Channel 4 would have likely bid for the TV rights for this year’s FIFA women’s World Cup, had it not been bundled together with the men’s World Cup. Stephen Lyle, commissioning editor for sport at Channel 4, said, “The women’s World Cup would have been something that Channel 4 would have taken a look at, no doubt.” Channel 4 was unable to bid for it as the broadcast rights for the tournament in Canada are tied together with the men’s World Cup, which will be broadcast by the BBC in the U.K. Lyle said that the women’s World Cup would have represented a good fit for Channel 4, whose focus is primarily on horse racing and the Paralympics, along with less mainstream sports such as triathlon. Lyle was speaking at the Leaders Meet the Games Changers conference in London on a panel alongside Tatjana Haenni, director of women’s competitions at FIFA, who believes the tournament will “have an impact on the future of women’s football.”
INTEREST GROWING: The last competition registered more than 400 million broadcast viewers, but Haenni is expecting this year’s event to at least double that number. Also on the panel was Lizzy Yarnold, the English Olympic Gold Medalist for skeleton at the Sochi Winter Olympics in '14, who admitted it was a “struggle” for athletes in marginal sports -- like the skeleton -- to remain in the public eye once the Olympics was over. She said, “I hope that continuing to be successful will mean I am still in the public eye.” Lyle said the Winter Olympics held a lot of appeal for broadcasters, as the events were televisual and had shown increase in ratings. Lyle: “I think that as a sport [skeleton] has enjoyed successful growth because it’s got very good British athletes who are doing really well. I also think along with a lot of winter sports, they have kind of grasped of how this is going to look at, how attractive a proposition is this. Channel 4 were pretty jealous of the BBC with the winter Olympics the last time around.”
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
