At the moment, W-League games played on Friday to Sunday come up against the A-League or female and male competitions such as the (Women's) Big Bash League, Super Netball or  (W)NBL.

These other alternatives often eat into the potential W-League fanbase, which was why FFA chose Thursday night stand-alone football. This year, with more games on TV than ever before, this 760,000 number is set to grow.

There is also one game on free to air on Sundays on the ABC.

Many fans believe that ideally, every match would be played on free to air television, but until a free-to-air station comes on board and offers more money than Fox Sports, this won’t happen.

The W-League has already had substantially more free to air coverage throughout its history than the A-League.

The benefit of TV scheduling and subsequent increases in W-League audiences is that there is now more money available for the W-League.

Wages have considerably risen for W-League players. The minimum salary is now 30% higher at $16,344. This is line with the minimum hourly rate of the A-League. This wouldn’t have been possible without TV exposure for the W-League.

Michele Levine from Roy Morgan praised the reputation of the W-League and the Matildas for the impressive TV ratings. 

“Roy Morgan’s TV viewership results comparing the W-League side-by-side with the A-League show there is a substantial audience for the women’s league, despite a relative lack of promotion compared to its male counterpart,” she said.

“TV viewership of the W-League of 760,000 is around 40% of the viewership of the A-League at 1.9 million.

“Along with the Matildas’ success, a key driver of this increasing interest in Women’s Sport, and Women’s Football in particular, is the very positive and trustworthy image Australians have of it.”

Given the increasing metrics, prime time Thursday night football can showcase these fine role models to a greater audience.

Apart from Thursday nights, some of the other timing has come in for criticism too. Friday games at 5pm as part of a double header were one such issue.