BBC scores exclusive rights to UEFA Women’s Euro 2021
David Farnor | On 16, Jul 2019
The BBC has scored the exclusive UK TV rights to the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 tournament.
The BBC will bring extensive coverage of every game from grounds throughout England across TV, radio and online. The deal follows on from the BBC’s coverage of the record-breaking FIFA World Cup 2019 in France, which saw England reach the semi-finals.
A massive peak TV audience of 11.7m tuned in to watch the Lionesses take on USA in the semi-final making it the highest TV audience of 2019 so far. The tournament reached more than 28.1m people on TV alone, eclipsing the 12.4m record set in 2015.
Director of BBC Sport, Barbara Slater says: “After the success of the World Cup on the BBC and the record-breaking viewing figures for women’s football, we’re delighted to be the broadcaster of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021. At the start of this summer we wanted to shift the dial on women’s football and I feel the phenomenal coverage from France has done just that. The BBC’s sport portfolio continues to go from strength to strength and we’re thrilled to add the 2021 Euros to that.”
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Marketing Director, adds: “UEFA is delighted to partner with the BBC for the UEFA Women’s EURO in 2021, which takes place in the United Kingdom. The BBC will provide an unprecedented level of coverage for the competition in the host country, ensuring that the women’s game is brought to the rapidly increasing fan base in an outstanding manner.”
This year, BBC audiences will have access to continued women’s football TV coverage with a match streamed each round from the Women’s Super League, the Women’s Football Show, live women’s FA Cup football including semi-finals and final and major international fixtures.