The English Women’s Super League will be shown on free to air television in the UK for the first time, as the BCC and Sky Sports agree to a multimillion-dollar deal.
Under the deal, which is reportedly worth about £8 million per season, the BBC will broadcast 22 live Women’s Super League games, with a minimum of 18 shown on BBC One or BBC Two. Sky Sports will provide coverage of up to 44 matches screened across the Main Event, Premier League and Sky Sports Football channels. Any remaining matches will be broadcast live on The FA Player.
The agreement will begin from the 2021-22 season, running for three years, and is said to be the biggest broadcast deal of any professional women’s football league. It will be instrumental in bringing a more mainstream audience to women’s football.
Matildas players including captain Sam Kerr, who currently plays for English club Chelsea, will benefit from the deal.
Kelly Simmons, the English Football Association’s director of the women’s professional game, said it was a “landmark deal” that signified the true value of women’s football.
“This is a landmark deal, not just for the WSL but the whole of the women’s game — it’s really going to help us to grow and engage our fan base,” she said.
“It is transformational. This is mainstream, this is prime slots on television, big audiences, week in week out. And I think it’s such an exciting step for the women’s game.
“Visibility and investment are such key factors in growing any women’s sport, and we are delighted that Sky Sports and the BBC have made a commitment to broadcast more live women’s football than we have ever seen before, while signifying its true value.”
It marks the first time the rights to the Women’s Super League have been sold separately from the men’s game, and it means clubs in the league will receive a large portion of the revenue.
Part of the income from the deal will be distributed to clubs in the FA Women’s Championship, to assist in their development.
Simmons said she anticipates the deal will see the Women’s Super League watched by more people than other high rating women’s sports, including the WNBA and the NWSL in the US.
“We have benchmarks for what we think are the most successful, high-profile women’s sport leagues in the world like the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) and the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League), and they are low hundreds of thousands in terms of an average peak per week,” she said.
“We anticipate this would significantly be above that.”
Rob Webster, managing director of Sky Sports, said the Women’s Super League will be given “the full Sky Sports treatment”, including lengthy build ups to games and reactions to all live matches, plus a daily narrative of league across platforms.
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