The WSL’s new TV deal is a great step forward but so much work remains
A £65m domestic deal is a positive start for the WPLL but what will it mean for fans and is it maybe for a year or two too long?
The Women’s Super League has secured a vital dose of off-pitch stability for the next five seasons, with the news that Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a record £65m domestic television rights deal, and with it, the new company running England’s top divisions has completed one of their first essential assignments. When they took over in August, there could be no ifs, no buts, no excuses – they had to get a new broadcast agreement over the line swiftly, and they have done so, with a record fee to boot.
A word we have heard regularly from Women’s Professional Leagues Limited [WPLL] is that they are a “startup”. That is the embryonic stage they feel not only the WPLL, but the women’s game more broadly, is still at financially, after decades of relative underinvestment compared to men’s football. If that is the case, then like any other startup, they will naturally be delighted to have guaranteed themselves such an income stream until 2030. It is a sizable uplift on the current deal, which is understood to be worth approximately £7m-£8m per year.
It may still be peanuts compared to the £6.7bn – yes billion – deal for four years the men’s top tier enjoys but it is still big money for a sport that was banned in this country until 1971. And given that WPLL’s mission is to make the women’s game financially sustainable and profitable, the numbers really matter. With this deal, they have ensured a minimum of £13m of domestic broadcast revenue per season for the next five years, from summer 2025.
