Together they will provide live coverage of all 64 matches from the tournament

womensworldcup

The BBC and ITV have finally confirmed they will provide live television coverage of the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Only this morning (14 June), Broadcast Sport reported they were close to agreeing a deal with FIFA, which was now been confirmed for the tournament that starts next month.

The deal came after FIFA and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) agreed to extended their media rights partnerships in key territories including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The UK element of the deal sees the BBC and ITV share the rights at a reported cost of £9m, according to the Daily Mail.

Things were very different at the start of this month, where there was talk of a European TV blackout if an agreement to televise the tournament across different territories in Europe wasn’t reached imminently.

In total all 64 matches from the tournament, which starts in Auckland on 20 July, will be broadcast in the UK on either the BBC or ITV, except for the Final, which will be shown across both BBC1 and ITV1.

Alongside TV coverage, live audio commentary will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra.

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, said: “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. 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 on TV last summer. In partnership with ITV we are delighted to make this World Cup available to the widest possible audience and free to air.”

ITV will show coverage of half of the tournament’s matches across ITV1 and ITV4 with simulcast and catchup on ITVX. Match highlights will also be on ITVX as well as ITV’s social media platforms. And build up programming will be shown on ITV4/ITVX ahead of the tournament.

Niall Sloane, ITV director of sport, said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring comprehensive coverage of the Women’s World Cup, free to air to our audiences with both live and highlights broadcasts across ITV and ITVX.  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.”