For years, TV rights in women’s football were barely part of the conversation. Interest was limited, and clubs had to rely on local newspapers or small broadcasters to cover their games. Bardolino Verona, for instance, could count on Il Gardesano, which also uploaded match videos to YouTube. Other teams had even fewer options, and the more fortunate ones ended up creating their own media products, publishing highlights and full matches on their websites or social channels. The arrival of men’s clubs brought more attention and a degree of stability thanks to guaranteed streaming, but Serie A Women has still not managed to turn that visibility into meaningful revenue.
The Evolution of TV Coverage in Italian Women’s Football
For many years, Italian women’s football relied almost entirely on public television. Rai would broadcast the most important match of the weekend whenever possible, and former player Katia Serra regularly covered the league’s results on RaiSport. Occasionally, women’s football received dedicated TV features – most notably when Bardolino Verona played their UEFA Women’s Cup matches at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi. From the 2014-15 season, coverage shifted to ProfessioneCalcioTV, a small channel with a YouTube presence that streamed the top Serie A match each weekend, while also providing selected Serie B games and even the 2016-17 UEFA Women’s Champions League final.
Recent Years
The arrival of Juventus in 2017-18 marked a turning point. Rai returned to broadcast selected matches – including the title playoff between Juventus and Brescia – and from 2018-19 to 2020-21 Sky Sports took over the main match of each round, airing record‑breaking fixtures such as Juventus-Fiorentina on 24 March 2019. In November 2020, the FIGC reached an agreement with TimVision to stream every Serie A match on the Telecom platform, a deal that lasted until the end of the 2022-23 season, while La7 began offering one free‑to‑air match per week starting in 2021-22.
The current arrangement, introduced for the 2024-25 season, essentially follows the structure that had been put together after Matchday 2 of the 2023-24 campaign, when the first two rounds were streamed on YouTube and the FIGC website, with the federation’s YouTube channel also carrying the Coppa Italia quarterfinals and the semifinals. Under the new deal, Rai broadcasts the top match of the week and the finals of both the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa, DAZN streams every game, and Sky Sports holds rights to selected Women’s Cup fixtures as well as the Coppa Italia quarter‑ and semi‑finals and the Supercoppa
Inside the Struggle to Sell Women’s Football TV Rights
From the 2024-25 season, the FIGC introduced four separate TV rights packages, aiming to distribute coverage across Rai, Sky Sports and DAZN. However, the strategy lacked coherence. The packages did not offer full exclusivity, while the asking prices remained high for a league that is growing but still struggling to compete commercially. Broadcasters wanted clearer exclusive rights, while the Federation held firmly to its initial vision, creating a visible standoff. The FIGC hoped to maximise revenue and resisted lowering its prices but eventually had to step back and accept a compromise. The final agreement satisfied all parties in terms of coverage yet came at a significantly lower price than originally expected.
The Numbers of the Agreement
For the 2024-2027 cycle, the FIGC set minimum fees for the Women’s Serie A audiovisual rights that, on paper, could have generated more than €4 million before VAT. Package A, intended for free‑to‑air broadcasters, was priced between €300,000 and €340,000; the satellite package ranged from €150,000 to €170,000; the OTT package from €650,000 to €850,000; and the Coppa Italia-Supercoppa package from €120,000 to €140,000. With VAT at 22%, the total potential revenue would have approached €5 million to be redistributed among the clubs. These figures increased year by year within the cycle, with the lower value corresponding to the 2024-25 season and the higher one to the final year of the three‑year period.
Why the Tender Fell Short
In practice, however, the Federation was unable to secure those figures. Negotiations forced the FIGC to accept lower amounts than initially requested, and the satellite package ultimately remained unsold. Broadcasters also faced the challenge of covering all production, distribution and signal‑transport costs themselves. On top of that, they were required to pay a technical fee of €5,800 plus VAT for Standard C production – a six‑camera setup with an OBVAN – bringing the overall cost to roughly €10,000 per match.
This financial burden may also explain why some broadcasters have opted not to conduct pre‑match, half‑time or post‑match interviews, even though these were originally included in the tender requirements, a choice that also appears consistent with broader cost‑cutting strategies adopted by several media companies.
The FIGC’s Chance to Recalibrate
The current tender, which will remain in force until the end of next season, was built on economic expectations that proved higher than what the market was actually able to sustain. Instead of encouraging investment and increasing visibility for Italian women’s football, the pricing structure ended up having the opposite effect.
The Federation, however, now has roughly twelve months before the tender expires, giving it time to rethink its strategy. It can recalibrate the financial demands, balancing its own revenue needs with the production costs faced by broadcasters, while also aiming to increase the income distributed to clubs – which currently receive only a quarter of what WSL clubs earn, with estimated revenues between €150,000 and €250,000, taking into account the media rights sold abroad as well as the additional income generated by the recent Serie A Women’s Cup.
Unlocking New Values in Serie A Women’s Broadcasting
The Federation could therefore reconsider its pricing strategy for domestic media rights – the most relevant segment of the market – by adopting a less rigid and more modular system. Such an approach would encourage investment not only from major broadcasters but also from small and medium‑sized national and local outlets, ultimately broadening the league’s media visibility. A key prerequisite is full transparency on audience figures, both in‑stadium and at home, so that potential investors can rely on concrete and measurable data.
One potential solution would be to introduce a revenue‑share mechanism, allowing broadcasters to pay a percentage of the revenues generated rather than the full price of the rights package. This would protect them from fluctuations in viewership while helping build long‑term value – something that Italian women’s football has historically lacked. Another priority is reducing production costs for broadcasters while still generating income streams that support the clubs, given that media rights remain one of their primary sources of revenue. A promising opportunity could be a centralized production model, similar to what the FIGC already implements for Serie B through its OTT platform, VivoAzzurroTV
Centralising Production to Expand Market Value
Centralising the product could be a viable strategy to make Serie A Women more attractive to a broader market. A unified production model would allow the FIGC to create interviews, social formats, mini‑documentaries (such as B Inside and B Stories for the Second Division), and behind‑the‑scenes content in a consistent, ready‑to‑use format. These assets could then be sold directly to national and international platforms, which would benefit from high‑quality material without having to produce it themselves.
This approach would reduce costs for broadcasters while increasing the league’s visibility and strengthening the public profile of its players, both on and off the pitch. The same logic applies to international expansion: there is growing interest abroad in Italian women’s football, and offering pre‑packaged, language‑adapted content could open additional revenue streams.
Centralising production also requires an initial investment to build a solid and reliable infrastructure capable of delivering consistent quality across all formats. It also depends heavily on the cooperation of the clubs, which must guarantee access to players, staff and behind‑the‑scenes environments – something that is not always easy to standardize across different organisations. Moreover, a centralised system needs a balanced editorial and commercial structure, because selling pre‑packaged products demands a clear strategy. Without it, there is a real risk of producing content that feels more institutional than narrative‑driven, limiting its appeal to broadcasters and audiences.
The Future of Women’s Football Depends on Collective Investment
None of this would be possible without the involvement of the clubs, which are the primary beneficiaries of TV rights revenues and therefore have a direct interest in seeing their value grow over time. Yet women’s football – in Italy as well as globally – remains in an embryonic phase, one that still requires consistent support, long‑term investment and a clear development strategy. Expecting the same financial returns as the men’s game is a strategic mistake: women’s football ecosystem operates differently, and rightly so. Its current value reflects its stage of growth, and building a sustainable future requires approaches that diverge significantly from those used in the men’s game. Only by embracing models tailored to its specific needs can the movement aspire to a future defined not by mere survival, but by genuine, long‑term prosperity.
The Turning Point for a Sustainable Future
As with talent academies, matchday experience and the creation of an international brand, Italian women’s football remains suspended between the potential to become a genuine business and the absence of a collective strategy capable of driving long‑term growth. The narrative is clear: the movement has progressed compared to the past, yet while its survival is now guaranteed, professionalism alone does not provide clubs with the financial breathing space they need. Increasing revenue streams is essential, but the Federation must also recognise that only a long‑term, coherent strategy will allow Serie A Women to be sold as a true product and to evolve into a sustainable business. Italy has the potential, and now it is time to unlock it.
Text: Sebastiano Moretta
