The ninth World Cup is spread across several Antipodean time zones – here is how to tune in back home
With the Women’s World Cup taking place in Australia and New Zealand, and across four distinct time zones, there is a confusing melange of kick-off times.
But, with one eye on the US market, USA have been awarded two of the early kick-offs, both at Eden Park Auckland, which will be at 6pm (the day before) on the US West Coast and 9pm on the Eastern Seaboard.
But for UK audiences the timings mean morning kick-offs. For the lowdown on the BBC and ITV teams and how Telegraph Sport thinks they’ll approach the tournament, please go here.
How to watch in the UK
BBC and ITV submitted a joint bid and are sharing coverage of the games – ITV showing two of the group games, the BBC one – while knockout games will be divvied up at a later date. Both broadcasters will show the final.
All 64 matches will be shown across the BBC network, on ITV and ITV 4. The BBC also won live radio rights and will broadcast commentary on BBC **Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra. **
Friday July 28
England vs Denmark, 9.30am BBC
Tuesday August 1
China vs England, noon ITV
The final, on Sunday, August 20 starts at 11am in the UK.
The BBC’s coverage will be presented by Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Reshmin Chowdhury. Pundits include Euro 2022 winner Ellen White, former Lionesses captain Steph Houghton and England’s most-capped player, Fara Williams
BBC and ITV will share the tournament coverage Credit: Alex Davidson/Getty Images
Wherever you are watching, take a look at these Women’s World Cup betting offers and free bets
How to watch in the United States
Fox has the English language rights to the World Cup for the third tournament in succession and is spreading the games on Fox and FS1 while Peacock, Telemundo and Universo will broadcast the games in Spanish.
Fox’s studio team comprises Carli Lloyd, Karina Leblanc, Alexi Lalas, Ariana Hingst, Kate Gill, Stuart Holden and Heather O’Reilly while commentators include JP Dellacamera and Jacqui Oatley.
Tuesday, August 1
Portugal vs USA, 3am ET, midnight Pacific
The final, should they make it for the fourth successive World Cup, is on Sunday, August 20 , kick-off at 6am ET, 3am Pacific.
Women’s World Cup TV coverage: Old stager versus new kid on the block
By Alan Tyers
The BBC is well familiar with televising women’s international tournaments, but ITV is making its Women’s World Cup debut. Both have now named their squads for the competition: here is what we can expect to see over the coming weeks.
The frontwomen
The BBC has announced Gabby Logan and Reshmin Chowdhury as its main hosts, alongside Alex Scott, whose role continues to shift from star pundit to anchor in her own right. ITV’s mainstay will be Laura Woods, backed up by Seema Jaswal and Michelle Owen. Hard to argue with any of these six excellent broadcasters.
Logan is a superb generalist, whereas Woods is more ‘football’ and is the coming thing in presenting it; she is expected to be announced as the host of TNT’s Champions League coverage now that it has replaced BT.
England expects experts
Both ITV and BBC have plenty of access to current or recently retired England players, with Ellen White, Steph Houghton, Fara Williams, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Anita Asante and Karen Bardsley all offering analysis and insight for the BBC. The highly watchable Frenchwoman Laura Georges, as well as reliable Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall, are also involved.
ITV’s wise women will be Jill Scott, Eni Aluko, Karen Carney, Emma Hayes, Fran Kirby and Lucy Ward. There is also some cosmopolitan flavour in the mix with Ireland’s Emma Byrne, Spain’s Vicky Losada and Jen Beattie of Scotland.
While nobody could fault the football CVs of the BBC gang, ITV might reasonably feel it has the edge here. As an analyst, Hayes has few rivals in either the men’s or women’s game, and Jill Scott is the pick on personality and recognisability beyond sport.
Laura Wood will lead the ITV coverage
On the mics
Brown-Finnis and Bardsley will also do co-commentary for the BBC, where they will join commentators Robyn Cowen, Jonathan Pearce, Vicki Sparks, Connor McNamara and Steven Wyeth. ITV’s games will be called by Seb Hutchinson, Sam Matterface, Pien Meulensteen and Tom Gayle. It will be intriguing to see if the first-rate Meulensteen gets the biggest assignments or whether Matterface is given the nod.
Who has what games?
ITV and BBC will split the group matches with 24 each. It is notable that the kick-off times vary quite a bit, to fit in with the demands of big TV markets.
England are odds on to make it out of the group and the BBC has first pick of the last-16 fixtures, so safe to say that England will be playing their first knockout match on the Beeb. ITV has first choice of the quarters; Auntie has both of the semi-finals. ITV has the third-place game, hopefully not featuring England, and the two broadcasters will each televise the final.
Value added?
Gianni Infantino, with the brass neck we have come to expect from Fifa grandees, shamed national broadcasters worldwide for not wanting to pay more for the rights. He said: “Broadcasters pay $100-200 million for the men’s World Cup, they offer only $1-10 million for the women’s. This is a slap in the face of all the great Fifa Women’s World Cup players and indeed of all women worldwide.”
Given that 17.4 million watched England beat Germany in the final of the Euros last year, this tournament could represent one of the broadcast bargains of the century.
Controversy over TV rights
Fifa’s decision to unbundle the broadcasting rights for the Women’s World Cup from the men’s tournament for the first time provoked a bitter stand-off between the governing body and the “big five” European markets – UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Given that the scheduling in the southern hemisphere rules out any hope of prime-time kick-offs, the initial offers were low, as little as one per cent of the offers for the men’s rights, provoking Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, to call them a “slap in the face” to the players and “all women worldwide”.
After a long argument in the winter that spiralled into spring, Infantino took the doomsday option, threatening a media blackout for Europe’s traditional financial powerhouses. “It is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the Fifa Women’s World Cup,” he said. “Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the Fifa’s Women’s World Cup into the ‘big five’ European countries.”
After six weeks of bargaining and rhetoric, a compromise was reached and a deal announced with the “big five” on June 15.
In the United States, long-standing agreements for both English and Spanish-language rights had been more straightforward.
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