Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a new five-year, shared domestic broadcast rights deal to show almost every Women’s Super League match live on television from the 2025-26 campaign.
The value of the deal is undisclosed but the Guardian understands the rights fee is worth approximately £65m across the duration of the five seasons, plus production costs, taking the broadcasters’ total investment in the women’s game to comfortably over £100m. The new agreement represents a huge increase on the current deal, which is understood to be worth in the region of £7m-£8m a season.
Sky Sports are understood to be contributing the vast majority of that investment and, in return, they have been given up to 118 live WSL matches per season, 78 of which will be exclusive to Sky, and the commercial broadcaster will also have 75% of the first-choice picks.
The BBC has committed to showing up to 21 matches a season live, 14 of which will be exclusive to BBC television, and the remaining seven will be shared. Any matches not selected for live television broadcast will be shown live on YouTube, as part of an expansion of the new partnership agreed with the streaming platform this summer. It means fans will be able to watch all 132 games in a WSL season live either on television or online.
It is also understood there will be a large increase in the number of Women’s Championship matches that will be broadcast live on YouTube from next season and – although the BBC will not be showing Championship games live – Sky do also have the option to broadcast Championship matches live if they choose to do so.
The rights deal is the first long-term broadcast deal negotiated by Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) since the new company took over the running of England’s top two women’s leagues from the Football Association.
The chief executive of WPLL, Nikki Doucet, said: “Agreeing the next cycle of broadcast rights was a priority for us and we are very fortunate to have two premium broadcast partners in Sky and the BBC who believe in the future and value of women’s football as much as we do. The growth of the game is undeniable, and this deal is another step in the right direction and positive news for the fans, the players and the clubs.
“Sky and the BBC are longtime backers and their contribution to the growth of the women’s game should not go without recognition. They provide excellent visibility coupled with first-class production values and we look forward to building on our partnership over the coming years.”
The new five-year contract is longer than previous WSL television rights deals, but sources said that is partly aimed at stability and also partly at ensuring that, when the rights next come up for tender, the WSL will be entering the market before the men’s leagues, rather than afterwards, which many insiders felt was a disadvantage for the WSL in its previous negotiations last season.
Additionally, as part of the new deal, in a new development, players will be given digital rights to show their own highlights clips on their social media channels. That arrangement is seen as being unique to the WSL and will help players enhance their brands.
But it is the revenue injection that will be the most significant for the WPLL, which has so far received a £20m loan from the men’s Premier League and money from a new title sponsorship deal with Barclays, but needed a new TV deal to aid its quest for financial sustainability for women’s football.
By comparison, the USA’s National Women’s Soccer League announced in November 2023 that it had a new $60m (£46m) domestic broadcast deal with four major streaming and cable partners across four years, but that figure included the production costs.
SportBusiness Media reported that the $60m per-year rights revenue includes around $35m-$40m per year in value-in-kind through marketing and promotion as well as production subsidies. The NWSL deal is shared between Amazon, CBS, ESPN, and the Scripps’ ION network.
