Fans will pay more than two-thirds of women’s Champions League matches next season after last year’s competition racked up 64 MILLION views…
- The Women’s Champions League was viewed 64 million times last season
- DAZN will therefore place the majority of next season’s games behind a paywall
- Only 19 matches can be broadcast for free on the broadcaster’s YouTube channel
Sports broadcaster DAZN believes it will be financially viable to put most of their women’s Champions League coverage behind a paywall after reaching 64 million views last season.
Fans will have to pay for 42 games next season, while 19 games, including the final, one semi-final and two of the quarter-finals, can be broadcasted for free on DAZN’s YouTube channel.
The broadcaster signed a four-year contract to broadcast the European women’s competition in 2020 and is in its second season.
Figures from the 2021-2022 campaign, which introduced a group stage to mirror the men’s competition, showed there were 64 million views from 230 different countries, with 4.1 million live views attributed to the final between Barcelona and Lyon.
The report also outlined that 8.5 million hours were viewed on the YouTube channel during the season.
Fans will pay more than two-thirds of women’s Champions League matches next season
Last season’s league was viewed 64 million times and this campaign was just as dramatic (Photo – Arsenal crash into Wolfsburg after extra time in semi-final)
DAZN had always planned to move from coverage to a rewards model in their third year and Veronica Diquattro, DAZN’s CEO for Global Markets, emphasizes that women’s soccer is becoming an attractive and viable sporting and commercial proposition.
“The UWCL, as well as our other women’s football properties, are of high quality, audience and command value.
“We, and UEFA, believe the time is right for the league to discover its real commercial value. Visibility must lead to viability.’
The highest ratings were recorded in Spain, followed by the US, France, Germany, Indonesia, the UK and Italy.
The report also stated that 65 percent of their opinions came from people between the ages of 18 and 34, of which 83 percent were men.
Last season, 4.1 million live views were attributed to the final between Barcelona and Lyon