Football Association (FA) has struck an agreement with BBC for the broadcast rights of Women’s Super League (WSL) from next season, reports Daily Mail. This deal will help in bringing WSL on terrestrial television for the first time.
As part of this deal, Sky Sports will also share the live coverage of the competition. However, BT Sports is out of the reckoning after being the chief broadcaster of the WSL in the last few seasons. BBC will be the secondary rights partner from next season, while Sky Sports will get the first pick of games every week. Moreover, few games of the competition will be shown on BBC1 and BBC2.
The total fee of this entire broadcast package is yet to be revealed. Currently, the WSL games in the United Kingdom are available on BT Sports. On digital platforms, FA Players also stream games from WSL. The lucrative deal with BBC will be a big boost for women’s football in the United Kingdom.
The WSL has been largely dominated by Arsenal and Chelsea in the past decade. However, Manchester clubs are also slowly getting better and posing strong competition to London-based clubs. Manchester City has won one title already, while Manchester United is in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League after the club started having a women’s team in 2018.
During the last summer transfer window, players from the United States of America largely flooded to WSL due to the lack of football in their country due to the pandemic. Having top players from the best team at the international level has further increased the quality of WSL. Better players will also bring more investors and FA will continue to broker better media rights deals. WSL Clubs now need to take the next step and succeed consistently in the Champions League.