English rugby union’s Premiership will continue to be covered free-to-air (FTA) domestically by commercial broadcaster ITV for the next two seasons.
Through a tie-up renewal unveiled earlier today, and running through 2025-26, ITV will continue to cover seven Premiership Rugby fixtures – including the final – FTA.
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These games will also be shown by the league’s main domestic partner, pay-TV operator TNT Sports, which has a deal in place (agreed in March) with the 10-team league also running through 2025-26. That agreement involves every match being shown on TNT, with the total rights fee having been reported as worth just over $56 million across two years.
ITV, meanwhile, has provided live coverage of Premiership Rugby action since January 2022, with that first deal having run through the 2023-24 season.
In addition to the live coverage element, a rebranded version of the Gallagher Premiership Unleashed highlights show will air each Wednesday night throughout the season.
The first live 2024-25 Premiership game on ITV is set to be Bath Rugby against Bristol Bears on Thursday (October 5).
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By GlobalDataThe other live games will include Leicester Tigers against Gloucester on October 19 and Leicester taking on Harlequins at the iconic Twickenham stadium on December 28.
The other three fixtures will be revealed in due course.
The extended tie-up comes as a welcome boost to the Premiership after a report into the league’s finances (published earlier this month) revealed that seven of the 10 member clubs are technically balance-sheet insolvent.
The study concluded that only three clubs – Leicester, Northampton Saints and Gloucester – would be viable without the backing of wealthy owners.
In an effort to create financial stability for the game, Premiership Rugby recently announced a long-term partnership with the RFU and the Rugby Players Association to revamp the governance of English domestic rugby union.
The three organizations have teamed up to create a new Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP) after 18 months of collaboration.
In June, it was revealed that the 2023-24 Premiership’s showpiece final broke a number of the league’s broadcast records.
The June clash between Northampton Saints and Bath at Twickenham was broadcast by both TNT Sports and ITV and drew a peak audience of 1.25 million.
On ITV specifically, the peak audience was the highest for a Premiership broadcast on the channel while the average viewership across ITV and TNT was the third highest ever.
This season's Gallagher Premiership is running between September 20 and June 14.
