Women’s Super League: Sky reveals ‘higher than expected’ viewing figures

Sky Sports has revealed that Women’s Super League matches on the channel are getting more than 100,000 viewers per game this season. 

Gary Hughes, Sky’s director of football, told SportsPro Live that the average number of viewers has been ‘higher than expected.’ 

Man City’s match with Tottenham has been the most-watched women’s match this season, with more than 500,000 people tuning in. 

Speaking at the SportsPro event, Hughes said: “Our audience is up dramatically from what we anticipated and what it was on pay TV last year. Our average is around 125,000 [viewers] a game — I think that’s up around 175 percent. Our reach is around six million which I think is around a 200 percent increase.”

This season, Sky Sports replaced BT Sport as the WSL’s primary broadcaster. 

According to PA news agency, the investment from Sky stands at just under £10 million per season, plus additional production, marketing and exposure commitments that take the figure to around £15 million. 

Sky has the right to show up to 44 matches per season, with a minimum of 35 being screened.

Sky's director of football Gary Hughes says that women's football is getting an average of 125k viewers per game this season on the channel – higher than expected. Best figure, he tells SportsPro Live, is the 550,000 that watched Man City v Spurs in September

Meanwhile, the BBC also has the rights to some matches and committed to showcasing 22 live games at the start of the season. The BBC had previously shown games on the iPlayer, but at least 18 of these 22 matches were promised to be on either BBC One or Two. 

It’s also the first time the rights to the WSL have been sold separately from the men’s game, with clubs in the league receiving a proportion of the