Challenging the norm: How TNT Sports is evolving coverage of the men's and women's FA Cups with a fresh approach By Heather McLean Thursday, October 30, 2025 - 11:41
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The Women's FA Cup is now receiving differentiated broadcast treatment at TNT Sports, as Pete Thomas seeks to grow its audience [Credit: The FA via Getty Images]
This is TNT Sports' first year as host broadcaster of both the men's FA Cup and the Women's FA Cup. For the two competitions, it is sharing rights with the free-to-air broadcasters BBC Sport, on the men's FA Cup, and Channel 4, on the Women's FA Cup.
The Women's FA Cup started on Saturday 25 October with Middlesbrough versus Cheadle Town Stingers. The contest was the first-ever Women's FA Cup first round game to be broadcast live on television, heralding a historic day for women's football, especially for Middlesbrough, who won 4-0.
The FA Cup first round proper for the men's teams takes place this weekend (31 October to 3 November). The draw saw clubs from Leagues 1 and 2 of the English Football League (EFL) join the competition, being pitted against the non-league teams that have progressed through the qualifying rounds. There will be 40 matches being played over the weekend, with eight being shown live on TNT Sports and two being shown live as well by BBC Sport.
Challenging the norm
SVG Europe caught up with TNT Sports' head of football, Pete Thomas, to find out how the host broadcaster is planning on bringing both FA Cups to viewers. What's gone before has been excellent, comments Thomas on TNT Sports' plans for the host broadcast. But I think we definitely want to bring our stamp to it, and I think that one of those elements is to challenge the norm, in some respects.
In terms of the host broadcast, we are responsible for delivering fantastic coverage of the matches, and that's something we take very seriously. We obviously fulfil that role in other competitions Premier League, Champions League, European competitions so we're experienced in delivering high-end football coverage and we take those principles from the experience we've gained into this competition. We put this competition alongside Champions League coverage and Premier League coverage in the way that we actually cover the match itself.
TNT Sports' head of football, Pete Thomas, with the men's and women's FA Cups [Credit: C1 Media]
Differentiated treatment
On challenging those existing norms, the Women's FA Cup is now receiving differentiated treatment from TNT Sports, as Thomas seeks to grow its audience. Explains Thomas: I think it's really important that for the Women's FA Cup we don't just lump it in with the men's FA Cup and treat it the same. The women's game is different and we are very aware of trying to bring the women's game to life in its own right and to spot the differences. There's not necessarily huge differences but [we're looking at] storytelling and at the way we present the game, and making sure that that's right for both competitions.
TNT Sports will broadcast 19 matches across the season Women's FA Cup, while Channel 4 will televise one match per round from the 3rd Round. On how the Women's FA Cup will appear on TV in comparison to the men's, Thomas says: I think the first thing to say is that our match coverage and our approach is the same in terms of level, so particularly around the host broadcast element, the quality we're delivering of the match coverage is absolutely the same.
I think it's just not falling into the trap of thinking that the audience is exactly the same in profile. We know that the women's game is currently riding a massive high over here after the Euro success. We know that attendances are massively up. There's an engagement from a lot of younger fans, the playing fans; women who are finding the game young and attaching to clubs. So it's working out how to speak to those fans directly, which might just be slightly different to a men's fan base. Working out which parts of the storytelling or reflecting on the game connect better with the audience.
He adds that the broadcaster aims to learn throughout the season and tweak its broadcast plans for both the men's game and the women's to improve and evolve each broadcast: It's also going to be a learning that we go through during the season, and I think that applies to both competitions. We're not coming in at round one saying, this is the way we're definitely going to do it all the way to the final and this is going to work . We're going to go, okay, we're think this is what will work and we're going to listen to the audience and we're going to learn and we're going to make sure we tailor it as we go .
Learning evolution
As to that learning evolution, TNT Sports has its production plans firmly in place for rounds one and two in terms of the live coverage and how it is working alongside BBC Sport, which is showing two games per week.
However, Thomas adds that the production team is treating the early rounds as learning curves through which it can develop plans for the later stages. As we go later into the competition [we'll look at] what those plans will be as we proceed as we'll learn partly from what happens literally next weekend, and partly because we're still looking at how we can maximise schedules and make things as good as they can be. We are looking to do a draw show on a Monday night for every round, so one of our live games will be on a Monday night, which is the draw for the next round of the competition and builds into the live game, but also helps to tell the story of the weekend and highlight anything amazing that's happened.
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