International pay-television broadcaster ESPN Latin America and sister broadcaster ESPN Brasil have acquired exclusive media rights in Latin America for the Rugby World Cup, rugby union’s top national team tournament.
The deal covers the 2015 and 2019 editions of the event in England and Japan, respectively.
Under the deal, ESPN Brasil will become an exclusive Rugby World Cup rights-holder in the country for the first time. Brazil is viewed as a particularly important growth market for rugby due to the debut of rugby sevens at the Rio 2016 summer Olympic Games next year.
The ESPN Latin America and ESPN Brasil channels will broadcast live coverage of at least 16 matches and will support the broadcasts with programming across television, digital and mobile platforms.
Matches will be broadcast across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
ESPN Latin America and ESPN Brasil struck the agreements with World Rugby, the sport’s global governing body.