European women’s football leagues continue to be undervalued, despite the growing popularity of the sport. Across the big five European markets, the value of domestic rights for each local women’s football league is, on average, 0.5% of the value of the men’s league. The Women’s Super League (WSL) has the highest rights value of the five largest domestic European leagues, with its new deal standing at £13m per season, 0.8% of the newest English Premier League deal, worth £1.6bn per season. In France, the Première Ligue is reported to be worth €1.3m per season, just 0.3% of the €479m value of the men’s Ligue 1 rights.

However, the size of the domestic fanbase for each of the women’s leagues averages at a much larger value, at 9% of the size of the men’s league fanbase. Part of the gap in rights values could be explained by the fact that supporters of the men’s leagues are typically more engaged with the coverage of the leagues, with a higher proportion of men's football fans saying they watch all or most of the competition. Similarly, a higher proportion of supporters are willing to pay to watch men’s leagues than women’s. In each of the five markets, the men’s football league is the top competition that followers say they will pay for. Between 19% and 41% of sports fans are willing to pay for the men's event, compared to only 1% to 3% for the women’s leagues.

But despite the fact that followers of the women’s leagues are less engaged with live coverage, and willingness to pay for the women’s leagues is low, the willing-to-pay fanbase for women’s leagues is still 3%-6% the size of that for the men’s leagues, which is a higher proportion than the gap in rights valuations suggests. Therefore, while media rights values for women’s leagues are starting from a lower point, the recent scaling of women's fan bases should drive upside for rights owners in the next round of negotiations.

Growing audiences and increased willingness to pay for access among supporters are likely to support increased deal values in the future, closing the gap a little between the men's and women's games. The lack of historic precedent, however, means that women's competitions will have to work hard to prove this value to prospective rights buyers - and in the short-term, this may lead to prioritising the greater reach afforded by free-to-air coverage versus the opportunity to support higher fees through subscription-only access.