HOW TO HELP FANS OVERCOME CHALLENGES
T here is also an opportunity to engage more fans with greater availability of free-to-air content, which has the advantage of appearing prominently on fans’ TV screens, making it difficult to miss and addressing the knowledge gap as to when and where they can watch women’s football matches. Many fans feel they would engage more with the sport if there was more content freely available. This is low-effort engagement for fans, so shortening the route to viewing and making the content widely available will be key to successfully drawing in more fans. In terms of full live matches or highlights, this is, of course, not necessarily something that clubs have control over. We have seen in recent years the agreement of some huge commercial deals to ensure the broadcast of women’s football competitions domestically, across Europe, and globally. However, that has also meant that some matches have been available to watch only through subscription. In England, the FA Women’s Super League is broadcast across a mixture of outlets: the free-to-air BBC, the subscription- based Sky Sports, with other matches
available via the FA’s own FA Player, which requires registration. The 2023 Women’s World Cup broadcast rights were a subject of much discussion with no deal struck for the UK until one month before the start of the tournament; however, terrestrial broadcasters sealed the deal to ensure that matches were available to watch for free. Subscription broadcasters are an increasingly significant part of women’s football. DAZN has become a key player over recent seasons; they signed a five- year exclusive global broadcast rights deal with LaLiga F in Spain. The UEFA Women’s Champions League has benefited in the first two seasons from being streamed globally and free-to-access on DAZN’s YouTube channels. Clubs could benefit from more creativity – perhaps using their own televisual space on social media and streaming to share unique content aside from match footage, but also finding ways to link up with other established spaces and create a crossover audience for the information and stories being told.
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