LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA )- The Women’s Champions League will no longer be available for free viewing the next season as DAZN will be showing most of the games behind a paywall.
Since DAZN, the official broadcaster, reached an agreement with YouTube and acquired the rights beginning with the 2021–22 season, the Women’s Champions League has been available for free on YouTube.
The 64 million viewers from more than 230 countries and territories were rather outstanding viewing stats, which prompted DAZN to move its coverage behind a paywall.
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The competition’s subscription service, which costs £9.99/month, will broadcast 42 of the 61 games in the group and knockout stages.
The final, one of the semifinals, and both of the quarterfinals will still be available to watch for free on YouTube along with the other 19 games.
Veronica Diquattro, DAZN’s global markets CEO, stated “The UWCL as well as our other women’s football properties, are high quality, have audience and command value,” .
“We expected to see significant growth in viewership — when you combine DAZN’s production values with YouTube’s reach and Uefa’s high level of competition it’s a winning formula.
“We and Uefa feel the time is right for the competition to start finding its true commercial value. Visibility must lead to viability.”
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DAZN attempted to make the competition free to watch for the first two seasons to build the viewership for the Women’s Champions League. According to research by Crux Sports, 65 per cent of the viewers consuming women’s football were 18-34-year-olds, and 83 per cent of them were male.
DAZN is still unable to broadcast the qualification stages, thus Manchester United and Arsenal’s games will likely air on the club networks.