Premier Sports deal will bring some clarity for rugby fans who can afford it

It was announced on Wednesday that for the next three years at least Premier Sports will be the lead broadcaster for the Champions Cup.

LEAD BROADCASTER: Premier Sports has sealed a three-year deal for Champions Cup rights. Picture: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

For those who are already accustomed to spending their hard-earned cash on TV subscriptions for their sporting fix, the switch of European club rugby from TNT Sports to Premier Sports announced on Wednesday will have been met with a shrug of the shoulders.

Premier Sports’ three-year deal to become the Ireland and UK broadcaster of both the Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup from this December changes little other than an extra click of the channel button on your remote control to watch the four proud provinces mix it with their French and English club rivals in a competition intrinsically linked to the Irish rugby experience.

Those extra two or three stops down on the sports menu follow the decision by Discovery TV executives to switch the focus of TNT Sports channels here from club rugby to the Autumn Nations Series of internationals, the rights to which were acquired, or at least announced in May.

Champions Cup and Challenge Cup organisers EPCR found a willing replacement in Premier Sports, who are not unknown to Irish rugby watchers given their blanket coverage of the United Rugby Championship alongside free-to-air Irish channels RTÉ and TG4.

Likewise, the Champions Cup currently reaches into the nation’s households accessing only terrestrial coverage with one game per round in both the four-game pool stages and through the knockout rounds is shown free-to-air on RTÉ.

Yet RTÉ’s deal only has one more year to run and the national broadcaster was not forthcoming on its plans beyond this coming 2024-25 season when contacted by the Irish Examiner on Wednesday.

“RTÉ has rights for the upcoming Champions Cup season. No further details are available at this time,” was the succinct response and that will not ease concerns that Europe’s elite club competition could disappear from the screens of those unable or unwilling to delve deeper into their pockets for pay-per-view channels.

Twelve months is a long time in the world of broadcasting rights and deals are often finalised on the eve of the competitions due to be aired but rugby watchers tired of scrambling through their TV guides to track down the match of their choice on the myriad channels will not appreciate too many more additions to their menu.

Professional rugby from club and province to Test matches is already spread thinly with the Six Nations shared between RTÉ and Virgin Media, the URC on the aforementioned three different channels, the summer Tests and next summer’s Lions tour to Australia on Sky Sports and English Premiership matches on TNT in addition to the November internationals.

Premier Sports also holds the Irish broadcast rights to the French Top 14 league competition and EPCR’s announcement on Wednesday spoke of their new partner’s intention to roll out a dedicated 24/7 rugby channel, thus becoming “the most comprehensive ‘home of rugby’ across UK and Ireland” with the Champions Cup and URC at the heart of the output.

Which will bring clarity of a sort, to those who can afford it.