EBU and FIFA agree deal for Women’s World Cup

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and FIFA have agreed to extend their existing media rights partnership, ensuring that the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia & New Zealand will be broadcast on the EBU’s free-to-air linear TV network across 34 European territories.

The agreement also secures what the pair describe as a substantial additional commitment to the regular transmission of women’s football content beyond the tournament.

The memorandum of understanding follows initial discussions held at the Home of FIFA last month involving FIFA President Gianni Infantino, FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai, and representatives of the EBU, led by Director General Noel Curran.

FIFA had earlier threatened a Europe-wide TV blackout if rights offers from a number of countries were not upped. The agreement comes with the tournament only five weeks out. in the UK, the BBC and ITV will now share coverage of the tournament.

The rights include broadcast across TV, digital and radio in a new arrangement that will also see the EBU provide more promotion to women’s football.

In October 2022, the two parties had announced an initial deal confirming that the tournament would be broadcast free-to-air across 28 European territories, but under this revised agreement, major European broadcast markets have been added, together with Ukraine.

EBU Members, including ARD/ZDF (Germany), BBC/ITV (UK), France Télévisions, RAI (Italy) and RTVE (Spain), will also undertake to help market the tournament across all their channels as part of the EBU’s long-term strategy to promote the growth of women’s football in Europe and beyond. In Ukraine, the tournament will be shown by EBU Member, UA:PBC.

“FIFA is delighted to widen the deal with the European Broadcasting Union for the transmission of the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup to include the five major markets within their existing networks, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as Ukraine, thus ensuring maximum exposure for the tournament,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“As part of this agreement, the EBU has committed to working towards broadcasting at least one hour of weekly content dedicated to women’s football on its own digital platform and broadcaster network. This will provide a huge promotional and exposure opportunity for women’s football, which is a top priority for us in line with FIFA’s commitment to the long-term development of the sport.”

EBU Director General Noel Curran said: “We are delighted to have been able to build on our long-term and successful relationship with FIFA to secure the rights on behalf of Europe’s biggest public-service broadcasters. The FIFA Women’s World Cup is one of sport’s most exciting and fastest growing events and we are committed to working hand-in-hand with FIFA to ensure the women’s game is enjoyed by as many people as possible across the continent. We see women’s football as being central to our content strategy and one of the cornerstones of the new digital platform we hope to launch next year.”