The UK’s BBC public-service broadcaster has today unveiled exclusive domestic rights to next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, taking place in England.
The BBC will provide free-to-air (FTA) coverage of every tournament fixture on its BBC iPlayer streaming service (also available through the broadcaster’s online site and mobile app). There will also be linear coverage of select fixtures.
For the last Women’s Rugby World Cup, which took place three years ago in New Zealand (delayed one year because of Covid-19 pandemic), commercial FTA network ITV held rights.
This announcement comes with exactly one year to go until the start of the rugby union tournament, which will run between August 22 and September 27, 2025.
Live audio coverage, meanwhile, will be provided by BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra.
In addition to its World Cup coverage, meanwhile, the BBC has also snapped up rights to WXV, the qualifying tournament for the World Cup.
Elsewhere in terms of its women’s rugby union coverage, the BBC has exclusive UK rights to the Women’s Six Nations Northern Hemisphere national teams tournament. A deal to that effect, with the men’s edition jointly covered by the BBC and ITV, runs through 2025, and GlobalData has estimated it as being worth just over $500 million across four editions.
Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, has said: “Next summer is set to be a huge moment for women’s sport and following coverage of WXV and the Women’s 6 Nations Championship on the BBC we’re proud to bring audiences exclusive coverage of Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 hosted in England.”
Alan Gilpin, World Rugby’s chief executive, added: “The BBC is a massive champion of women’s rugby and women’s sport more broadly and with their multi-platform, diverse programming approach and regional reach, we look forward to making history together – the biggest, most accessible and record-breaking celebration of women’s rugby ever.”
The Women’s Rugby World Cup will be staged across eight English venues.
For the men’s World Cup, ITV was the sole UK broadcaster for the 2023 edition in France.
