Sportcal

TNT Sports hits rugby union viewing high as England beat All Blacks

The pay-TV broadcaster has held Nations Series rights in the UK since last year.

The encounter between England and New Zealand in London on Saturday (November 15) secured a record-breaking audience figure for rugby union on domestic broadcaster TNT Sports.

That pay-TV network, owned by media and entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), secured a 27% rise in audience numbers compared to the same fixture last year, with England beating the iconic All Blacks on home soil for the first time since 2012, winning a pulsating game 33-19.

The peak figure came as England's George Ford scored a late penalty to - realistically - take the game beyond New Zealand.

It has now been recorded that no single rugby union fixture has ever reached a wider audience on TNT Sports (which, aside from its coverage of the Nations Series across November, also covers England's domestic Premiership club competition). The latter deal runs through 2030-31.

Indeed, during the game - in which New Zealand took a 12-0 lead before England fought back - the volume of streaming subscribers increased by 32% from the broadcaster's previous largest rugby union audience (recorded during the equivalent England-New Zealand clash in 2024).

TNT Sports holds exclusive live Nations Series rights in the UK through a deal unveiled last April, with last year's series marking the first time the broadcaster (previously BT Sport) had covered international rugby union.

Previously, action from the Nations Series (in which Northern Hemisphere national sides host their Southern Hemisphere counterparts during October and November) was shown in the UK by the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.

Digitally, meanwhile, the live match blog run by the pay-TV network saw engagement rise 52% year-on-year, while the TNT Sports match highlights were watched by 333% more people than in 2024.

For TNT Sports' Nations Series coverage as a whole, meanwhile, the broadcaster has claimed that 22% of viewers who have tuned into its soccer coverage this season (England's Premier League and the UEFA Champions League) have now tuned in to watch the autumn internationals.