Women’s Football President: WSL YouTube switch will increase game’s reach
Nikki Doucet, CEO of England’s professional women’s sport, says moving the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Championship’s streaming platform to YouTube will broaden the sport’s reach.
Doucet also confirmed there was a “long-term commitment” to repaying the £20 million ($25.2 million) loan the Premier League made to Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL, formerly NewCo), and said her job was to find more owners like London City Lionesses’ Michele Kang to invest in clubs and generate revenue.
The WSL and Championship YouTube channels have replaced The FA Player as the leagues’ primary streaming service for the 2024-25 season. All non-televised WSL matches and select Championship matches will be available to watch globally on the platform.
The WSL’s broadcasting deal was due to expire at the end of last season and was extended for another year by the BBC and Sky Sports in April. Doucet said the move to YouTube could help prove the value of both leagues when the media rights are put up for tender again next year.
“If we do market it, we will include both the WSL and the Championship (broadcast rights),” Doucet said.
“We had 55,000 people watch the game (London City Lionesses vs Newcastle United) (on YouTube on Sunday). If you think about that game against the FA Player. I think the highest number on the FA Player last year was 4,500.
“Our job now is to make sure we get as much reach as possible, that we promote the championship in the right way, that we focus on it. So there is careful consideration from a marketing and commercial perspective, about what we can do for the championship.
“The more value we can get out of it, the better for everyone and the WSL. The more reach we can get with the Championship, by bringing it onto YouTube, bringing more people in, telling more stories, using our channels in the right way.
“We’re investing in the YouTube channel to make sure that we’re getting views and that we’re able to reference those appropriately. And over time, we’ll build that up to have more data to be able to show that these are the views, these are the engagements, these are the audiences, these are the reach. And then we have the ability to go back to market and see again where we can maximize value at those points.
“Our media rights have been sold for 25-26 and we will be looking at both properties.”
Doucet was appointed CEO of WPLL (The Football Association – Women’s Pro Game/Nina Farooqi) in November
The FA’s outgoing director of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, said last year that the governing body was investigating whether the women’s match could be exempted from the 3pm television block to allow for larger crowds.
Under Article 48 of the UEFA Statutes, the FA prohibits matches from being broadcast in the UK between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays in order to protect stadium-goers. Doucet added that while they had explored possible changes to the 3pm blackout, “it is not an option at this time”.
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Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told a government committee in January that Premier League clubs had taken out a loan with WPLL for £20 million ($25.2 million) that was expected to be interest-free and only repayable if annual turnover reached £100 million.
“Based on the size of the company, that’s the right amount of capital today,” Doucet explained. “It’s a loan. We have to pay it back at some point.
“It’s a long-term loan with favorable terms. It’s interest-free, which is super positive, and it comes with that partnership agreement. So we either have to meet certain revenue thresholds to pay it off, or there’s a time frame, but it’s a longer term to give us room to grow.”
On the topic of generating revenue and attracting investors, Doucet stressed the importance of a long-term vision, citing the example of American businesswoman Kang following her acquisition of London City Lionesses in December.
The investment from the owner of Washington Spirit and Lyon Feminin has resulted in a busy summer period for the Championship side, which has included the signings of Swedish international Kosovare Asllani and young forward Isobel Goodwin from Sheffield United. The club has also purchased a new training facility and is in the process of renovating it.
“Investing in the women’s game today, based on where we are in the maturity of the company, requires a different type of capital and risk profile than investing in the men’s game today,” Doucet added.
“We need to find investors here who believe in the concept of community purpose, of a growth story that is based on business metrics for the future, but that has the ability to invest before revenue. Our biggest challenge is a revenue challenge, not necessarily a cost challenge.
“To be a professional club, to provide the right infrastructure, it costs money. That’s someone like Michelle Kang or one of the bigger clubs at the moment, their owners are investing, they believe in that future. They say: we understand that this is a 10-year journey. This is not something like an immediate two- or three-year return.
“And our job now is to maximize value at every point in the growth journey. The market will dictate what we can extract and what we can maximize from a value perspective. And our job is to obsess about that every single day.”
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(Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
