Italian public-service broadcaster Rai has acquired exclusive rights in Italy to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
It will broadcast a minimum of 17 matches from the 48-match tournament on its Rai 2 and Rai Sport linear channels.
Rai will show all of Italy’s four group games and a minimum of a further 13 matches, including the opening match, the quarter-finals, semi-finals, the third-place match and the final.
The deal was negotiated with the competition’s commercial rights-holder, Rugby World Cup Limited, which was advised on the sale by the IMG agency.
The Rugby World Cup will take place in Japan and kicks off on September 20.
World Rugby has said that it will stream matches via the IMG-Infront joint-venture International Games Broadcast Services platform in territories where deals are not concluded before the tournament begins.