Spotlight on women's sport and Olympic expectations: What to expect in 2025 By George Bevir
Friday, January 10, 2025 - 09:52
Print This Story
From landmark tournaments in women's sport, to new formats, Olympic expectations and international expansion by US leagues, 2025 is set to deliver another big year of sport. SVG Europe looks at what's new and some of the potential highlights.
2025 is poised to be a landmark year for women's sport, with major football, rugby union and cricket tournaments taking place this year.
The Women's Euro 2025 (2-27 July) kicks off in July in Switzerland and expectations will be high that the tournament can build on the success of the Women's World Cup 2023 and Euro 2022, both of which set new records for viewing and attendance.
The tournament will take place against a backdrop of growing domestic audiences, with average attendances across the top four women's European football leagues up by 24% in 2023-24, and with the added incentive of a bigger prize fund of 41m more than double what was on offer in 2022.
And with the EBU describing its media rights deal with UEFA as unprecedented in terms of broadcast reach, organisers will be confident of bumper viewing figures.
A month later, the world's top women's rugby union nations will meet in England for the Rugby World Cup 2025 (22 August 27 September).
More than 220,000 tickets have already been sold for the event, meaning it is already guaranteed to be the best-attended women's edition ever.
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin has spoken of the tournament being a massive moment for the women's game and his desire to secure free to air deals for maximum visibility (in August last year, the BBC was announced as the UK's exclusive provider of live coverage of the tournament across linear channels, with every match also available to watch live on BBC iPlayer and the Sport website and app).
And one month later, the 2025 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup (Sept - Oct) will take place in India.
Olympic expectations
On 6 February, the one-year countdown to Milano Cortina 2026 (6 - 22 February 2025) will begin. And, with it being an odd-numbered year, there will be plenty of world championships in many summer sports - including the World Athletics Championships (13-21 September) in Tokyo plus Olympic qualifying events in winter sports scheduled for later in 2025.
Register SVG Europe's Winter Sports Forum, Oslo (13 March)
The Olympic flame's journey will begin on 26 November in Olympia, Greece, where the lighting of the flame will take place before it arrives in Rome on 4 December.
There will be some screen-based Olympic action this year, with the first Olympic Esports Games (dates TBC) to take place in Riyadh in 2025 after the International Olympics Committee agreed a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia.
US sport in Europe
US sports have long looked for growth outside North America by hosting exhibition and regular season fixtures in Europe, with the NFL leading the charge. There were five international NFL games in the 2023 and 2024 seasons but this year, the NFL can schedule up to eight league-operated international regular season games.
The NFL will play its first regular season game in Berlin, Germany in 2025. That's in addition to a commitment to playing two regular season games in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernab u Stadium. Other games and locations are yet to be confirmed.
Read more Inside the NFL's international strategy and broadcast plans for the growth of its future European fan base
The NHL will continue expanding its international footprint after playing a preseason game in Germany, two regular-season games in the Czech Republic and two regular-season games in Finland during the 2024 season.
The 2025/26 schedule, which is typically released around late June/early July could include fixtures in the UK, Germany and Switzerland after NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly spoke of a desire to return to London and of Germany and Switzerland being prime candidates for regular-season games in the future.
Last year, MLB's World Tour took in London for a Mets v Phillies tie, plus fixtures in Mexico City, Seoul and Santo Domingo. However, there won't be any MLB in Europe this year; plans for a regular-season game at Stade de France in Paris in 2025 were cancelled after MLB reportedly failed to find a promoter. International efforts will instead focus on Japan, with the 2025 season set to begin at the Tokyo Dome in March. The MLB has committed to a return to London in June 2026.
And the NBA returns to Paris later this month (23 and 25 January), this time for two matches between the San Antonio Spurs and the Indiana Pacers.
New formats
Earlier this week (7 January), TGL, the new team golf league founded by Tiger Woods' and Rory McIlroy's TMRW Sports, teed off for the first time. Sky has struck a two-year partnership with TGL to air live coverage in the UK and Ireland, DACH and Italy.
UK and US versions of six-a-side football format Baller League will launch in 2025. Led by footballers Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski, Baller League launched in Germany in 2023. The UK version will begin on 3 March and will take place every Monday until 19 May.
And the expanded FIFA Club World Cup (15 June - 13 July) will take place in the US during the summer, with DAZN confirmed as the exclusive global broadcaster of the competition potentially sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks.
Formula 1 celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and it will mark the occasion by hosting a season launch event for the first time. Taking place at the O2 in London on 18 February, it will feature all 10 teams and their 20 drivers and will be streamed live.
And electr
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Genelec announces V2.1 for Aural ID binaural headphone monitoring application posted: 29/05/2026
Aural ID 2.1 enhances binaural monitoring for stereo and ...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
Spotlight on women's sport and Olympic expectations: What to expect in 2025 By George Bevir 
