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Opinion
The 2021-22 W-League season is set to launch the next chapter of Australian women’s football.
With a new era of broadcasting upon us, now is the time to take advantage and build the profile of what is a very entertaining yet undervalued competition.
Next season will be the one where the game needs to go all out to attract more fans to our premier women’s competition either through the gate or via eyeballs on Ten Bold or Paramount streaming.
With only two domestic seasons left before the world comes Down Under to Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup, it is crucial to build the momentum in the women’s game. The success of the W-League will be key to attracting corporate sponsors and also government funding for 2023.
The platform is now there to make it happen. The new broadcasting deal will see one W-League game on free-to-air TV on Sunday afternoons via Ten Bold. The rest of the games will be shown via Paramount+, a new streaming service that will be launched in Australia next month.
While it’s disappointing the free-to-air channel will be a secondary channel, having a commercial network covering the W-League for the first time is a major boost.
The ABC did a solid job over the years, but commercial free-to-air TV adds a new element to the coverage, even if it’s on a secondary channel.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
There is a potential for sponsors to come on board for the TV network, something that wasn’t possible on the ABC. This provides an incentive to market the games and provide better quality coverage.
Also, Channel Ten’s popular news bulletins and TV shows will likely be spruiking the W-League, giving the competition the sort of profile it hasn’t enjoyed before.
Channel Ten and Paramount+ should take heart from past TV ratings. The 2019-20 W-League season attracted 879,000 viewers on Foxtel and the ABC. Thursday night standalone W-League football on Fox Sports was a key factor in this. Interestingly 62 per cent of those viewers were male.
These numbers don’t factor in those who watched via streaming services such as Kayo or the MyFootball app. With Australians now watching streaming services as much as television, Paramount+ can really make an impact in the Australian entertainment industry. It is expected to cost $8.99 a month and possibly $6.99 for A-League and W-League club members.
The schedule for W-League will be released in the coming months, but it is unknown what the kick-off times will be. Primetime football is a must. Players and coaches didn’t like Thursday night football, but those watching at home did.
While it’s a shame that any potential Thursday night game will not be on free-to-air TV, if Paramount’s streaming service is marketed correctly, it could bear fruit for both the streaming provider and the W-League.
Sunday night W-League could be an option, but it is unknown if Ten Bold will commit to that lucrative timeslot.
While eyeballs are important, getting bums on seats is just as vital, if not more so. Average crowds were well down this season, understandable in a COVID year, but the exciting 2019-20 season only saw 1500 people attend on average.
Getting more people to games and generating a vibrant atmosphere is vital for the entertainment factor of the league to go up, thus making it look better on TV and then attracting more fans to the game in the long run.
Finding timeslots appealing enough for fans to attend games is always a challenge, with the game’s administrators needing to balance what broadcasters want with what is best for fans who want to go.
Thursday night may not work for fans, especially considering the grounds where W-League games are played, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in summer are appealing.
With fans often busy on weekends during the day, a 5pm or 6pm kick-off on Saturday or Sunday night may work, while 7pm on Fridays is reasonable too.
Factoring in the above, W-League memberships, which are slowly becoming more popular, should be marketed better and provide added value to fans. At present A-League memberships also provide entry to W-League games. One wonders if this is a help or a hindrance.
Logically it would seem this move would attract more fans who now get more bang for their buck. A free night out is always appealing.
But one wonders if making it free somewhat diminishes the product and makes it less appealing.
While there is no clear evidence fewer people will go to W-League games if entry doesn’t come free with their A-League membership, common sense would indicate that charging people separately for W-League when it was previously available for nothing may not be a great move.
The middle ground would be to make memberships club-based rather than league-based. In other words, clubs can sell memberships that cover both A-League, W-League and National Youth League without distinguishing between the three competitions.
The marketing of the membership shouldn’t add free access to W-League but rather emphasise the membership is for the club as a whole and includes A-League and W-League games equally. It may seem superficial, but if done properly it could actually give the W-League the respect it deserves without impacting on the value-add of the membership.
With the APL, who now control the A-League and W-League, promising a $30 million digital strategy to complement the new broadcast deal, there is every reason to be optimistic about the promotion and accessibility of the W-League going forward.
This year marks 100 years of women’s football in Australia. It’s about time the fans saw its true worth.
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