Rugby Union

UK pay-television broadcasters BT Sport and BSkyB have reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal to share the rights to the new European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup club rugby union competitions.

Clubs are real winners from BT-Sky sharing deal for European rugby

If there is a common thread running through our stories this issue it is change. It is a process that all sports go through, usually to secure increased media exposure and revenue, and occasionally due to power struggles about how that revenue is divided.

Media rights clips from March 27 to April 9

The RDA Television and IEC in Sports agencies have secured an initial one-year deal to jointly market the global broadcast rights, excluding the UK, for the World Club 7s rugby union competition.

Public-service broadcaster RTE remains in contention with pay-television broadcaster Setanta Sports and commercial broadcaster TV3 for the Irish television rights to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, according to the Irish Times.

UK pay-television broadcasters BT Sport and BSkyB have reached a deal over coverage of the new European club rugby union competitions that are set to replace the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups from next season, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

BeIN Sports has submitted a formal complaint to the Autorité de la Concurrence, the French competition authority, after pay-television rival Canal Plus was awarded Top 14 rights by France’s Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the body that operates the rugby union club competition.

Senior executives from UK pay-television broadcasters BT Sport and BSkyB are open to a potential deal to share broadcast coverage of European club rugby union’s top tournament, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Media rights clips from February 27 to March 12

News UK adds top rugby clips for its stable of newspapers

The International Rugby Board, rugby union’s global governing body, has announced it will provide free live streaming of the key 2015 World Cup qualifier between Georgia and Romania, which takes place in Tblisi on Saturday.

Pay-television broadcaster BSkyB has acquired rights in the UK and Ireland to this year’s Women’s World Cup and Junior World Championship rugby union tournaments.

Premiership Rugby, the governing body of the English top-tier rugby union club competition, has entered into a partnership with News UK that will allow the newspaper publishing group’s online titles access to post-match clips from Premiership matches.

Media rights clips from January 30 to February 12