Ampere: European women’s football rights still undervalued despite sport’s popularity

European women’s football media rights continue to be undervalued despite the growing popularity of the sport on television, UK research firm Ampere Analysis has claimed.

New data indicates that while TV audiences are growing for live women’s soccer games and highlights packages, broadcasters and platforms still only pay a fraction of the amount spent on coverage of men’s football.

According to Ampere, the current rights valuation for women’s league games across the big five European markets – France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK – is 0.5% of the value of the men’s divisions.

The Women’s Super League in the UK has the highest rights value. Its new deal stands at £13m (US$17m) per season, 0.8% of the newest English Premier League deal, which is worth £1.6bn per season. In France, meanwhile, the Première Ligue is reported to be worth €1.3m (US$1.48m) per season, just 0.3% of the €479m value of the men’s Ligue 1 rights.

However, the size of the domestic fanbase for each of the women’s leagues averages at a much larger value, at 9% of the size of the men’s league fanbase.

Ampere said the gap in rights valuation is partly because supporters of the men’s leagues are typically more engaged with the coverage of the leagues. A higher number of men’s football fans say they watch all or most of the competition.

Similarly, a higher proportion of supporters are willing to pay to watch men’s leagues than the women’s equivalent. In each of the five markets, the men’s football league is the top competition that followers say they’re willing to pay for. Between 19% and 41% of sports fans will pay for the men’s event, versus only 1% to 3% for the women’s leagues

Danni Moore, senior analyst at Ampere, said: “Although followers of the women’s leagues are less engaged with live coverage, and willingness to pay for the women’s leagues may be low, the gap between the women’s and men’s fan bases and TV audiences is not as extreme as media rights values imply.

“Ampere’s analysis indicates that the recent scaling of women’s fan bases should drive upside for rights owners in the next round of negotiations. Growing audiences and increasing willingness to pay for access among supporters are likely to support increased deal values in the future, closing the gap a little between the men’s and women’s games.

“The lack of historic precedent, however, means that women’s competitions will have to work hard to prove this value to prospective rights buyers. They will also have to continue to balance how they prioritise the benefits of the greater reach afforded by free-to-air coverage versus the opportunity to support higher fees through subscription-only access.”

YouTube’s UK film and TV partnerships lead Neil Price last year predicted significant online audience growth for sports that have been historically overlooked by traditional broadcasters.

Meanwhile, live rights to niche sports, such as horse racing and billiards, have been tipped to be key to the continued growth of FAST channels.