Doing it for the kids: Will Uefa's Disney gamble pay off?

There is room for improvement as Disney get set to broadcast every Uefa Women's Champions League match from next season

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There’s a gigantic mural of Ellen White painted on the side of a nail bar on Aylesbury High Street.

Prior to the 2019 Women’s World Cup, very few Aylesburians would have known her name. But after an entire nation saw her firing England to a tournament semi-final on the BBC, she became a mid-sized Buckinghamshire town’s favourite daughter in the space of two weeks.

For women’s football, exposure is everything. That’s why the Uefa Women’s Champions League’s new deal with Disney+ is, on the face of it, a tad concerning.

Disney+ becomes the latest subscription service in the UK carrying football next season. In order to watch everything, fans will also need Sky, TNT, DAZN, Premier Sports and Amazon Prime.

It’s a similar story across Europe, where Disney will hold rights to every UWCL match from the league phase onward for five seasons, from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

Despite the platform’s lack of sporting pedigree, Uefa believes Disney+ can do a much better job at reaching the UWCL’s target audience than its predecessor, DAZN.

DAZN’s rebrand as the ‘home of women’s football’ in 2021 came after six years spent marketing almost exclusively to men, with boxing at the forefront of its global offering.

In contrast, there is a growing women’s club football audience, especially on streaming platforms such as YouTube, that has crystallised to become very different to those following the men’s game. These women’s football fans are predominantly women, almost always young and much more likely to bring both mum and dad along for the ride.