The FA has today announced that the Barclays FA Women’s Super League will be broadcast overseas for the first time in its history.
Starting from the 2019/20 season, a new three-year media rights deal with Sky Mexico and Scandinavian broadcaster NENT will see the Barclays FA WSL screened to viewers across Mexico, Central America, Dominican Republic, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
The six-figure revenue from the deals will be reinvested into the further broadcasting of women’s football, including the development of The FA Player and its in-game production. The new global over-the-top [OTT] live streaming platform, which launched today, will provide free unprecedented access to over 150 domestic women’s football fixtures throughout the upcoming season, with the first live matches available this weekend.
In addition to live league coverage, The FA Player will stream selected match highlights from the Lionesses, the Women’s FA Cup and the FA Women’s Continental League Cup, as well as archive footage and regularly updated features.
As part of the agreement, live Barclays FA WSL matches in The FA Player will now be geo-blocked in the countries served by Sky Mexico and NENT.
Tom Gracey, The FA’s Senior Broadcast Manager, said: “We’re delighted that the strength of The Barclays FA Women’s Super League is being recognised globally, these two deals are a sign of the global strength and growing commercial prospects of the league.
“It is particularly pleasing that revenue will be targeted at the development of The FA Player. Through this reinvestment our aim is to help improve the experience for viewers around the world and strengthen the brands of our competitions, clubs and players in order to drive forward the commercialisation of women’s football and create a new fanbase globally.”
Sign up to The FA Player ahead of this weekend’s opening Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixtures visit www.FAPlayer.tv or download The FA Player app from the iOS or Google Play app stores. To download the launch video for The FA Player: https://we.tl/t-FyiO8mqjRV and to download The FA Player logos: https://we.tl/t-6fHqNM9bFn
