ITV, the UK commercial broadcaster, has reinforced its rugby offering after securing a two-year extension to its long-standing rights agreement with Prem Rugby, English rugby union’s top-tier league.
The new agreement will see ITV continue to broadcast seven live matches free-to-air per season, including the final, on its ITV1 linear channel and ITVX streaming service for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons.
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The main rights package for Prem Rugby in the UK is held by pay-TV broadcaster TNT Sports, which secured an early renewal for its rights back in May 2025.
TNT Sports, whose deal runs through 2031, will simultaneously broadcast the same matches ITV covers live.
Across ITV and TNT Sports, last year’s final between Bath Rugby and Leicester Tigers drew a combined audience of 1.3 million.
Ollie Lewis, head of broadcast for Prem Rugby, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with ITV, which is now into its fifth year.
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By GlobalData“Giving fans of Gallagher PREM Rugby free-to-air access across the season, alongside the Six Nations, is the perfect blend to showcase the stars of our league to wider audiences.”
The extension comes as ITV looks to consolidate its rugby portfolio, having recently secured rights to the Nations Championship, the international rugby union competition debuting this year, and renewing its deal for the Six Nations competition earlier in 2025.
The broadcaster placed a successful £80 million ($106.3 million) bid to land the rights to the new biennial Nations Championship, and, together with its Six Nations rights, will show every England rugby union test from this year.
The Nations Championship deal gives ITV the right to show every game in the new 12-team competition for the first two editions. The competition was launched as a joint venture between the European Six Nations collective (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy) and the main southern hemisphere rugby nations of New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina.
Two more nations will be invited to compete in the tournament, with matches played in July and November every two years.
ITV’s Six Nations deal, meanwhile, will see the broadcaster continue to split the rights for the next four editions of the tournament with UK public-service broadcaster, the BBC, with ITV gaining 10 fixtures per year, including every England game, as it is paying a greater share of the joint £63 million fee.
Under a new tournament structure announced last month, the Six Nations will tour the southern hemisphere for three tests in July, with England beginning their campaign against South Africa in Johannesburg, followed by hosting Australia, Japan, and New Zealand in November, culminating in a final series.
The 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia will also be broadcast live on ITV, as it has been since 1991.
Prem Rugby, meanwhile, has sought to boost its international visibility, having secured US coverage through a rights deal with OTT sports subscription service FloSports.
Six months ago, the league rebranded from Premiership Rugby to Prem Rugby in a move designed to attract new demographics and commercial partners to the sport.
At the time, Premiership Rugby chief growth officer Rob Calder told Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) the shift would allow the league to target new commercial markets that it had touched upon far less in previous years.
He said: “There are more stories to tell. For us in Prem Rugby, it's about energy, dynamism, and power, so you can read into that what kind of categories we would want to see more of, but that's where we’re leaning into, because we want our partners, where possible, to be part of the marketing mix.”
Domestically, the league entered a social media and digital content strategy tie-up with UK sports and TV production firm Whisper, which is now handling both social and digital content and storytelling for the 10-team Prem, including the management of the league's social media channels.
The production company will also work alongside TNT Sports to work on 'digital storytelling' on the broadcaster's coverage, as well as secure access to talent.
Prem Rugby has defined its strategy as athlete-led, aiming to deepen relationships with both clubs and players around content creation.
