The summer of 2022 will live long in the memory for fans of women’s football. England’s home Euros proved to be a roaring success, with the Lionesses beating Germany to win their first ever major tournament.
Alongside the full crowd at Wembley Stadium, an estimated 50 million more people watched the final on TV – more than three times that of the 2017 fixture. The live attendance came close to matching the 91,000+ all-time record for a women’s match, which was set in April 2022 during a game between Barcelona and Wolfsburg.
That growth in popularity is thought to have extended to the Women’s Super League (WSL), the top division of club football in England. Since turning fully professional in 2018, the league has gone from strength to strength, and now boasts a major TV rights package with Sky Sports and the BBC.
It means almost every match will be available to watch live in the UK, but there are several options if you’re based elsewhere, too. Here’s everything you need to know.
Which Women’s Super League games are on TV this weekend?
The 2022-23 WSL season continues, with all 12 teams in action on Sunday. Every match will be broadcast live in the UK:
Sun 12 Mar
- Chelsea vs Man Utd – KO 12.30pm – BBC Two/iPlayer/Sport website
- Brighton vs Man City – KO 2pm – The FA Player
- Liverpool vs Tottenham – KO 2pm – The FA Player
- Leicester vs Everton – KO 3pm – The FA Player
- West Ham vs Aston Villa – KO 3pm – The FA Player
- Arsenal vs Reading – KO 6.45pm – Sky Sports Football/Premier League/Showcase
Wed 15 Mar
- Tottenham vs Leicester – KO 7pm – The FA Player
How to watch the Women’s Super League on Sky Sports
This is the second season of Sky’s three-year deal with the WSL. For the 2022-23 season, the broadcaster has committed to showing at least 35 matches. To start watching, you’ll need a Sky Sports subscription, which also provides access to lots of other top-class sport.
Packages start at £46 per month for 18 months, or £20 extra per month for 18 months if you if you already have a Sky TV subscription. There was previously the option to get just Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football channels for £18 per month, but that no longer seems to be available.
Whichever option you choose, you’ll also get access on your phone, tablet and/or laptop via Sky Go. See all the options on the Sky website.
However, if you sign up to Sky Q with a Sky Sports package, you can also watch in HDR quality. Learn more in our separate guide: How to get HDR on Sky Q
How to watch the Women’s Super League on Now
If you don’t want to commit to a Sky contract and satellite dish on your house, that’s not a problem. Sky has its Now streaming service as an alternative option, and there are no restrictions on the content you can access.
Now is available on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, Chromecast and even games consoles.
A Day Pass provides 24 hours of access and costs £11.99 – this is great for one-off occasions.
However, it’s going to make much more sense to get the Month Pass if you plan to watch every weekend. This usually costs £34.99 per month, but it’s down to £21 per month for 12 months if you sign up before 19 March. Learn more in our separate article: Watch every Sky Sports channel on Now for just £21 per month
That includes a month of free Now Boost, which adds 1080p video (rather than the usual 720p), removes ads and lets you stream on up to three devices at the same time (instead of the usual one). But the free month is only available if you haven’t signed up before, and it costs £6 per month extra thereafter.
Click here to view Now’s Sky Sports Pass packages.
How to watch the Women’s Super League on the BBC
Unlike many other broadcasters, you don’t need a subscription to watch the BBC. But you will need to pay for a TV licence, whether you’re watching live or via BBC iPlayer – this applies to any live TV. It currently costs £159 per household or business – learn more in our separate guide to the UK TV licence.
Once that’s taken care of, there are lots of options available to you. The first is simply direct on your TV, with almost all Sky, Virgin, Freeview and Freesat boxes including BBC channels by default.
You can also use BBC iPlayer across all your devices, while the WSL is also available to watch via the BBC Sport website when games are taking place.
How to watch the Women’s Super League on the FA Player
The FA Player is a free service, allowing you to watch selected live games and on-demand content if you’re based in the UK. To get started, just head to the FA website and create an account or log in.
Like many other services, there are also apps available for iOS and Android.
Can you watch the Women’s Super League outside the UK?
Yes, and there are two options available to you.
The first is simply to watch via your local broadcaster. This only applies if you’re in Australia ( Optus Sport), Brazil (ESPN) Canada ( Sportsnet), Central America, Mexico, Dominican Republic (all Sky Sports), Germany, Italy (both DAZN), New Zealand ( Spark Sport), Scandinavia (Nent) or the United States (CBS Sports, Paramount+).
If you’re based elsewhere or would rather use an existing UK account or subscription, there is an alternative. It involves using a VPN, which helps you ‘appear’ in another country by giving you a new IP address.
Our top pick is NordVPN, which we’re using for the purposes of this tutorial. There are plenty of alternatives in our best VPN chart, but make sure they unblock Sky Sports, Now, The FA Player and BBC iPlayer – the latter is often an issue, but not for Nord.
To get started, just open the NordVPN app and connect to any server in the UK. You can do this by selecting it on a map, or just clicking the UK flag below the ‘Quick Connect’ button. Once connected, just start watching like you normally would.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Interested in men’s football too? Here’s how to watch the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
