BT wins European Rugby Challenge Cup rights

BT Sport has won the right to exclusively show live coverage of the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup from next year.

The new deal, starting from the 2018/19 season, will see BT Sport showing all of the best European Club Rugby matches until at least 2021/22. With some of the best players in the world such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Dan Carter, Johnny Sexton, Sam Warburton and Stuart Hogg all competing, up to 134 matches over nine weekends will be broadcast in both competitions and will be shown live on BT Sport.

BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight programme will continue to complement live coverage.

At least 22 clubs from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland compete in both tournaments per season with their matches televised on BT Sport.

Andy Haworth, BT’s managing director of content and strategy, said:
“BT Sport is now the home of elite European rugby, as well as the home of Aviva Premiership Rugby. We’re proud to have won all of the live rights for this fantastic competition. We’re extremely passionate about our rugby coverage and will continue to work hard to grow the profile of the sport.”

Vincent Gaillard, CEO EPCR, said
“We are delighted to move to a single pay-TV platform for European club rugby with a premium broadcaster in BT Sport, who share our commitment to the promotion of our competitions. We look forward to further developing that relationship to continually create outstanding rugby experiences for fans across the United Kingdom and Ireland.”