Australia’s free-to-air commercial broadcaster Nine Network has struck a new exclusive media rights agreement with the World Rugby governing body to exclusively show all men's and women’s Rugby World Cup competitions through 2029.
The 2025 and 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cups, and the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup, will all be broadcast by Nine through its Stan Sport OTT service, which will showcase every fixture from the tournaments both live, and delayed on demand, while the highest profile games, including Australian national team games, will be distributed across the linear 9Network channel, and the 9Now OTT service.
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Other international rugby union competitions that Nine will cover under the wide-ranging deal include the youth category World Rugby U20 Championship in 2025, the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup, women’s rugby’s annual WXV tournaments from 2026 onwards, and the global touring World Rugby Sevens Series between 2025 and 2029.
Speaking on the partnership, Nine chief executive Matt Stanton said: “It’s not just the fans that benefit from this partnership with World Rugby, our sponsors and advertisers know they can trust Nine to elevate their brands and engage with audiences in a meaningful and impactful way that adds to the experience for our audiences.”
This deal is of particular importance to the Australian market as the 2027 and 2029 World Cups will both take place in the country, which will host the events for the first time since 2003.
In addition, the 2027 Rugby World Cup will be the first to feature 24 teams, four more than the 2023 edition that took place in France.
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By GlobalDataAustralia’s rugby union recently agreed a bumper domestic rights extension with Nine through 2030, meaning that coverage will be centralized on Nine through the end of the decade.
Nine claims it has grown audiences over its tenure, which began in 2020 on a cut-price deal, citing 17% linear TV growth in audiences and 11% Stan Sport viewership growth year on year.
Nine previously covered the 2021 Women’s World Cup (played in 2022) and the 2023 Men’s World Cup.
