Welcome to the Rugby Broadcast Report, a weekly newsletter covering the weekend’s televised rugby action and the latest developments in rugby media rights.
The URC and PREM continue across the weekend, while the opening round of England’s second division Champ Rugby is back on Friday night, with all fixtures this season being shown live for the first time on Clubber TV. One fixture will be broadcast for free each weekend.
The final round of an incredible Rugby Championship takes pace on Saturday, while there is also coverage of the Top 14, Pro D2, NPC, Super Rugby Cymru, Super Rugby Australia, AIL, and the Rugby Europe Conference being shown over the the weekend.
Irish and UK kick-off and broadcast details for all televised games are listed below.*
Fixture of the weekend (admittedly biased)
Bledisloe Cup: Australia v New Zealand
Kick-off: Saturday, 10:45am IST / BST
TV: Sky Sports Mix / NOW
Verdict: Australia by 3
Quote of the week
The rugby media rights landscape is highly fragmented, and following your favourite team often means juggling multiple subscriptions – an increasingly costly affair for fans.
However, this reality is not unique to rugby union. As media analyst Dan Rayburn's LinkedIn post illustrates, watching the Yankees baseball team in 2026 could require 12 separate subscriptions for fans based in the US.
There are other sports and competitions too that have distributed media rights to multiple different broadcasters, which in turn increases the cost for fans and makes it more difficult to figure out where to watch each fixure. While this can be frustrating from a fan’s perspective and have a negative impact on the availability and popularity of a sport, maximising media rights revenue is seen as a necessity. This is particularly the case at a time when many rugby clubs are struggling financially.
Stat of the week
5.8 million – the peak audience that tuned into the Women’s Rugby World Cup final in the UK, to make it the most-watched women’s rugby game ever in the UK and the most-watched rugby fixture so far in 2025.
Rugby media rights news
According to City AM, the BBC is planning to bid for the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup. ITV has held the rights since 1991 but City AM is reporting that World Rugby is exploring offering multiple rights packages that could see both the BBC and ITV split the live rights.
On this week’s Rugby Pod, PREM Rugby’s Rob Calder revealed that there was a 7% increase in viewership on TNT Sports for the opening round of this year’s PREM Rugby season, compared to the opening round last season. What makes this statistic even more positive from the PREM’s perspective is that the opening round included a Thursday night fixture, no games on Saturday and it was competing with other sporting events such as the Ryder Cup.
As previously mentioned, the final of Women’s RWC attracted impressive viewing figures on the BBC in the UK. World Rugby also revealed that viewership in the UK was up a staggering 445% compared to the 2021 Women’s RWC. In a similar vein, French journalist Gauthier Baudin reported that the French women’s team attracted over 18 millions viewers in France throughout the competition.
Chasing The Sun 2 has officially been nominated for an Emmy for the Best Sports Documentary. The documentary is based South Africa’s victoroius 2023 World Cup campaign. It was previously released in Ireland and the UK on RugbyPass TV but it is no longer available on the platform.
The URC has announced that BBC Wales will broadcast highlights and provide live radio coverage of the URC until 2027. The highlights will continue on Scrum V, which is available on BBC Wales and BBC iPlayer. Short-form highlights will also be published on the BBC website and app as part of the new partnership.
The URC has introduced an independent TMO system this seeason, which uses Hawk-Eye technology and gives TMOs direct access to all broadcast feeds, reducing the reliance on the broadcaster providing the relevant angles via a video operator in the broadcast truck. This is designed to speed up reviews, improve accuracy on foul play and scoring decisions, and support the trial of the 20-minute red card. The URC is the first major club competition to adopt such a model.
Here’s your full TV guide for this weekend’s action:
Thursday 2 October
7:30pm – Swansea v Newport (Super Rugby Cymru) – S4C Clic / iPlayer / YouTube
8:00pm – Dax v Vannes (Pro D2) – YouTube
Friday 3 October
7:10am – North Harbour v Southland (NPC Rugby) – Sky Sports Mix / NOW
6:00pm – Stormers v Ospreys (URC) – Premier Sports 2 / NOW / URC TV
7:45pm – Bath v Sale (Premiership) – TNT Sports 1 / Discovery+ / NOW
7:45pm – Nottingham v Doncaster Knights (Championship) – Clubber TV
8:05pm – Dragons v Sharks (URC) – S4C / BBC iPlayer / YouTube / Premier Sports 2 / NOW / URC TV
8:05pm – Edinburgh v Ulster (URC) – Premier Sports 1 / NOW / URC TV
Saturday 4 October
10:45am – Australia v New Zealand (Rugby Championship) – Sky Sports Mix / NOW
1:00pm – Hungary v Serbia (Rugby Europe Conference) – Rugby Europe TV
1:00pm – Austria v Slovenia (Rugby Europe Conference) – Rugby Europe TV
1:00pm – Bulgaria v Türkiye (Rugby Europe Conference) – Rugby Europe TV
1:00pm – Bosnia & Herzegovina v Montenegro (Rugby Europe Conference) – Rugby Europe TV
1:30pm – Montpellier v La Rochelle (Top 14) – Premier Sports Rugby / Unavailable live in ROI
1:45pm – Connacht v Scarlets (URC) – TG4 / Premier Sports 2 / NOW / URC TV
2:00pm – Argentina v South Africa (Rugby Championship) – Sky Sports Mix / NOW
2:00pm – Worcester v Coventry (Championship) – Clubber TV
2:30pm – Cornish Pirates v Hartpury (Championship) – Clubber TV
3:00pm – Richmond v Chinnor (Championship) – Clubber TV
3:00pm – Cambridge v Ampthill (Championship) – Clubber TV
3:00pm – Caldy v London Scottish (Championship) – Clubber TV
3:00pm – Exeter v Newcastle (Premiership) – TNT Sports Extra / Discovery+ / Unavailable on NOW
3:05pm – Leicester v Harlequins (Premiership) – TNT Sports 1 / Discovery+ / NOW
4:00pm – Bedford Blues v Ealing Trailfinders (Championship) – Clubber TV
4:00pm – UL Bohemians v Railway Union (Women’s AIL) – Irish Rugby+
5:30pm – Saracens v Bristol (Premiership) – TNT Sports 1 / Discovery+ / NOW
5:30pm – Bulls v Leinster (URC) – Premier Sports (Online only in UK) / Premier Sports 1 (ROI only) / Unavailable live on URC TV
5:30pm – Benetton v Glasgow (URC) – Premier Sports 1 / NOW / URC TV
7:45pm – Munster v Cardiff (URC) – TG4 / Premier Sports 1 / NOW / URC TV
8:00pm – Bordeaux v Lyon (Top 14) – Premier Sports Rugby / Unavailable live in ROI
Sunday 5 October
4:00am – Western Force v Waratahs (Super Rugby Australia Final) – YouTube
3:00pm – Zebre v Lions (URC) – Premier Sports 1 / NOW / URC TV
3:00pm – Gloucester v Northampton (Premiership) – TNT Sports 1 / Discovery+ / NOW
8:05pm – Bayonne v Toulouse (Top 14) – Premier Sports Rugby / Unavailable live in ROI
Useful links (all free)
Irish Rugby+ (AIL)
Rugby Europe TV (Rugby Europe Conference)
YouTube (Pro D2)
YouTube (URC)
YouTube (Super Rugby Australia)
YouTube (Super Rugby Cymru)
Clubber TV (Free coverage of Worcester v Coventry only)
Final thoughts
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*Information subject to change. Website version of this guide will be updated if required.