Advanced Television

Premier Sports scores Japanese & USA rugby rights

March 19, 2025

Premier Sports will show live rugby coverage from Japan’s Rugby League One (JRL1) and USA’s Major League Rugby (MLR) as part of its new dedicated 24/7 rugby channel – Premier Sports Rugby. The new channel is available on the Premier Sports streaming platform for customers and soon to launch on Sky Glass, Sky Stream, Virgin and Prime Video in the UK.

The two new additions to Premier Sports’ live rugby coverage will see the UK broadcaster host more than 400 live rugby games every season from competitions across 11 rugby nations.  Premier Sports customers can access all live sports content from £11.99 per month.

Premier Sports coverage of Japanese Rugby and MLR will feature live on its rugby channel, Premier Sports Rugby, alongside its other platforms which host rugby coverage including every game from BKT United Rugby Championship, 80 live games from Investec Champions Cup/EPCR Challenge Cup and 110 games from France’s Top 14.

UK rugby fans can tune in to see two live pool stages games from JRL1 and MLR every weekend plus end of season play-off games from both competitions in 2025 and the 2026/7 season, with the option to extend the partnerships after the initial two-year agreements. Japanese League One coverage on March 22nd includes a rematch of last season’s final as champions Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo face Damian de Allende’s Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights.

Announcing the new rugby rights, Chief Executive of Premier Sports Richard Sweeney, commented: “We are very excited and delighted to be able to bring our UK rugby fans even more premium rugby from around the globe as part of our new rugby channel, Premier Sports Rugby. We hope adding these two international rugby competitions to our rugby family will really excite UK rugby fans. We now offer five premium rugby competitions under one roof in an easy to access one-stop shop platform, which is something that rugby fans have been asking for and gives our customers even more value for money. The addition of top-flight Japanese pro rugby and the chance to watch its host of world rugby stars plus the hugely popular MLR from the USA live every weekend, gives fresh and intriguing new rugby viewing for our customers. As we have done with Top 14 – which has seen huge growth with viewing numbers increase significantly over the past year – we want to give fans access to the best club rugby from across the globe. We aim to be an integral part of the rugby communities we broadcast; to promote the very best players in the world as well as emerging talent and to highlight different cultures and rugby perspectives from a range of rugby leagues around the world.  We’re now opening a window into Japan and USA’s rugby scenes and we really hope rugby customers enjoy it.”

“To create UK rugby’s first ever dedicated rugby channel is an exciting step forward for us.  Securing a new partnership with EPCR last summer for three years for Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup gave real energy to our plans to showcase exciting rugby competitions and players from around the world – as well as shining a spotlight on emerging players and leagues as well and the heritage of the game. The channel gives us the depth to cover even more rugby. Like all those involved in the game, we want to be part of the drive to engage and attract new audiences, younger rugby fans and keep giving our customers more diverse and fresh rugby to watch. This is just the start of the journey for our new rugby channel. We will continue to evolve it over time. We will look to add more live rugby and unique content including new podcasts, to showcase great European rugby contests of the past and expand our schools rugby content alongside our current coverage of Irish schools rugby,” added Sweeney.

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