Big numbers for World Cup sets scene for growth and investment

Broadcasters and corporate sponsors are getting behind women's football elsewhere, and it's time to do so here also

FIFA

Coinciding perfectly with the push from the USA women's team for equal pay and the PFA's campaign for 'equality of pay', ratings for this year's World Cup are breaking records around the world with people tuning-in to watch the tournament in what is described by broadcast experts as “unprecedented numbers”.

Ahead of this year's tournament, all members of the US team filed a gender discrimination suit demanding they be paid the same as the men's national team. The lawsuit asserts that US Soccer provided the men's team with performance bonuses totaling $5.375 million for losing in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup, while the federation provided the women with $1.725 million for winning the 2015 World Cup.

Likewise, as the tournament kicked-off, the PFA launched a campaign based on the principle of equality of pay to address the huge pay whereby men's teams ranked in the bottom half of the World Cup in 2018 received $7.25 million more than a team in the lower half of the women's tournament. (See our earlier piece on this here).

So significant are the television and digital audiences in the first three weeks, that FIFA has increased its forecast from 750 million to a total global audience of 1 billion viewers across all platforms by the time the Final is over on Monday morning (AEST).

In the women's game's most popular market, the USA, broadcaster FOX Sports recorded 8.24 million viewers for last week's quarter-final between the USA and France, which was a 7% increase on the quarter-final between USA and China four years ago. Streaming sources attracted a further average audience of 211,000 per minute making it the most-streamed World Cup match of all time in the USA. Fox Sports also revealed that across their digital and social platforms, World Cup content drew 13 million views.

What is more surprising to broadcast rights experts is how well the tournament is also rating in 'traditional' football nations where the women's game has not always been been given its due. For example:

1. Brazil’s round-of-16 match against France was viewed by more than 35 million people on Globo TV, a free-to-air network which is the largest audience for a women's fotoball match anywhere in history. A further 10.6 million in France caught the game, making it the most-watched women's match of all time.

2. In Italy, the record domestic television audience for a women's match was little more than 200,000, but this has seen ratings grow to 35 times that figure, with a record 7.3 million Italians catching the team's first-round game against Brazil. For Italy, it follows significant investment in women's teams at club level by giants of the men's game in Italy.

3. France's quarter-final against the USA was watched by 10.7 million people, a new record for the women's game in the country, followed by their previous match against Brazil.

4. In Germany, public broadcaster ARD attracted a 43.2% market share of viewers with the 7.9 million viewers who saw Germany lose to Sweden.

5. England's matches have broken a new record for every match. Prior to the World Cup, their highest rating game was in the Euro 2017 semi-finals against the Netherlands with 4 million, but all World Cup matches have attracted more than 7 million viewers. The BBC said prior to the semi-final between England and USA that total viewership for the 2019 tournament has already surpassed 22.2 million, well in excess of the 12.4 million record set in 2015 during the Women’s World Cup in Canada.

6. At home in Australia, SBS has announced an increase in viewership also with 1.39 million Australians watching the opening match of the Matildas againist Italy which is almost double the number in the same fixture in 2015. Overall, SBS says viewership has reached 2.8 million Australians.

All of this is good news for women's football which gives added impetus to the argument for increased prize money, with the 24-nation tournament becoming an event that more than pays its own way, rather than having to be subsidised by the revenue brought in by the men's game.

While FIFA doubled the prize money for this year's World Cup to $30 million, the gap between the women's and men's game is ludicrous – and even less justifiable with the women's tournament paying for itself through broadcast rights and corporate support.

As we noted previously, adidas has committed to paying its sponsored athletes on the winning World Cup team the same performance bonus as their male athletes and elsewhere, sponsors are lining-up to be part of the women's game with Visa signing a seven-year deal to become the principal partner of the Women's Champions League, Barclays Bank sponsoring the Women's Super League (WSL) in England, and the Premier League in England considering taking over the WSL from the English FA in order to make the most of its commercial potential.

Despite the disappointment of the Matildas dipping out of this World Cup in the round of 16, the game is still strong in Australia underpinned by the participation rates of almost quarter-of-a-million adult women and more than 160,000 girls aged 5-14 years and confirmed by an 'emotional connection' study conducted by True North Research which showed that the Matildas is Australia's 'most-loved' sporting team.

With the battle for control of the A-League and W-League now over, a priority for both the new leagues entity and the smaller FFA is to identify new and expanded revenue streams for the women's game here so it gets the investment and resources it deserves and needs. There are no excuses.