Several big names joined the league this summer
Sky Sports have reportedly won the broadcast rights to the Women’s Super League for the 2021/22 season from BT Sport, according to the Telegraph.
Sky believe there is a huge opportunity to market the women’s game to a British audience following the arrival of several big names from the United States this summer and the FA developing a strategy to increase revenue with the help of rights management specialists, Women’s Sports Group.
World Cup winners Rose Lavelle and Alex Morgan have both recently joined Manchester City and Tottenham respectively, accelerating an already growing interest in the women’s game in Britain.
The deal with Sky is expected to be agreed soon and comes after the WSL agreed a US rights deal with NBC, who are also owned by Sky’s parent company, Comcast.
Never before have the rights to the WSL been the subject of a bidding war, with the FA handing the rights over for free to the BBC and BT Sport, with the broadcasters covering production costs.
But Sky are keen to buy control of the rights ahead of an explosion in popularity, boosting their audience and their profits.
More than two million people tuned in to watch the BBC’s Women’s Football Show after football returned from its long lay-off due to Covid-19.
This season, the WSL will be broadcast on BT Sport, who advertised the season as the “biggest ever season of women’s football, with more Barclays FA Women’s Super League games than ever before”.
