The Rugby Football Union, the sport’s governing body in England, will partner with video-sharing website YouTube to live stream all of the England national team’s autumn internationals in markets outside the UK in which the games are not currently broadcast.
The agreement covers 28 countries: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
The agreement takes the total territories in which the matches are available on television or via live streaming to more than 160.
Sophie Goldschmidt, chief commercial officer of the RFU, said: “With England rugby fans all over the world we want to ensure that as many England supporters as possible can enjoy the QBE Internationals, featuring the best teams in rugby. This partnership is about broadening the reach of rugby into territories that traditionally haven’t had access to these games.”
The announcement follows a partnership between the RFU and YouTube announced earlier in the year.
The videos on RFU’s official YouTube channel currently, which included the live stream of the first autumn international against Fiji on November 10, had received a combined 1.9 million views at the time of writing.
England faces Australia in the second autumn international tomorrow.