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Premier Sports face a battle to retain the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup TV rights in the UK and Ireland, and their current deal is entering its third and final year.
In what could be their final season as rights holders, the Champions Cup broadcast begins on Friday night at Kingsholm as Gloucester take the defending champion Bordeaux-Begles.
As in previous seasons, all 63 matches in this season’s Champions Cup will be covered live, as well as two EPCR Challenge Cup pool matches per round, two EPCR Challenge Cup Round of 16 matches and all quarter-final, semi-final and final matches.
Premier Sports has replaced TNT Sports as the home of EPCR competitions as early as 2024 in a cut-price deal, as the Irish broadcaster added the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup to its comprehensive club rugby.
As holders of rights to United Rugby Championship and the French Top 14, who also have a Champions Cup and Challenge Cup that align well with their strategy to become a destination for club rugby.
Premier Sports’ commitment to rugby now extends to another code, with the subscription channel showing the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off tomorrow, 24 hours before the Champions Cup curtain-raiser.
But EPCR will push for a better deal when talks begin on a new Champions Cup/Challenge Cup partnership, after the rights were reportedly sold to Premier Sports for £6m after TNT’s £14m bid was initially rejected.
Now that the takeover is Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance complete, new owners of TNT Sports appear to have cash to spare to boost shrinking portfolio of sports rights.
The Europa League and Conference League will move to Sky Sports from 2027/2028, while TNT, which continues to cover Gallagher PREM, lost out to ITV for the rights to the inaugural Rugby Nations Championship.
While Premier Sports enjoyed a 27% increase in audience reach at the end of last season’s pool stages compared to the same stage the previous year, non-broadcast viewing figures were disappointing. According to Barb, only 23,000 spectators watch the final between Bordeaux-Begles and Leinster on Premier Sports, via linear/connected TV.
