Why FIFA Won't Let You Watch The 2023 Women's World Cup

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The 2023 Women's World Cup is just a few months away, but as it stands the vast majority of fans won't be able to see a single minute of it on TV. How has FIFA allowed it to get to this point, and is there a solution?

Transcript

00:00 This summer, the Women's World Cup will see teams from the six major confederations

00:07 head to Australia and New Zealand for a centrepiece tournament hailed as the culmination of years

00:12 of explosive growth in the game.

00:15 Expanded from 24 nations to 32, the month-long 64-match event will shine a global spotlight

00:21 on stars like Alexia Patelis, Sam Kerr, Katerina Makario, and, fresh from the historic European

00:27 Championship win, England's own Lionesses.

00:30 But as things stand, it'll be broadcast to an audience of precisely no-one in countries

00:36 like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and England.

00:40 This is FIFA's broadcast blackout of the Women's World Cup.

00:45 In a nutshell, it's all about money.

00:48 In previous years, the broadcast rights for the Women's World Cup were always bundled

00:51 in with those of the men's.

00:53 That meant that TV networks would get exclusivity over a number of their games, and that sponsors

00:57 would get similar levels of exposure across both tournaments.

01:01 FIFA were never overly specific about what level of value they regarded the women's

01:05 package as adding to the overall deal, but with the rights to the 2022 Qatar World Cup

01:09 selling for between $100 and $200 million per broadcaster, they clearly believed that

01:14 there was significant money to be made separating the two tournaments.

01:18 Thus, in 2021, Gianni Infantino announced plans to auction the competition separately

01:23 as part of a long commitment to increase both the funding and the prize money in the Women's

01:27 International Game.

01:28 And so far, the good news is that that has borne fruit.

01:32 This year's tournament will see the women get a near 300% increase in their prize money,

01:36 and the budget allocated for the event's organisation is coming in somewhere around

01:40 the $125 million mark.

01:43 While that's certainly not the $230 billion invested in Qatar, it is over 10 times the

01:49 amount spent on the 2015 Women's World Cup held in Canada.

01:53 However, despite these positive noises from the game's governing body and a huge surge

01:57 in interest in women's football across Europe, FIFA have deemed the offers for the broadcast

02:01 rights as currently nowhere near good enough to sell.

02:05 Speaking at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva, Infantino said that the bids from

02:09 Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the big five of European football, were "simply

02:15 unacceptable" and "a slap in the face not just to the players, but to all women

02:20 worldwide".

02:21 Following up on his own Instagram, he laid into those nations with claims that some offers

02:25 had been as low as $1 million.

02:28 Quite why this is depends on who you ask.

02:30 For the broadcasters themselves, it's a combination of factors.

02:33 Firstly, their respective experience of broadcasting the women's game in these countries and their

02:37 estimates on their ability to then sell advertising space during those matches.

02:42 The Women's Super League, for example, had an estimated sponsorship revenue of around

02:46 £14 million this season.

02:48 Which, given that the women's Euros had a record-breaking audience of 360 million

02:53 viewers globally, shows that while audience interest can rival the men's game, the

02:57 ability to monetise that interest is still lagging some way behind.

03:01 Whether that's because there is a perceived disconnect between the kinds of brands that'll

03:05 pay premium rates for sports placements and the assumed demographic of those watching

03:09 women's football is also a matter of who you ask.

03:12 But, regardless, networks across Europe are still keen to protect themselves from the

03:16 prospect of "overspending" on women's football while they're not entirely convinced

03:20 the advertising model is there to back it up.

03:23 Undoubtedly exacerbating matters, of course, is the location.

03:27 Hosting the event in the South Pacific means that the first round of matches will see kickoff

03:30 times ranging from 2am in the morning to 1 in the afternoon in the UK.

03:35 Something that will undoubtedly see the live fixtures take an enormous viewing figure's

03:39 hit in Europe, and mean that any prime-time broadcasts will consist of little more than

03:43 highlights packages.

03:44 Two things that, again, aren't considered advertising for most advertising deals.

03:49 Infantino has addressed these issues though and said "To be very clear, it is our moral

03:53 and legal obligation not to undersell the FIFA Women's World Cup.

03:58 Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast

04:03 it in the big five European countries."

04:05 The facts remain though that previous Women's World Cups have seen matches roughly garner

04:09 around 50-60% of the television audience of that of the men's.

04:13 Which, let's not forget, is comfortably the biggest sporting event on the planet.

04:18 That FIFA felt they'd immediately stumble on broadcasting offers of around the same

04:21 percentage feels naive in the extreme, but some of them coming in at almost 100 times

04:26 less hints to a far bigger problem in Europe than merely advertising cold feet.

04:31 A deal will almost certainly be worked out as, no matter what posturing Infantino does

04:36 over underselling the tournament, FIFA's reputation is such that any failure to secure

04:40 broadcast rights will, rightly or wrongly, be painted as greed on the part of the organisation.

04:46 Over 1.1 billion people watched the 2019 tournament in France, but over half of those viewers

04:51 were based in Europe itself.

04:53 The timezone difference is clearly a massive issue for these broadcasters, but with the

04:57 women's game enjoying year on year of record interest and attendance, it's clearly a

05:02 risk, if it even is one, that they should be willing to take.

05:05 Ultimately though, this is just the latest in a very long line of hurdles that the women's

05:09 game is being forced to overcome.

05:11 Does the money make sense, and if so, how can FIFA and its sponsors most effectively

05:16 and dependably extract it from fans?

05:19 If there's one thing beyond the on-pitch standards and the number of fans in the stadiums

05:23 that really signifies women's football's arrival at the very top table of the game,

05:27 it's that these organisations now see it all as too important not to wring every possible

05:33 penny from it.

05:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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