Notable gaffes in sexist Olympics coverage aside, high-profile women athletes like swimmers, gymnasts, and runners were front and center during prime-time viewing hours, and women in sports like rugby, field hockey, and shot put also got airtime. A team of researchers even found that NBC’s primetime telecast of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics showed female athletes 58.5% of the time and male athletes 41.5% of the time during the first half of the Rio telecast.

Los Angeles broadcast affiliates only devote 3.2% of airtime to women’s sports–down from 5% in 1989.

That’s unusual. A 2015 study from the University of Southern California found that coverage of women’s sports hasn’t expanded in 25 years, despite dramatic increases in the number of girls and women playing sports, from youth through professional teams. Researchers found that Los Angeles broadcast affiliates only devote 3.2% of airtime to women’s sports–down from 5% in 1989, while ESPN’s SportsCenter has remained flat at 2% of airtime.

When women’s sports are covered, 81.6% of the coverage is focused on women’s basketball. And even when they do get on the air, the production value and commentary is often less entertaining and less professional, the study found, when compared with men’s teams.

It’s well-known that women athletes are often paid far less than their male counterparts. Earlier this year, five members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the U.S. Soccer Federation for wage discrimination. To put it into perspective, even with their 2015 World Cup win, the women earned roughly a quarter of what the men earned, according to corporate gender strategist Jeffery Tobias Halter, author of Why Women: The Leadership Imperative to Advancing Women and Engaging Men.

Marketer and talent representative Leonard Armato says the lack of high-quality media coverage, as well as everything from societal attitudes about women in sports to event attendance figures, stack the deck against women athletes. Armato is CEO and founder of Management Plus Enterprises (MPE), which represents sports figures like Oscar De La Hoya, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kerri Walsh Jennings, among others, and is the former CEO and commissioner of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour which, under his direction, offered equal purses for men’s and women’s competitions.

Over the years, Armato says he’s seen the bias against women athletes firsthand. He points to one exchange with a major sneaker manufacturer regarding former WNBA star Lisa Leslie. The company wasn’t willing to negotiate her sponsorship because of doubts about her potential influence on sales.