I loved switching on BBC Breakfast news last Friday to see a piece on women’s football and a report from a girls’ football training session.
The piece was highlighting the fact that the BBC were going to be showing all of England’s Euro 2013 games live.
I think it is great that BBC are going to be showing the games but what is better, is them doing pieces like this in the mainstream news. It’s no good just putting the games on, because of course the audiences are not going to be big but if they keep getting bits in the news programmes and promote it well, then it may attract people to watch women’s football who haven’t watched before.
It’s things like this that are the legacy of the success of the women’s Team GB side in the Olympics, as I think it is because of their success that the BBC now want to show the England games live, as many of the players playing in the England squad were part of the Olympic side.
I would have liked them to put the matches on BBC One but can’t complain with BBC Two or Three. The competition is this July and in a year with no Olympics, men’s World Cup or men’s Euros, this may encourage casual football fans to have a gander as well.
I would be very interested after July to see the viewing figures compared with previous women’s football matches screened in this country, because I think if this gets good viewing figures it may have a snowball effect and encourage the BBC and other TV companies to get the rights for future competitions, which is what we want – the sport covered long term on a major TV platform.
She Kicks – the online community for women’s football
