BeIN Sports confirms European club rugby rights deal

French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports this (Wednesday) morning confirmed a rights deal for rugby union’s new European club rugby tournaments.

BeIN Sports will show the new European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup tournaments for the next four seasons, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

The broadcaster said that it would show live coverage of all games on an exclusive basis expect for one game in the Champions Cup, which will be co-broadcast live by a free-to-air broadcaster.

Yesterday (Tuesday) French daily newspaper l’Equipe said that French public-service broadcaster France Televisions was in talks about acquiring rights to show one game per match day from the two tournaments.

BeIN Sports outbid pay-television rival Canal Plus, which had rights for the previous Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup competitions.