and grab most of the airtime.

The average sports fan might not know it, but women, not men, make up the majority of Olympic TV viewers by a wide margin — 7%.

Women 18 and older made up the largest percentage of viewers for NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics at 49%, according to Mike McCarley, the network's vice president of strategic marketing. In second place: men 18 and older at 42%.

The male-female skew is even more lopsided for female-dominated sports such as figure skating. The World Figure Skating Championships in March drew an audience that was 70% women, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC focused much of its pre-Olympic ad campaign this year on swimmer Michael Phelps and his quest for a record eight gold medals. Rather than simply hyping his athletic abilities, the network also focused on his relationship with his mother, Debbie Phelps.

"The idea was to introduce him as an athlete who could become the greatest Olympian ever — and appeal to different people for different reasons," McCarley wrote in an e-mail from China.

"It focused on several aspects of his life: his special relationship with his mom; his bulldog, Herman; his love of music; his insatiable appetite; his crazy workout routine."

NBC's strategy paid off when Michael Phelps became the Games' breakout star.

And Debbie Phelps, who sported clothes from Chico's while watching her son from the stands, landed an endorsement deal with the retailer.

As Debbie Phelps proved, where audiences go, Madison Avenue follows. More marketers are using sports to reach female fans as well as male.

Dozens of global marketers used the Olympic Games to reach female viewers, including AT&T, McDonald's, Visa and L'Oreal. Many featured female Olympians such as gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson and swimmer Dara Torres in their ads.

AT&T, for example, touted the elegant Liukin in its advertising buildup to the Games. All told, the company sponsored seven female athletes. It also sponsored seven male competitors.

"The Olympics tend to skew more female. It's a great platform for us to activate," says Tom Hughes, director of sponsorships and events for AT&T.

With new stars such as rookie Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks, the WNBA is generating across-the-board increases in attendance, TV audiences and merchandising sales this season.

Average attendance for the season-to-date is up 3%. The average viewership per game is up 23% on ESPN2 vs. last season. Merchandising sales are up 68% at the NBA Store and NBAStore.com.

The WNBA picked up three new sponsors this season — McDonald's, Kia Motors and Peak — and renewed a deal with Beringer Vineyards, Orender says.

Don't look now, but WNBA players such as Parker are even nabbing big-bucks sneaker and beverage endorsements that used to be reserved for NBA stars.

Says Orender: "Candace has definitely made an impact in terms of the partnership she's announced with Adidas and Gatorade. We'd like to see that grow."