WSL bids to seal £20 million deal and broadcast every match from next season

Women’s football in England is set for major changes as attendance and viewership continue to rise.

Every Women’s Super League (WSL) match is set to be broadcast live next season, in a landmark new deal that could be worth £20 million a year.

The WSL is the top flight of English women’s football. Since the recent successes of the English national team, women’s football has seen a rise in attendance, viewership and investment – including a landmark £600 million pledge from the government.

The current WSL broadcast deal is £7.75 million a year. It is set to explore at the end of the season with more than half of the matches broadcast for free on the FA’s website.

The current deal sees Sky broadcast 35 matches per season, whilst the BBC broadcasts another 22. The remaining matches are available for free on the FA Player.

‘NewCo secured £25m loan’

Since the explosion of women’s football in England, major changes have been introduced already.

The first major change saw the top two tiers of women’s football – the WSL & Women’s Championship – break away from the FA, and will now be run by a stand-alone body known as NewCo.

First WSL sticker album launches — A WSL sticker book was released last year, in a massive moment for women’s football in England

NewCo recently secured a £25 million loan from the Premier League.

The independent organisation’s next big task is sorting out the domestic broadcast partnerships, which alongside the competition’s title sponsorship with Barclays accounts for a significant portion of the league’s revenue.

Last month, NewCo CEO Nikki Doucet said her organisation was exploring “all possible options” in negotiating a new deal.

The Daily Mail has reported that in an attempt to increase the existing deal, the WSL tender document issued to broadcasters this month features all 132 league games, with 56 to be sold exclusively and the remaining 76 available on a non-exclusive basis.

Another key issue for NewCo is securing a specific day for women’s football. The WSL haven’t been able to secure the 3pm black-out spot which would massively help with the growth of the women’s game.

FA faces battle to lift 3pm Saturday blackout for WSL

A new visibility report from the Women’s Sport Trust, found that during men’s international breaks, viewership figures for WSL matches were nearly six times greater when played during the blackout time than the usual Saturday lunchtime slot.

However, an agreement has yet to be reached with the Premier League and EFL to pursue a revision on the UEFA blackout. Instead, Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoons remain the most common kick-off times for WSL matches.