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by Kristina Godwin

Anna Minter is an Assistant Producer at Sky Sports, working across all things football: from the Premier League to the WSL and the EFL. At such an early stage in her career, it’s safe to say Anna has quickly become a key member of the team that’s bringing the sport we all know and love to Sky Sports’ customers every week. 

Having grown up playing football from the age of seven with her local boys’ team, Anna has stayed close to this passion ever since. She studied multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University, where she also played for their women’s first team. This is where Anna’s story takes an unexpected twist. In her second year she suffered an ACL injury which left her unable to play football for the rest of her time at university. This can mark an end to their connection with football for many people, but Anna turned the knockback into an opportunity to reinvent herself.

 

Turning point

Determined to stay close to her sport and fascinated by the growth of the women’s game, Anna channelled her passion into an academic project and created a documentary exploring the link between menstrual cycles and ACL injuries. At the same time, she went out and networked with people from across the industry to gain a more in-depth understanding of the world of sports broadcasting.

And one of those people was Jacqui Oatley MBE, the first female commentator to appear on the BBC’s Match of the Day and a founding member and ambassador of Women in Football. The conversation with Jacqui not only inspired Anna to persevere with a career in the sport but also provided a key introduction, leading her to a freelance role at Eurosport alongside completing her degree. A piece of advice from Jacqui which Anna has held close to her as she has moved on is that “the key to success is to work hard and be nice to people”. 

Anna’s first permanent role came via a Sky graduate scheme in October 2021. It was a highly competitive process, but her place on the scheme gave Anna exposure to many different areas of content and production. In September 2022, her hard work was rewarded when she was offered a permanent role as a Junior Assistant Producer in the Sky Sports Football team. She has now progressed to Assistant Producer on the live football broadcast and is widening her skill set further with specialist production training.

Anna thrives in the exciting high-pressure environment that is live sport. Whether it’s making quick decisions in the gallery or overseeing the editing of montages and features, she’s soaking up every moment. Anna shared her experience of Manchester United’s stoppage time goal in the penultimate match of the 2022–23 season which took the title race with Chelsea down to the wire.

“It’s moments like that where the story of the post-match reaction can flip in a second,” she says. “We went from being ready to play out ‘Chelsea are champions’ clips to having just a couple of minutes to pull together all new content, building up to a thrilling and dramatic final day of the season.”

 

Trailblazers

Anna is quick to acknowledge the brilliant team around her, notably Sky Sports WSL Senior Producer Nia Wyn Thomas. “She’s a huge role model who does an incredible job at working tirelessly to help promote, challenge and carry the standards of our WSL coverage to new levels.” 

Support from both male and female team members in Martha Watson (Associate Producer) and Mike Rossiter (Senior Associate Director) has helped Anna through the tougher lessons of the role. “In live TV you make mistakes – but you learn from them. We care tremendously about our work, but you have to accept that things will go wrong from time to time. Having the ability to see mistakes as an opportunity to learn and not dwell on them will take you far.”

It’s also the team’s belief in her that has inspired Anna to harness and explore creative freedom in her role, something she excels in. She describes how being able to adapt creatively across Sky’s wide portfolio of football rights is such a vital and exciting element of producing, acknowledging that “we’re tailoring content to completely different audiences”. From pitching montages to leading shoots with footballers, to overseeing final edits, she expresses what an incredible sense of achievement it is to produce something from start to finish and watch your idea come to life. 

It’s no secret that football can be a male-dominated industry, but for Anna, the support of the Sky Sports Football team and being surrounded by female trailblazers on her journey “has been so important and is forging a path for the future”. A real highlight for her was being part of a “majority female gallery on the final day of the season – making it even more special.”

So what advice would Anna give to her younger self, or to someone starting out in the world of production? “Trust in yourself that you deserve to be there. Continue to be a ‘yes’ person: opportunities don’t just get given to you – you need to create them for yourself. Work hard but don’t let yourself burn out; it’s so important to check in on yourself! Always make time for people; it’s people skills that will carry you further in life than anything else.” And last but certainly not least, “work hard and be nice to people!”

Anna Minter is clearly a woman with an exciting career ahead of her, and the teams at both Sky Sports and Women in Football will be watching keenly to see what the future has in store.

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