Brought to you by the North American women’s soccer league ramps up digital viewing options. Getty Images The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has announced a distribution deal with Yahoo Sports that will see all matches from its upcoming season streamed live via the media platform’s digital app. The agreement will enable viewers based in the US to access every game from the 2019 NWSL season, which kicks off on 13th April when reigning champions North Carolina Courage go up against the Chicago Red Stars. Every game will still be available on NWSLsoccer.com and on the NWSL app to fans outside the US. The moves comes amid the NWSL’s search for a traditional broadcast partner after A+E Networks announced in February that it had drawn ‘an amicable end’ to its broadcast partnership, cutting a three-year agreement signed in 2017 one year short. The deal, which saw A+E acquire a 25 per cent equity stake in the NWSL, also made A+E’s Lifetime pay-TV network an official sponsor and broadcast partner of the top-tier division. Despite terminating its arrangement with A+E, the league said at the time that it still planned to stream all non-televised games via Yahoo Sports, whose parent company Verizon is entering the final year of its digital media deal with the league.
Every match from the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) upcoming season will be streamed live on Yahoo Sports’ digital app. The distribution deal is for US-based viewers only. Other fans will still be able to watch games via the league’s official website and app. NWSL was already planning to stream fixtures not televised as part of its arrangement with A+E Networks when it was confirmed that partnership had been ended two years into a three-year deal. NWSL is still attempting to sell traditional broadcast rights. Its digital media deal with Yahoo Sports’ owner Verizon is in its final year.