ITV and BBC secure rights to 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

UK broadcasters ITV and BBC have secured the free-to-air rights of the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The pair will split coverage of all 64 matches from the tournament for the UK, kicking off in Auckland on July 20. The final will be shown across both ITV1 and BBC1.

ITV will show coverage of half of the tournament’s matches across its channels ITV1 and ITV4 with simulcast and catchup on its streaming service ITVX. Match highlights will also be on ITVX and across ITV’s social media platforms. Build up programming will also be shown on ITV4 and ITVX ahead of the tournament.

ITV and the BBC have partnered with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to secure the rights. FIFA had earlier threatened a Europe-wide TV blackout if rights offers were not upped. The agreement comes with the tournament only five weeks out.

Commenting on the deal, Niall Sloane, ITV director of sport, said: “This tournament promises to provide memorable moments with the popularity of women’s football continuing to grow. England’s Lionesses are entering the World Cup Finals as European champions and fans have been able to follow their progress to qualification on ITV through our coverage of the World Cup qualifiers, so we hope they’ll join us to see all the action from Australia and New Zealand throughout the tournament.”

“We have shown every Women’s World Cup on the BBC since 1999 and we are happy to extend our partnership with FIFA for the upcoming tournament,” added Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport. “The growth of the women’s game is extraordinary, demonstrated by the 28 million who watched BBC coverage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup and the huge audience of 17.4 million who watched our coverage of the Euro 2022 final last summer.”