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#Post#: 146047--------------------------------------------------
ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: December 18, 2025, 7:45 am
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Move comes after channel won rights to show inaugural Nations
Championship
Gavin Mairs
Chief Rugby Union Correspondent
ITV already have the rights to all of England’s Six Nations
matches until 2029
ITV are to deepen their commitment to rugby union by extending
their deal to broadcast live Prem Rugby games to 2028, Telegraph
Sport can reveal.
The move comes after ITV secured the broadcasting rights for the
inaugural Nations Championship – the new 12-team competition
featuring all the Six Nations and their major southern
hemisphere rivals, plus Fiji and Japan – after tabling a bid of
£90m to ensure that every home nation’s Test match next year
will be shown on free-to-air television.
ITV had already secured the rights to all of England’s Six
Nations matches until 2029 and is the favourite to secure the
rights to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
This new extension to its current deal with Prem Rugby will see
it broadcast seven games live, including the final on ITV 1, for
another two seasons, with an option to extend again to 2029. As
well as the final, ITV will also broadcast high-profile league
matches, such as Harlequins against Bristol at Twickenham on
Saturday – the so-called “Big Game” – which is being shown on
ITV 4.
The deal complements the contract with TNT, which earlier this
year signed a new agreement to show all the Prem games until
2031.
‘Real game-changer for the sport’
The free-to-air element helps to gain greater exposure for the
sport. The record for a TV audience for the Premiership final
was in 2022, which was shown on ITV and BT Sport, which drew an
audience of 1.3 million viewers.
This year’s final on June 20 is on course to be the quickest
sell-out on record and insiders hope that interest generated by
the coverage of the Six Nations on ITV and BBC – and in the
upcoming Nations Championship – should further propel interest.
ITV is expected to take the whole TNT production for this year’s
final, and can use it to promote their coverage of the Nations
Championship, which opens with England taking on South Africa in
Johannesburg on July 4.
“Having so much rugby – both club and internationals – on free
to air next year is a real game-changer for the sport,” said one
insider. “Particularly now we have club and country aligned on
the same free-to-air channel for the next three years –
including the first ever Nations Championship.”
Telegraph Sport revealed earlier this month that ITV had made a
surprise bid for the Nations Championship, surpassing the £63m
that ITV and the BBC paid for the Six Nations Championship in a
new four-year deal earlier this year. It represented a shift
away from major sports – such as football, cricket and Formula
One – moving to pay TV and was regarded as a major boost to the
new tournament.
#Post#: 146061--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: DOK
Date: December 19, 2025, 3:35 am
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--- Quote ---
> Harlequins against Bristol at Twickenham on Saturday – the
so-called “Big Game” – which is being shown on ITV 4.
--- End Quote ---
What does he mean "so-called"? If there's any premiership game
which deserves that epithet, it's the one Harlequins run every
year that sells out (well, maybe not this year) Twickenham. This
is now the 17th "so-called" Big Game! Huge congratulations to
the club for putting it on every year and for the blood , sweat
and tears that goes into organising it and delivering such a
good product.
With a usual crowd of 80,000+, how big a game does he want
before we deserve that title?
#Post#: 146063--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: December 19, 2025, 3:43 am
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I think it's because you could rightly call a lot of other
matches the Big Game and have it be a more appropriate moniker
but it does seem a little sour
#Post#: 146064--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: December 19, 2025, 3:56 am
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It's not called the "Big Game" because it deserves the title;
Quins call it that.
As Jammy says, it might seem a bit churlish but outside the core
of Premiership rugby followers there a few million other rugby
followers who may well be wondering why a game between 5th and
8th out of 10 is in any way a "Big Game".
I noticed on the Sky TV guide that ITV don't use the term.
#Post#: 146067--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: Yareet
Date: December 19, 2025, 4:40 am
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With less-quartered specs on, I didn't read it as salty at all -
"so-called" as in "known as" rather than "has the arrogance to
call itself"
#Post#: 146068--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: poorfour
Date: December 19, 2025, 5:01 am
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--- Quote from: Yareet link ---
>
> With less-quartered specs on, I didn't read it as salty at all
- "so-called" as in "known as" rather than "has the arrogance to
call itself"
>
--- End Quote ---
That's a little generous to the author - "so called" normally
has an undertone of "they call it this, but it's not really
justified".
In practice, it is justified. Over the past two decades, it's
consistently the biggest game in the Prem calendar, and in club
rugby globally. It's set multiple world records for a regular
league game (though I think one of Sarries' Wembley efforts
holds the attendance record, and will do until HQ gets more
seats) and for a women's league game. And it was the first to
call itself the Big Game, much like the Boat Race and Varsity
Match have claims on their titles...
#Post#: 146070--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: December 19, 2025, 5:29 am
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I mean, I love The Big Game most years, but quite obviously the
final still trumps it on all counts. Let's not get too precious
over a marketing term.
#Post#: 146071--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: never sleep
Date: December 19, 2025, 6:03 am
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--- Quote from: JammyGit link ---
>
> I mean, I love The Big Game most years, but quite obviously
the final still trumps it on all counts. Let's not get too
precious over a marketing term.
>
--- End Quote ---
Sometimes you are so wrong Jammy :-)
It may trump Big Game on some counts, but not all.
Big Game
- is a double header
- fireworks (I know that the final may have fireworks too, but
you can't normally see them as it isn't dark at that time of
year)
- usually has a big name entertainment act
- has the entertainment zone for the family / kids
#Post#: 146078--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: December 19, 2025, 6:36 am
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--- Quote from: never sleep link ---
>
> Sometimes you are so wrong Jammy :-)
> It may trump Big Game on some counts, but not all.
>
> Big Game
> - is a double header
> - fireworks (I know that the final may have fireworks too, but
you can't normally see them as it isn't dark at that time of
year)
> - usually has a big name entertainment act
> - has the entertainment zone for the family / kids
>
--- End Quote ---
plus it also has Harlequins playing in it, which the final
almost never does
#Post#: 146083--------------------------------------------------
Re: ITV ramp up rugby coverage with new Prem deal
DIR By: poorfour
Date: December 19, 2025, 6:55 am
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--- Quote from: JammyGit link ---
>
> plus it also has Harlequins playing in it, which the final
almost never does
>
--- End Quote ---
To be fair, though, the Final has been excellent every time
Quins have played in it. Maybe the powers that be should
consider scheduling them for that fixture more often. Would it
help if we offered to bring our own fireworks?
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