Broadcasters and governing bodies make tax plea for TV coverage of women’s sport

Letter sent to chancellor, John Healey, on Friday

‘Audience demand for women’s sport is growing’

The chief executives of the Football Association, Rugby Football Union and England and Wales Cricket Board have joined forces with leading broadcasters and YouTube in writing to the chancellor requesting tax credits for production companies to help deliver more television coverage of women’s sport.

In a letter signed by 25 representatives of the country’s biggest sports and broadcasters, including Sky Sports and ITV, the government is urged to extend to women’s sport production the audio-visual expenditure credit scheme that provides tax relief to independent films and children’s television.

The joint letter was sent to John Healey on Friday to coincide with this weekend’s return of the Women’s Super League, whose chief executive, Nikki Doucet, is among the signatories, along with the leaders of British Cycling, golf and Formula One.

The WSL is the second-richest league in women’s sport after the National Women’s Soccer League in the US, but faces challenges attracting broadcasters in a congested market.

Every WSL fixture will be broadcast live in the UK this season, with WSL2 games available on YouTube, but the BBC has taken the controversial decision to axe its weekly highlights programme , The Women’s Football Show.

As reported this week, the WSL had been helping the BBC cover production costs . The RFU subsidises the BBC’s coverage of Women’s Premiership Rugby.

The BBC is not among the signatories on the letter to Healey, which also include representatives of the new generation of media companies such as YouTube and Gary Neville’s Overlap podcasting empire.

The chief executives describe the fact that only 13% of televised sport watched last year involved women as a market failure which is costing the country economically and in terms of public health.

“On behalf of the UK’s sports, production and broadcasting industries, we are writing to urge you to extend the AV Expenditure Credits to include a targeted, demand-led expenditure credit for live production of women’s sport,” the letter says.

“Global audience demand for women’s sport is growing every year, driven by the remarkable achievements of British sportswomen. Supercharging the live production of women’s sport would not only capitalise on this demand, but would have huge economic benefits, increase visibility, boost participation and strengthen the UK’s leadership in global sport.”

Independent film companies are able to claim tax relief of up to 53% under a scheme announced by Tony Blair’s government in 2004. The chancellor before Healey, Rachel Reeves, received some criticism for not improving its terms in last autumn’s budget.

The signatories, who also include Sky Sports’ chief executive, Jonathan Licht, argue that offering similar incentives for women’s sport production would generate £6.5bn in indirect public health benefits by 2035, when the UK and Ireland are due to host football’s Women’s World Cup in a decision to be ratified by Fifa in November.

“Despite growth year on year, women’s sport still represents a relatively small share of total sports viewing (13% of all viewer hours in 2025) and growth remains largely driven by major tournaments, rather than the year-round coverage tuned into for male equivalents,” the letter says.

“We believe a targeted tax credit could help address this market failure by creating a more favourable production and broadcasting ecosystem for women’s sports across the UK.

“It would create a virtuous circle where producers can close funding more easily on live event coverage and seek to invest in higher production values to enhance the viewer experience and raise the profile of British sportswomen.

“As well as creating new jobs in the sector, we predict direct economic returns for the Treasury to be £1.40 for every £1 invested. This is on top of indirect benefits of £6.5bn by 2035, driven by the economic and health impact of super-charging participation in women’s sport.”