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The Otago Daily Times has come out on top in a major study into gender balance in the media.

Sport New Zealand and Isentia have released the first report from the study into gender balance in sports reporting in Aotearoa.

The study found coverage of women’s sport accounted for 15% of sports coverage.

The ODT did significantly better than the national average.

Women’s sport accounted for 19.5% of the newspaper’s sports coverage during the study period.

RNZ also achieved 19.5%, while Newshub (15.6%), Sky (14.7%), NZME (14.7%), Stuff (12.6%) and TVNZ (12.4%) lagged behind.

ODT sports editor Steve Hepburn said the newspaper was committed to covering local sport "and women’s sport is an important part of that".

"Athletes such as Courtney Duncan and Suzie Bates have done a lot to inspire youngsters and we look forward to covering their stories in the future."

Sport Otago chief executive John Brimble said the newspaper needed a "pat on the back" for its coverage of women’s sport.

"One of our objectives is to encourage and increase the number of women participating in sport and get more of a gender balance.

"Anything the media can do down here to support that is just gold for us."

Similar studies conducted overseas, including Australia (7%), United Kingdom (4%-10%) and the United States (5%) showed New Zealand was leading the world in gender balance of sports coverage.

The report also found coverage of women’s sport had grown from 11% in 2011.

Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle described it as "positive change, but 15% highlights the journey we have ahead to achieve true equity".

“The picture is most concerning when you look at the five sports that receive the most media coverage in Aotearoa: rugby, cricket, football, rugby league and basketball.

"These account for nearly three-quarters of all sports coverage, but within these sports there is an average of only 6.6% coverage of women’s sport.

"This is where the media are putting most of their resources. It’s where we need to see the most change.”

Other key findings show female journalists account for 21% of sporting bylines and only five sports have more female coverage than male coverage: netball, hockey, canoe sprint, snow sports and gymnastics.

Netball is the seventh-most covered sport, accounting for 4.3% of all sports coverage. Rugby is No 1 with 32.3%.

The study, which involved the analysis of 40,000 media items, was conducted from July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020, but paused when New Zealand went into Covid-19 Alert Level 4.