Sky Sports secures five-year deal with RFU

by Alison Donnelly, Marketing 03-Nov-08, 18:00

LONDON - Sky Sports has won a new five-year deal with the Rugby Football Union to continue showing live English rugby from 2010.

Under the agreement, all England matches played at home or overseas - outside the Six Nations and Rugby World Cup - will be exclusively live on Sky Sports.

The deal gives Sky Sports more live rugby, including international, domestic, women's and youth matches than ever before and it will take the relationship between the RFU and Sky Sports into an 18th year with an extended range of rights.

The deal includes online rights and live matches will be simulcast on Sky Sports channels on Sky Player - the online TV service.

Rights include:

All England home matches outside the RBS 6 Nations exclusively live, including the Autumn Investec Challenge series at Twickenham and Rugby World Cup warm-up matches, plus all away matches, including summer tours to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa over the five-year period.

Exclusively live coverage of England Saxons matches, including the Barclays Churchill Cup and Barbarians games, England Under- 20s matches, England Under 18s matches and the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup in England.

Starting in 2010-11 there will also be coverage of the County Championship finals , the England Counties XV, the Varsity Match, the Army v Navy match, the IRB World Sevens Series and the Middlesex Sevens.

Sky will also have live match coverage and highlights rights to the RFU's proposed new competitions currently under discussion - the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the Anglo-Welsh Trophy, the Championship (previously National League One) and the National Clubs Championship - which are expected to commence by 2010-11.