Plans to livestream every Women's Championship game on YouTube from next season have been unveiled providing a potential boost for North East women's football clubs.
The move will see a roughly six-fold increase in the number of live second-tier fixtures being streamed, going from one match per game week to all games being available according to a report from Guardian.
Upcoming coverage will feature a minimum of two cameras, providing alternative angles, which is a step up from the current single-camera coverage. Sources close to North East women's clubs are happy that this could lead to more exposure for the league's clubs.
Increased coverage comes as the Women's Championship heats up. Durham are currently second place in the league this season after surviving a relegation scrap last campaign on the penultimate day.
The Wildcats are joint on points with Birmingham City.
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Newcastle's first season in the Championship has been a bit up and down so far. The club has ambitions to play Women's Super League football and signed England international Demi Stokes in the summer, but sit seventh after a couple of stuttered displays.
That being said, only five points separate top of the league and eighth place.
Sunderland were in a title race last season, but started slowly conceding eight in their first two games.
They are now fifth in the league and only three points off Birmingham.
Sky Sports retains the right to select Championship fixtures for live broadcast.
However, any games selected by Sky will also be streamed on YouTube.
This guarantees that all 132 matches across the campaign will be available to watch live and free-to-air.
The tender for the production of these live-streamed games is expected to go out over the next week, according to the Guardian.
So far this season, 11 second-tier fixtures have been streamed live on YouTube, including the local derby between Sunderland and Newcastle, which garnered 81,313 total live views during the 90 minutes.
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