The Pro14 and its international media rights distributor, the RDA agency, have secured deals with multiple broadcasters covering 30 territories.
The cross-border rugby union league on Friday (August 31) announced new media-rights deals with: pay-television broadcaster ESPN in the US; Perform-owned OTT service DAZN in Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (DAZN had already secured rights in Italy via a separate agreement); rugby-focused OTT service RugbyPass in 23 Southeast Asian territories, plus Australia; and pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand. All four agreements are for three seasons, from 2018-19 to 2020-21.
RDA is distributing Pro14 rights outside the competing nations (the UK, Ireland, Italy and sub-Saharan Africa), from 2018-19 to 2020-21.
Under the ESPN deal, all 152 matches per season will be available in the US: 142 matches per season via direct-to-consumer streaming service ESPN+ and 10 showcase matches per season on a linear ESPN channel.
The RugbyPass deal covers rights in: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.