Exactly this. I am a rabid women's soccer fan. I study and follow the draft like a professional coach, watch as many matches as I can, drive three hours to NWSL matches when I can, try and catch overseas games when possible, and I am continuously frustrated by the broken state of sports streaming. The NWSL shows up on ParamountPlus, unlesss its on CBS, unless its on CBSSN, unless its on Twitch on like three different Twitch channels - it is maddening as a hardcore fan and in no way leads to a casual fan having an easy time to watch.
I am heartbroken too at the amount of historical matches that will be lost because they simply aren't available. NWSL, FA WSL, International Friendlies or International Cups. It will all be lost over time as streaming partnerships change. The key to making better players is a better soccer culture and that means the key is to have them watch the game, love the game.
I have had seasons where I have almost quit as a fan because how frustratingly disorganized it all is. I know partnerships are important, but these leagues need to start pushing for their own streaming infrastructure or unified streaming partner or they will see the sport tip into irrelevance with the general public.
Yes, americans gets screwed over with the CBSSN matches, as it requires a cable account. To top it off, the replays of CBSSN matches take up to 48 hours to appear, while CBS matches up to 24 hours, and P+ much shorter.
The twitch deal ended last season, but americans only had to deal with one twitch channel, which aired the twitch exclusive matches. The other twitch channels were exclusively for international viewers, and they had to have multiple channels due to matches being on at the same time.
With the twitch deal over, international viewers can watch on NWSL's own website again, like we did years ago, before the ESPN and later twitch deals.
When it comes to international sports, the whole "where to watch" is so painful, especially women's sport, as it's covered less, and most broadcast deals are in the local country, and very rarely international coverage at all.
The brits have done a great job with FA Player, but also in selling the international rights to broadcast companies. Their lawyers though... the rights contracts are so shitty. To take England/FA WSL as an example, Viaplay bought the rights, and they air the matches that receive proper tv production in England (2-3 matches per round), but they also force FA to geoblock the other matches, so we can't watch them live on FA Player, only on demand 24 hours later.
They even geoblock short clips on twitter. Utterly bizarre, as these international broadcasters aren't posting similar clips.
I presume you're fairly knowledgeable of men's soccer too, even if it's not your cup of tea.
What are important things that are different in the women's game? Tactical style, practical impact of rules, physicality of contact fouls, etc? Are brawls (controlling for country/culture) as common in women's soccer as in men's?
Brawls no, not that I'm aware- though there are very opinionated fan-bases and supporters groups even state-side who have had great success protesting owners, abusive coaches, etc. In England the women's game was banned for fifty years so likewise, the fan base never developed the same way as the men's though that's changing.
I tend to watch big matches on the mens side so I will answer what I can. The physicality of women's matches here in the states is high, just check out I think Sierra Gordon on twitter a few days ago where she posted a rather, surprisingly, dirty blindside play by Alex Morgan. The women are scrappy, and play rough physically like they are in college still- whereas the men tend to hold themselves back more if you watch closely. The women tend to play every match of the league full throttle and that's because by the end of the season, you usually have four or five teams fighting for a playoff space.
Women foul more as their technique is generally worse, because of a lack of high level coaches in the youth side to engrain habits. That being said, they don't complain and fake like the men do. Some preppy youth players come in w that prep-school attitude as I like to call it, but in a season or three its usually out of them.
Tactically the game is slower, the game has more upper 90's goals, but a lot of that is lack of proper youth training too. Canada's womens soccer team had a female coach who drilled average passing speed as a team into them and they almost rivaled the mens statistics. I think that was 2011 or 2015 and they did v well. Do some research on that and you can probably find a whitepaper. Average passing per minute or something like that. Tactically too, a superstar or two still is capable of greatly influences the game at a high level, like basketball.
I am heartbroken too at the amount of historical matches that will be lost because they simply aren't available. NWSL, FA WSL, International Friendlies or International Cups. It will all be lost over time as streaming partnerships change. The key to making better players is a better soccer culture and that means the key is to have them watch the game, love the game.
I have had seasons where I have almost quit as a fan because how frustratingly disorganized it all is. I know partnerships are important, but these leagues need to start pushing for their own streaming infrastructure or unified streaming partner or they will see the sport tip into irrelevance with the general public.