Rugby Union
BeIN Sports snaps up remaining Australian rugby tour matches
Pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has acquired rights for Australia’s upcoming rugby union games against France and England.
Scottish Rugby renews Pitch distribution deal without tender
Scottish Rugby earned an increase of more than 70 per cent by selling international rights to its autumn Test matches directly to the Pitch International agency, without offering them to the market.
L’Équipe to cover Barbarians fixtures
French digital-terrestrial television channel L’Équipe has bolstered its rugby union portfolio by acquiring rights to three international games.
Top-of-the-table Championship clash to be offered live streaming showcase
The Rugby Football Union has said it will provide free live streaming of the forthcoming Championship game between London Irish and Yorkshire Carnegie.
SFR Sport adds England’s autumn internationals to rugby line-up
French telecommunications company SFR has bolstered the rugby union portfolio of its SFR Sport television platform by acquiring rights to England’s autumn internationals.
IGBS seals host broadcast deal in new Rugby World Cup strategy
World Rugby, the global governing body of rugby union, has appointed International Games Broadcast Services as host broadcaster for Japan’s 2019 World Cup, the first edition of the national team tournament to be staged in Asia.
Premiership Rugby renews production partnership with Perform
Premiership Rugby, the governing body of the top division of English rugby union, has extended and expanded its partnership with digital sports media group Perform.
Premiership Rugby significantly grows global audience reach
Increasing the number of live Premiership Rugby matches broadcast had an “immediate and tangible” impact on its international distribution and income, according to the league’s commercial director Dominic Hayes.
EPCR targets new Champions Cup rights model in Ireland
European Professional Club Rugby, the organising body of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions, has said it will seek to strike a free-to-air rights deal in Ireland after conceding that the current broadcast model is not “working very well”.
Eir Sport secures rights to Ireland-New Zealand clash in Chicago
Irish pay-television broadcaster Eir Sport has acquired rights to next month’s rugby union Test match between Ireland and New Zealand, which will be staged in the US city of Chicago.
Scottish Rugby extends Autumn Test rights deal with Pitch
Scottish Rugby has extended its deal with the Pitch International agency for the distribution of global rights to Scottish national team Autumn Test matches.
Pacific Islands lose out on free-to-air rugby coverage
Fiji and Samoa will miss out on free-to-air coverage of rugby union matches from the Super Rugby, Rugby Championship and Mitre 10 Cup tournaments this year after a promised distribution deal failed to materialise.
Glasgow Warriors to offer pre-season game via YouTube
Scottish Pro12 rugby union club Glasgow Warriors has said it will live stream its pre-season game against English Premiership team Harlequins via its official channel on video sharing platform YouTube.
Premiership Rugby broadens reach with new deals in the Americas
Premiership Rugby, the organising body for the top division of club rugby union in England, has agreed television rights deals with operators in Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean.
RugbyPass picks up top European rugby rights
Media company Coliseum Sports Media has acquired digital rights for the Six Nations European national team competition and other rugby union properties for its OTT platform RugbyPass across Asia.
Premiership value soars as rights are split across Africa
The English Premiership has at least quadrupled in value and significantly increased its coverage in sub-Saharan Africa, taking advantage of competition between pay-television broadcasters
Competition drives up Rugby World Cup revenue in Ireland
Strong competition drove up the value of rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Ireland this week, despite a much worse time zone than in 2015.
Dominic Hayes, commercial director, Premiership Rugby
Interview with Dominic Hayes, Premiership Rugby’s commercial director, about new deals in sub-Saharan Africa for the top-tier rugby union league