Nikki Doucet, CEO of English Women's Professional Football, says moving the Women's Super League (WSL) and Championship streaming platform to YouTube will boost football viewership.
Doucet also confirmed there was a “long-term” timeframe for the Premier League to repay the 20 million pounds ($25.2 million) loan it provided to the Women's Professional League Limited (WPLL, formerly Newco), and said her job was to find more owners like London City Lionesses' Michelle Kann to invest in clubs and generate revenue.
The WSL and Championship YouTube channels will replace FA Player as the main streaming services for each division for the 2024-25 season, with all non-televised WSL matches and select Championship matches available to watch globally on the platform.
The WSL's broadcasting deals were due to expire at the end of last season but were extended for a further year by the BBC and Sky Sports in April, and Doucet said the move to YouTube would help both leagues assert their value when media rights bidding comes up again next year.
“When we go to market, we intend to include both the WSL and the championship (broadcast rights),” Doucet said.
“On Sunday, 55,000 people watched the London City Lionesses v Newcastle United match on YouTube. If you compare that to FA Player, I think the highest viewership for FA Player last year was 4,500.”
“So our job now is really to get as much awareness as possible, to make sure we're building excitement for the championship in the right way and to just focus on that. So we're really looking carefully at what we can do for the championship from a marketing and commercial point of view.”
“The more value we can get out of it, the better it is for everybody and the WSL. We can extend the reach of the championships, put them on YouTube, bring in more people, tell more stories and get our channel in the right place.”
“We're investing in our YouTube channel to make sure we're getting views and being able to show them in the right way. And over time we're building more data to show us this is the views, this is the engagement, this is the audience, this is the reach. And then we can go back into the market and again see where we can maximise the value of those points.”
“Our media rights are valid from the 25th to the 26th and we will be reviewing both properties.”
Doucet was appointed CEO of the WPLL in November (Football Association – Women's Professional Game/Nina Farooqui)
Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA's outgoing director of women's football, said last year that the association was considering whether women's matches could be excluded from the 3pm TV curfew to attract more regular audiences.
Under Article 48 of UEFA's statutes, the FA bans broadcasting matches in England between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays to protect stadium capacity. Doucet added that they had considered changing the 3pm ban but that “it is not an option at the moment”.
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Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters told a government committee in January that Premier League clubs had agreed to a loan to the WPLL for 20 million pounds ($25.2 million), which would be interest-free and repayable only when annual revenues reached 100 million pounds.
“That's the right amount of capital today, given the size of the business,” Doucet explained. “It's a loan. At some point, you have to pay it back.”
“It's a long-term loan on favorable terms. It's very favorable because it's interest-free, and it comes with a cooperation agreement. So you have to meet certain revenue thresholds or you have a time limit to pay it back, but it's a longer-term term to allow room for growth.”
On the topic of increasing revenue and attracting investors, Doucet stressed the importance of a long-term vision, citing the example of American businessman Kan, who bought London City Lioness in December.
Investment from the owners of Washington Spirit and Lyon Féminine has kept the Championship side busy in the summer transfer market, signing the likes of Sweden international Kosovare Asllani and Sheffield United young forward Isobel Goodwin. The club has also purchased and is in the process of renovating a new training facility.
“Investing in women's football today involves a different type of capital and risk profile than investing in men's football, given the maturity stage of the business,” Doucet added.
“We have to find investors here who believe in the concept of community purpose, a growth story that is built on future business metrics but has the ability to invest ahead of revenue. Our biggest challenge is not necessarily a cost challenge, it's a revenue challenge.
“To be a professional club, it costs money to have the right infrastructure in place. People like Michel Kahn and some of the bigger clubs at the moment have owners who are investing and believe in the future. They say: 'We understand this is a 10-year journey. It's not something that will give you a quick profit in two or three years.'
“And our job now is to maximize value at each stage of our growth journey. The market will determine what we can extract and maximize in terms of value. And our job is to keep that in mind every day.”
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(Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
