The 2025 Women’s European Championship will be broadcast live on UK television by the BBC and ITV, after the two broadcasters agreed to share the rights.
Hosted by Switzerland, the 16-team competition gets under way on 2 July and England are the defending champions, following their historic triumph on home soil three years ago. The Lionesses have already qualified for next summer’s finals. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will hope to qualify via the playoffs, which begin in October.
The 2025 tournament is the first Women’s Euros to be held since the UK government added the competition to its so-called ‘crown jewels’ list of major sporting events which must be broadcast live, free-to-air, joining events such as the Olympics and Paralympics, the Grand National and Wimbledon, which are also protected by the policy.
As recently as the 2017 tournament, it was Channel 4 who secured the exclusive rights to show the games live, and then for the most recent edition in 2022 – delayed by 12 months because of the pandemic – the BBC obtained exclusive rights to the tournament in the UK.
Now they have teamed up with ITV in a similar arrangement to that which sees the pair share the rights to major men’s international tournaments. The two broadcasters also jointly covered 2023’s Women’s World Cup.
Both broadcasters will show the final live, simultaneously, on Sunday 27 July 2025. Prior to that, the BBC’s games will be shown on BBC television and the BBC iPlayer, while ITV will divide matches between ITV1 and ITV4. The proportion of the fixtures that will be shown live on each broadcaster’s primary channel has not yet been disclosed.
Viewing fixtures for women’s international fixtures have soared in recent years, with more than 17m watching the 2022 Euros final, when England beat Germany after extra time, on BBC One. A peak audience of more than 12m tuned in to last summer’s World Cup final between the Lionesses and Spain in Sydney, which was a morning kick-off for UK audiences.
“BBC Sport has been a long-time supporter of the women’s game and the BBC is committed to bringing the nation together for the biggest sporting moments,” said the new director of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski. “We’re excited that we can bring another major tournament to audiences next summer across the BBC.”
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Niall Sloane, ITV’s director of sport, added: “Following the success of the Women’s World Cup last year, which drew big audiences to ITV across the tournament, we are looking forward to showcasing next year’s UEFA Women’s EURO. Viewers who follow ITV’s coverage of England Women can now expect to see live, free to air action and analysis on our platforms next summer.”