Women’s football chief says WSL YouTube switch will grow the game’s reach

Nikki Doucet, the CEO of the English women’s professional game, says moving the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Championship’s streaming platform to YouTube will grow the game’s reach.

Doucet also confirmed there is a “long-term” timeframe to pay back the £20million ($25.2m) loan provided by the Premier League to Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL, previously NewCo), and said her job was to find more owners like London City Lionesses’s Michele Kang to invest in clubs and drive revenue.

The WSL and Championship’s YouTube channels have replaced the FA Player as the divisions’s primary streaming service for the 2024-25 season, with all non-televised WSL matches and select Championship games available to view globally on the platform.

The WSL’s broadcast deal was set to expire at the end of last season and in April this was extended for a further year by the BBC and Sky Sports. Doucet said the move to YouTube can help make the case for the value of both leagues when the media rights go out to tender again next year.

“When we are going to market, we are including both the WSL and the Championship (broadcast rights),” Doucet said.

“We had 55,000 people watch the (London City Lionesses vs Newcastle United) game (on YouTube on Sunday). When you think about that vs the FA Player. I think the most on the FA Player last year ever was 4,500.

“So our job right now is to make sure we’re getting as much reach, that we’re bringing up the Championship in the right way, that we’re focused on it. So there is careful consideration from a marketing and commercial perspective, on what we can do for the Championship.

“The more value we can extract there, the better for everybody and the WSL. The more reach we can do with the Championship, bringing them on 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 we’re getting views and we can point to that in the right way. And over time, we’re building that up to have more data to be able to show these are the views, this is the engagement, this is the audience, this is the reach. And then we have the ability to go back to market and see again where we can maximise value on those points.

“Our media rights are up for 25-26, and we’ll be looking at both properties.”

The Football Association’s (FA) outgoing director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell said last year the governing body was exploring whether the women’s game could be exempt from the 3pm television blackout to help attract a regular audience.

Under Article 48 of UEFA’s statutes, the FA prevents games from being broadcast between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays in the UK to protect stadium attendances. Doucet added while they had explored potential changes to the 3pm blackout, “at the moment it is not an option”.

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Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told a government committee in January that Premier League clubs had agreed a loan to WPLL. This was for £20million ($25.2m) and was expected to be interest-free and only repayable when it reaches £100m in annual revenue.

“Based on the size of the business, that’s the right amount of capital today,” Doucet explained. “It is a loan. We do have to pay it back at some point.

“It’s a long term loan on favourable terms. It’s interest free, which is super positive, and it comes with that cooperation agreement. So we have to meet either certain revenue thresholds to pay it off, or there’s a time frame, but it’s a longer term time frame to enable us to have space to grow.”

On the topic of raising revenue and attracting investors, Doucet emphasised the importance of long-term vision and highlighted the example of U.S. businesswoman Kang following her takeover of London City Lionesses in December.

The Washington Spirit and Lyon Feminin owner’s investment resulted in a busy summer window for the Championship side, with signings including Sweden international Kosovare Asllani and young forward Isobel Goodwin from Sheffield United. The club has also purchased and is in the process of renovating a new training facility.

“To invest in the women’s game today, based on where we are in the phase of maturity of the business, is a different type of capital and risk profile than investing in the men’s game today,” Doucet added.

“We have to find the investors over here that believe in the concept of community purpose, of a growth story that is built on business metrics going forward but has the ability to invest ahead of revenue. Our biggest challenge is a revenue challenge, not necessarily a cost challenge.

“To be a professional club, to provide the right infrastructure, costs money. That’s someone like a Michelle Kang or some of the bigger clubs right now, their owners are investing, they believe in that future. They’re like: we understand that this is a ten year journey. This isn’t like a two or three year immediate return.

“And our job right now is to maximise value at each point of the growth journey. The market will dictate what we can extract and what we can maximise from a value perspective. And our job is to obsess that every single day.”

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(Tom Dulat/Getty Images)