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Given the length and value of recent television contracts, rugby union is waiting until the start of the new Nations Championship from 2026 before signing longer and potentially more lucrative deals with broadcasters.
By then, hopefully, what is currently a fairly disjointed TV offering will be simpler, because as the 2024-25 season approaches, the new campaign will test both your ability to remember all of your service provider’s channel numbers, but also, more importantly, your finances.
Following Wednesday’s announcement that the Champions Cup will be broadcast on Premier Sports for the next three years, here’s where you’ll now find rugby union coverage this season and how much it will cost month-to-month.
First, here’s how much it will cost consumers to subscribe to each service.
TNT Sports – £30.99 per month as a standalone service, £20 per month with EE TV or £28 per month with Sky
Sky Sports – £24 as an add-on to Sky TV, £26-£34.99 separately with NOW TV
Premier Sports – £10.99 per month
The TV license fee – £14.13 per month (£169.50 per year)
The most expensive options for Sky Sports – NOW TV’s flexible monthly subscription at £34.99 per month – and TNT Sports with a £30.99 Premium package through Discovery allow you to cancel at any time rather than being tied into a longer contract with BT or Sky, although this flexibility comes at a cost. Bundling Sky Sports and TNT Sports into a larger TV and broadband package with one provider has historically brought the price down, albeit over longer contract terms.
September
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Premiership Rugby (TNT), 93 matches per season, expires in 2016
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URC (Premier Sports), 151 games per season, expires in 2025
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Top 14 (Premier Sports), 110 games per season, expiration to be confirmed
Maximum monthly cost (including average monthly license fee): £56.11
The latest TNT deal for Premiership Rugby, announced earlier this year, is said to be on reduced terms compared to the previous three-year deal which expired in 2024, primarily due to the reduction in the number of Gallagher Premiership clubs from 13 to 10.
Premier Sports already broadcast more club rugby than any other channel with the URC and Top 14, so the launch of a 24/7 rugby channel, announced in its press release confirming the Champions Cup deal, makes sense.
October
Maximum monthly cost: £56.11
The second season of Premiership Women’s Rugby on TNT will begin, following a multi-year deal announced in 2014.
November
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Autumn Nations Series (TNT), 21 games per season, expires in 2025
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Premier League Rugby Championship (TNT)
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Women’s Rugby Championship (TNT)
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URC (Premier Sports)
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Top 14 (Premier Sports)
Maximum monthly cost: £56.11
TNT’s decision to take over the rights to the Autumn Tests, taking them away from Amazon Prime, means that it will have to give up the rights to European rugby. It’s an understandable decision in terms of audience, given that interest in England and Test rugby is higher than in any other domestic competition, and as part of a well-established production, the Autumn Tests should be a huge success.
December
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Champions Cup and Challenge Cup (Premier Sports), 80 matches per season, expires in 2027
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Premier League Rugby Championship (TNT)
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Women’s Rugby Championship (TNT)
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URC (Premier Sports)
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Top 14 (Premier Sports)
Maximum monthly cost: £56.11
Premier Sports begins European coverage, becoming the fifth broadcaster to show the competition in the UK after ITV (1996–98), BBC (1999–2003), Sky (2003–18) and BT Sport/TNT Sports (2016–24).
January
Maximum monthly cost: £56.11
FEBRUARY
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Six Nations Championship (BBC/ITV), expires in 2025
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Women’s Rugby Championship (TNT)
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URC (Premier Sports)
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Top 14 (Premier Sports)
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Super Rugby Pacific (Sky), expires in 2025
Maximum monthly cost: £91.10
This is the final year of the current television deal between the BBC and ITV for the broadcast of the Six Nations, which has been free-to-air since 2003. Earlier reports suggested that an agreement in principle was in place to continue sharing coverage of the men’s and women’s Six Nations.
Sky, once the home of all your rugby needs in the noughties, now has to make do with southern hemisphere action, including England’s recent tour of New Zealand. That deal with Sanzaar expires in 2025.
March
Maximum monthly cost: £91.10
The Premiership Women’s Rugby final will take place in March, leaving TNT to hold the Premiership and Champions Cup for the remainder of the season.
April
Maximum monthly cost: £91.10
Can
Maximum monthly cost: £91.10
European coverage on Premier Sports concludes with the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup finals on 23 and 24 May in Cardiff.
June
Maximum monthly cost: £91.10
Sky’s coverage of the Lions tour will begin on June 20 with the warm-up match against Argentina in Dublin, having previously shown every tour since 1997. Otherwise, there will be the Premiership and URC finals (both on June 14) and the Top 14 finals (on June 28).
July
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British and Irish Lions Tour (Sky)
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Southern Hemisphere Tours (Sky)
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Super Rugby Pacific (Sky)
Maximum monthly cost: £49.12
Next summer’s tours are yet to be confirmed but England are set to play two Tests in Argentina and one in the United States. The Tests in Argentina would be covered by the Sanzaar agreement.
August
*Telegraph Sport reported last May that the BBC was set to win the race to broadcast the Women’s Rugby World Cup ahead of ITV and Channel 4.
Maximum monthly cost: £49.12
