The FA secure landmark Barclays FA Women’s Super League domestic rights deal

Women’s Sports Group is delighted to have worked with The Football Association (FA) on its successful first unbundled media rights tender process for women’s football.

As the exclusive advisors to The FA, media rights expert, David Kogan, and Founder of the Women’s Sports Group, Dame Heather Rabbatts, worked to support the shared ambition of delivering value and investment into the women’s game. The landmark deal, announced today, is the Barclays FA Women’s Super League’s first-ever monetised domestic rights agreement and will see more access to live women’s football than ever before.

Dame Heather Rabbatts, DBE, Founder of Women’s Sports Group, said:

“We’re delighted to have exclusively worked alongside The FA on this ground-breaking deal that ensures both broader exposure and increased commercial revenue for the Barclays FA Women’s Super League. This has been a singular exercise which commenced before the pandemic and, following negotiations throughout this last year, we have secured today’s landmark deal.

“Women’s Sports Group was established to generate value and further investment into the game and these broadcast agreements will both support the ongoing momentum of women’s football and bring much needed profile and funding to underpin its future.”

David Kogan, OBE, Women’s Sports Group, said:

“We have been working with the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and The FA for over a year and I am delighted to get the results announced today. It has been a privilege to have worked on this breakthrough deal for women’s football.”

Under the terms of the record-breaking three-year agreement, which includes all FA controlled women’s football club fixtures and is the first time the rights have been sold separately from the men’s game, Sky Sports will share the rights to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League with the BBC until the close of the 2023/24 season.

Sky’s multi-million-pound agreement will see the broadcaster show the top tier of women’s football for the first time with the BBC committing to airing the league on its mainstream, free-to-air channels. The commercial benefits of the agreement will be far-reaching, with WSL clubs receiving a proportion of the revenue and part of the income distributed to clubs in the FA Women’s Championship to aid their development.

About the Women’s Sport Group – empowering women’s sport

Women’s Sports Group [WSG] is a specialist sports partnership that aims to advance the global rise of women’s sport by providing bespoke services to drive profile, support and value, including: strategic communications, media rights management and partnership development.

Founded by Dame Heather Rabbatts, the Group is aligned to prominent sports communications agency Vero Communications, a market leader in the business of sport, of which she is also Chair.

Women’s Sports Group recognises the huge potential growth of the women’s sports market, which is currently significantly undervalued and – together with David Kogan OBE whose unparalleled expertise in media rights negotiation includes advising the Premier League, Football League, Premier Rugby, Six Nations and the NFL – it is determined to address the existing inequality and bring about greater gender balance in sport.

 Visit the website: www.womenssportsgroup.com

Follow on Twitter: @WSportsGroup and LinkedIn 

For more information please contact:

Clair Ashley

Women’s Sport Group

cashley@womenssportsgroup.com

Ph. +44 (0) 7889 866697

Jules Perkins

Women’s Sport Group

jperkins@womenssportsgroup.com

Ph. +44 (0) 7961 119065

About author

You might also like

SPORTEL Monaco 2021: CEO Laurent Puons praises event

The second day of SPORTEL 2021 got underway this morning in Monaco. Following on from yesterday’s masterclasses, Wednesday played host to a number of conference talks from industry-leading professionals. The

SPORTEL 2021: Day One Recap

This year’s prestigious SPORTEL convention kicked off in sunny Monaco today, welcoming a host of familiar faces as well as plenty of new ones. Doors opened at 8:30am with businesses

SPORTEL 2021: Monaco prepares to host prestigious October convention

After a one-year hiatus due to the impact of COVID-19, the world-renowned sports media and tech convention, SPORTEL, returns to host its annual event in Monaco. The conference will take