Majority of Women’s Champions League matches to go behind paywall next season with final remaining free to view

THE bulk of next term’s Women’s Champions League games will go behind a paywall according to sports streaming company DAZN.

Viewers will be required to pay for 42 of the 61 matches in the contest with 19 fixtures remaining free to watch. 

AlamyTwo thirds of Women’s Champions League matches aired by DAZN will go behind a paywall from next season[/caption]

GettyThe contest’s final will be among the matches that will stay as free to view from next term[/caption]

Free-to-view games will include the competition’s final and one semi-final and two matches from the quarter-final stage.

The move comes two seasons into DAZN’s four-year agreement to exclusively air the Women’s Champions League fixtures. 

It comes two years after Uefa introduced a 16-team group stage format with centralised streaming coverage via DAZN’s YouTube channel. 

DAZN’s global markets CEO Veronica Diquattro said: “We want to help the women’s game realise its potential, by reaching audiences and by developing its obvious commercial appeal to create a virtuous circle of investment, growth, raising standards and overall interest.”

To date the contest’s fixtures have been watched in more than 230 countries with DAZN having 362,000 subscribers to its platform.

And last year’s final, which saw Lyon beat Barcelona 3-1 at the home of Juventus,  was watched by 3.6million viewers.

This figure marked a 56 per cent increase on the audience that tuned in to watch Barcelona beat Chelsea 4-0  in the contest’s decider in 2021. 

Away from its online coverage this season’s competition has seen some record turnouts at knockout stage games.

A crowd of 27,697 flocked to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea’s first-leg semis clash with Barcelona in April.

GettyArsenal’s clash with Wolfsburg at the Emirates was among the fixtures that attracted a record crowd turnout this season[/caption]

The match set a new record for spectator numbers at a Women’s Champions League game in England before Arsenal’s clash with Wolfsburg at the Emirates. 

The Gunners’ semi-final second leg battle with the German giants a month later drew a crowd of 60,063 

The fixture saw them break the attendance record for a women’s club game in England.