Women's Super League TV exposure.
By Jack2505
At last it seems that women's English football will be getting the exposure it needs to reach a mass audience in the UK for the ladies of the WSL to showcase their talents and skills and really put women's football on the UK map to inspire an audience and the future generation.
This Saturday will host Manchester City V Manchester United which will be a 3pm kick off at the etihad stadium live on the major UK sports channel BT sport 1 followed by the next day Arsenal V West Ham Ladies at Meadow Park.
My first reaction to this was at last the ladies are getting their chance to be televised on a major channel on a consistent basis like the men but from what I can see from the BT fixture list. This is only the opening weekend.
I’m Jack2505, I’ve been a football fan my whole life watching the men's game.
I have been involved in a few discussions over the years regarding why the women’s game is not as big as the men’s and why women do not earn nowhere near as much of the men and I have narrowed it down to two things, lack of exposure and lack of demand.
Exposure
If I were to ask you, how can I watch live women's super league football in the UK? What would be your answer?
I want you to think about it, this is a question I have asked myself before this week.
So I use google to find this out and I found that the WSL games will be shown live on a new streaming service provided by the FA called “The FA Player” which will show over 150 women’s games throughout the season.
This also includes great international TV deals however the problem is still with the right exposure in the UK.
Now before reading this article how many of you have heard of the The FA Player? I understand it is a brand new free streaming service however how much revenue can be generated from this service to bring the women’s game to another level?
My guess is that many football fans will not hear about the FA streaming service this season and I’m not sure the FA would do a great job to heavily promote the service to a wider audience.
The positive to take out of this for the women of the WSL is that more games than ever before will be shown however who will be watching if the service is not on a platform that is not very well known even if it's provided by the FA.
Lack of demand.
It is a simple concept, if people don’t hear about it. They are not going to want it or if people are unaware how will they watch it?
Sports fans vote with their wallet, regarding TV and online subscriptions, going to events/stadiums.
I’ve asked many football fans both men and women, do you watch the women's game? Most come back with the answer… no.
Why is this? Some reasons comes down to ignorance, some are which channel shows live women's game? and what time is it on?
So when people are not exposed to the sport, there will not be a demand for it.
Lack of demand then affects the exposure and vice versa, I feel the UK sports channels either do not want to take a risk on the women’s game and give the WSL a much larger platform on a consistent basis rather than mostly the FA streaming service.
If we compare to Women’s football in the US, it's a different story. Largely in my opinion because the USA ladies since their inception have been a huge success and success breeds interest and exposure, I hear women's football in America is more popular than the men’s! and that comes down to the huge success the US women have had largely down to their World Cup success.
The women's super league TV partner is supposed to be BT Sport, however so far BT has committed to two games only and the rest of the games are on the streaming service.
Solution
In order for women's football in the UK to grow the live games must be on bigger channels on a more consistent basis so it will get the exposure it needs.
If it was down to me I would broadcast live women’s games on BBC 2 every Saturday at 3pm to start with. Saturday 3pm would be a great time slot for the women’s game to be live, this is because sports of the men’s game mostly would have watched an early kick off on TV and those games finish about 2.45 then you could watch a WSL game live on BBC2 for eg.
If the numbers and popularity is there then start to broadcast Sunday games then I would make a big push for Thursday nights when there are no European games in that particular week with the men to avoid a clash and gain as much exposure as possible.
More dedicated talk shows regarding the WSL needs to be created on multiple platforms from TV to radio, streaming services such as Youtube etc.
Also the women’s game needs support from the best source of all.. Women!
If the WSL had a huge female audience who could watch the games every week on easy to access well known platforms it could make a huge difference to the exposure and potential earnings for the players in the WSL.
I will be watching some WSL games myself to see what the women’s game has to offer, after watching the WWC which has raised huge interest and this opportunity really needs to be taken at this moment where this is the most popular women's football has ever been.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article.
I’m Jack2505 and I run the very new 2505 Sports Podcast on Youtube and live stream on Twitch.
I stream and record weekly discussions regarding the world of sports and links to my channels are as follows….
Discord: https://discord.gg/zu8DHfM
Twitter: @Jack2505_
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcz-_RQb_5gGzBnRO2Q68tw
