ITV, BBC score Women’s World Cup rights
June 15, 2023
By Colin Mann
ITV and the BBC will provide live television coverage of the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The news, accompanied by a separate announcement from the European Broadcasting Union and FIFA, ends fears that the tournament would not be shown in a number of major European markets, with the game’s governing body reported to be holding out for higher sums than the broadcasters were prepared to pay.
In total, all 64 matches from the tournament, which starts in Auckland on July 20th, will be broadcast in the UK on either ITV or the BBC, except for the Final, which will be shown across both ITV1 and BBC1.
ITV will show coverage of half of the tournament’s matches across ITV1 and ITV4 with simulcast and catchup on ITVX. Match highlights will also be on ITVX as well as ITV’s social media platforms. And build up programming will be shown on ITV4/ITVX ahead of the tournament.
“We’re delighted to be able to bring comprehensive coverage of the Women’s World Cup, free to air to our audiences with both live and highlights broadcasts across ITV and ITVX,” declared Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport. “This tournament promises to provide memorable moments with the popularity of women’s football continuing to grow. England’s Lionesses are entering the World Cup Finals as European champions and fans have been able to follow their progress to qualification on ITV through our coverage of the World Cup qualifiers, so we hope they’ll join us to see all the action from Australia and New Zealand throughout the tournament.”
Alongside TV coverage, live audio commentary will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra, after securing rights to broadcast the tournament. Fans will be able to listen to 5 Live coverage on BBC Sounds, DAB radio and the BBC Sport website.
Across TV, BBC iPlayer, radio and online, the BBC will now look ahead to this summer’s competition in Australia and New Zealand, bringing audiences 2023 FIFA World Cup live coverage, entertainment, analysis and discussion.
“We have shown every Women’s World Cup on the BBC since 1999 and we are happy to extend our partnership with FIFA for the upcoming tournament,” commented Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport. “The growth of the women’s game is extraordinary, demonstrated by the 28 million who watched BBC coverage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup and the huge audience of 17.4 million who watched our coverage of the Euro 2022 final last summer. In partnership with ITV we are delighted to make this World Cup available to the widest possible audience and free to air.”
ITV and the BBC have partnered with the EBU in agreeing the rights deal.
In their announcement, the EBU and FIFA have agreed to extend their existing media rights partnership, ensuring that the upcoming tournament will be broadcast on the EBU’s free-to-air linear TV network across 34 European territories, whilst also making a substantial additional commitment to the regular transmission of women’s football content beyond the tournament.
The memorandum of understanding follows initial discussions held at the Home of FIFA in May 2023 involving FIFA President Gianni Infantino, FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai, and representatives of the EBU, led by Director General Noel Curran, and the rights include broadcast across TV, digital and radio in a new arrangement that will also see the EBU provide more promotion to women’s football than ever before, thus helping to further grow the sport.
In October 2022, the two parties had announced an initial deal confirming that the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 would be broadcast free-to-air across 28 European territories, but under this revised agreement, major European broadcast markets have been added, together with Ukraine.
“FIFA is delighted to widen the deal with the European Broadcasting Union for the transmission of the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup to include the five major markets within their existing networks, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as Ukraine, thus ensuring maximum exposure for the tournament,” said Infantino. “As part of this agreement, the EBU has committed to working towards broadcasting at least one hour of weekly content dedicated to women’s football on its own digital platform and broadcaster network. This will provide a huge promotional and exposure opportunity for women’s football, which is a top priority for us in line with FIFA’s commitment to the long-term development of the sport.”
“We are delighted to have been able to build on our long-term and successful relationship with FIFA to secure the rights on behalf of Europe’s biggest public-service broadcasters,” added Curran. “The FIFA Women’s World Cup is one of sport’s most exciting and fastest growing events and we are committed to working hand-in-hand with FIFA to ensure the women’s game is enjoyed by as many people as possible across the continent. We see women’s football as being central to our content strategy and one of the cornerstones of the new digital platform we hope to launch next year.”
EBU Members, including ARD/ZDF (Germany), BBC/ITV (UK), France Télévisions, RAI (Italy) and RTVE (Spain), will also undertake to help market the tournament across all their channels as part of the EBU’s long-term strategy to promote the growth of women’s football in Europe and beyond. In Ukraine, the tournament will be shown by EBU Member, UA:PBC.
The new agreement continues the success story and legacy that was established with the FIFA-EBU partnership to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, where EBU Members reported record audience figures as coverage of this event signalled a landmark moment for women’s sport.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, which is the first to be held in the southern hemisphere and hosted in the Asia-Pacific region, will feature 32 teams, eight more than the previous edition in 2019, and will comprise 64 matches kicking off on Thursday, July 20th, and concluding with the final at Sydney/Gadigal’s Stadium Australia on Sunday, August 20th, 2023.
List of territories in which EBU Members will broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
“We are first and foremost happy for the fans because everyone should have access to one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar.” commented Jonas Linné, CEO of live football score app Forza Football. “The reality is we have arrived at this scenario because FIFA has historically undervalued women’s football and considered it an add-on to the men’s game. An example is bundling men’s and women’s football broadcast rights.”
“What various stakeholders, such as FIFA, broadcasters and brands, now need to do is embrace the reality that women’s football is a commercial package of considerable value and the numbers are there to prove it. In the end, it is the sport itself that suffers when disputes like this are allowed to go on for long periods of time. Growth will be slowed, and with only a month to go broadcasters will have less time to put together a quality product that attracts new fans. They will also have less time to bring in sponsors and revenue that ultimately will help the women’s game grow in the long run.”