There is growing concern about the WSL TV viewing figures. Per Matt Hughes at The Guardian, meagre 55,900 tuned in to watch Arsenal vs Chelsea on Sky Sports Main Event on Saturday, 8th November. That’s fewer people than were actually in the Emirates Stadium. Viewership on Sky Sports Premier League took the total viewership, monitored by BARB, to 71,000. Sky, it’s worth pointing out, judges viewership over the 90 minutes. The broadcaster put its figure slightly higher, at around 78,000. Either way, it’s a pretty shocking return for one of the league’s flagship fixtures. (732,000 watched the same fixture free-to-air on the BBC last season. Sky is never going to match that)
Most WSL games take place in the 11.55am/12pm Sunday slot. That has been a shift this season and television times are not an easy dilemma to solve. Everything is a clash. Women’s games used to mostly kick off at 2pm on a Sunday. There are Premier League matches at 2pm on Sunday, so the move to that earlier slot made sense. However, as Hughes noted, it clashes with things like kids playing football.
There was previously a 6pm Sunday game, which was popular on TV, but not with those actually going to the matches. I was at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for their match with Man Utd last season. Only around 5,000 people were in attendance at a stadium that can seat 62,000. Any midday Saturday match is also pretty much a guaranteed disaster. It clashes with a Premier League game and lots of EFL matches
Working to Improve WSL Viewing Figures, but Not the Subway Cup
The clubs are not panicking just yet. There is a willingness to work, experiment and grow the women’s game. Let’s be honest, Sky has put a lot of money into the WSL, and so the league and clubs, to a large extent, have to go along with what the broadcaster wants. But with the Lionesses still basking in their Euros win, Arsenal the European champions and a World Cup not that far away, the growth opportunities cannot be missed when a TV slot tweak would solve a number of problems. . Perhaps we will see more discussion about WSL Friday nights, at least for the bigger games.
This all comes amidst controversy about the women’s league cup draw. I explained a bit about what went on on my site following the Spurs Women’s team. A tl/dr version: influencer GK Barry and her footballer girlfriend Ella Rutherford conducted the draw. Whilst doing so, Barry insulted Spurs. A ball was also put back into the bag and taken out again, putting the integrity of the process in jeopardy. Oh, and the whole thing took place live on TikTok. Obviously.
The clubs say they take the Subway Cup seriously, but the competition has not received the due care and attention from the footballing authorities. It also gets no media pickup. I suspect the first issue is the cause of the second. Ahead of his side’s 0-1 over Bristol City, which put them into that messy draw, Spurs Head Coach Martin Ho said that “in terms of who’s going to take the rights for the games,” that is a commercial decision. He noted previous broadcasts on YouTube. (Spurs broadcast the matches on their in-house streamer, SpursPlay). Ho is, of course, is right. Unfortunately, the rights are not currently a tempting commercial opportunity.
If you don’t take yourself seriously, nobody else is going to.
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