Media Rights for Most-Watched Women’s Single-Sport Event Up for Grabs

FIFA continues to capitalize on the growing interest in women’s sports.

Last week, soccer’s governing body launched an invitation to tender for the sale of media rights to the 2023 Women’s World Cup to France, adding to the 38 European and Central Asian territories it invited in April.

“The tender process will allow FIFA to select the French media companies and organizations that are best placed to achieve FIFA’s overall objectives to deliver high-quality, comprehensive coverage,” a statement from FIFA reads.

France is no stranger to the Women’s World Cup, which FIFA says is the most-watched single-sport event for women globally. 

Numbers Don’t Lie

France hosted the latest Women’s World Cup in 2019, bringing in a record number of domestic viewers — an average of more than 10 million tuned in for French national team matches, with over 1.1 billion total viewers.

• In the 2019 World Cup, South America and Europe had the highest percentage of fans reached at 44.8% and 38.5%, respectively.
• That year’s final was also the most-watched in tournament history, up 56% from the 2015 edition.
• In 2019, France’s main broadcaster TF1 had to hike advertising slots by 50% to 60% after France’s first match.

The 2023 Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand and will have 32 teams for the first time — it previously hosted 24.