And it's live! WSL's new TV deal is huge step but hard work remains for growth to flourish

The Women's Super League has secured a vital dose of off-pitch stability for the next five seasons, with the news that Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a record £65m domestic television rights deal, and with it, the new company running England's top divisions has completed one of its first essential assignments.

- Tom Garry

When it took over in August, there could be no ifs, no buts, no excuses - it had to get a new broadcast agreement over the line swiftly, and it has done so, with a record fee to boot.

A word we have heard regularly from Women's Professional Leagues Limited [WPLL] is that it is a "startup". That is the embryonic stage it feels not only the WPLL, but the women's game more broadly, is still at financially, after decades of relative underinvestment compared with men's football. If that is the case, then like any other startup the WPLL will be delighted to have guaranteed such an income stream until 2030. It is a sizable uplift on the current deal, which is understood to be worth approximately £7m-£8m per year.

It may be peanuts compared with the £6.7bn deal over four years that the men's top tier enjoys but it is still big money for a sport that was banned in this country until 1971. And given that WPLL's mission is to make the women's game financially sustainable and profitable, the numbers really matter. With this deal, it has ensured a minimum of £13m of domestic broadcast revenue per season for the next five years, from summer 2025.