Stepping Stones: SVT Sport’s Bella Franzén on moving to a digital mindset and making your voice heard

Franzén on site for a match in Spain

In our next Stepping Stones interview, Bella Franzén, reporter at SVT Sport, shares her career journey, the challenges she’s faced and the lessons she’s learnt.

How did you first find out about TV broadcasting as a career? What was your inspiration or idea, and why sports broadcasting?

When I started my education at Gothenburg University my idea was to work with radio. But during my first year of studying I got an assignment to cover an ice hockey game for our student TV channel. When I was standing in the mixed zone talking to a player, I just realised that, “Oh! This is something I can actually do!”.

During the following summer I got my first sports journalist job at a local newspaper and since then I have always known that this is what I was going to do. I have always loved sports, but for some reason I never thought I could work with it like this.

What has been your career path within TV?

I come from a background of working at newspapers and a news agencies, so working at SVT Sport is actually my first TV job. My first job was at a local newspaper in Gävle, a small town in Sweden, where I worked in the summers as a sports reporter. I also worked as a sports reporter at the biggest newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet, creating video and TV content for their website.

After that I moved to TT News Agency, the biggest news agency in Sweden, as a sports reporter before joining SVT Sport in May 2022. Here I write for the website, produce video and work with social media.

What attracted you to your current role?

I feel that I can grow my career at SVT. Working as a sports reporter here I get to work on the biggest events and because we have so many different roles I have many opportunities if I want to try something new. I like the mix of work for broadcasting, social media and our website. It is just so much fun. There’s always new things, new projects, new up-and-coming interesting athletes, new competitions to work with. Also, I love the feeling of growing as a person, learning new things and visiting new places. And the best thing is the smart, fun and inspiring people I work with.

Franzén: ‘There’s always new things, new projects, new up-and-coming interesting athletes, new competitions to work with’

What’s the hardest or most challenging aspect of your job?

There is always a lot to do and often a lot of pressure. You have to know how to master a lot of different things, such as broadcasting, writing, social media as well as a lot of technical stuff.

What challenges have you faced over the course of your career and how did you get past those challenges?

I am pretty new at this (I got my bachelor’s degree in 2019) and as a young woman I think you often need to be tough. You will get questioned as a woman working in this industry. When you are working at the big competitions you have to be fearless and own your place in the room.

There will be times, especially when working with only guys, that you may feel alone and like no one is listening to you, but it is important to know that you have the right to talk, to come up with ideas and to get to do the fun stuff.

Over the last two years how has your role changed and moved forward? What does 2023 bring for you and your career?

I started my career focusing just on writing. Now I mainly work with video and social media, so the digital side is playing a much bigger part, not only at my workplace but across the whole media industry. Now it’s always digital first, and that suits me very well.

In 2023 I think I will focus even more on digital, starting with ten weeks this spring where I will spend half of my time as a TikTok reporter to develop our work on digital platforms.

“There will be times, especially when working with only guys, that you may feel alone and like no one is listening to you, but it is important to know that you have the right to talk, to come up with ideas and to get to do the fun stuff”

What has been a particularly exciting or cutting edge thing in sports broadcasting that your company or any of your sports clients were involved with in 2022, and why?

For me I think it has been our work with moving towards a more digital mindset. We are a big broadcast company that has been doing the same thing for years and now it feels like we are slowly but steadily moving towards a more digital mindset. Even though not everyone and every project are yet moving towards this we have started the journey and I feel excited and happy to be a part of it.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve worked on in the course of your career? Why?

Definitely the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It was so interesting to experience one of the most debated sporting events ever. It was the first really big event that I covered and I did it in a completely new role – as a social media reporter, something that SVT had never tried at such a big event before. It was really fun, challenging and exciting.

What advice would you give to other women looking to move into a role in sports broadcasting like your own?

You have to work hard. Nothing will come to you for free and there is no shortcut that will help you. You have to trust in yourself and your knowledge. Be tough and don’t let anyone take your place. Sometimes you will have to work a little harder than others, but don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, raise your hand and let everyone know what you can do.