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Timeline of rugby union on UK television

Summary

This is a timeline of the history of rugby union on television in the UK.

1960s and 1970s edit

  • 1967 to 1979
    • No events.

1980s edit

  • 1980
    • 13 September – Rugby Special is moved from Sunday late afternoon to Saturday mid-evening.
  • 1981
    • 20 September – Rugby Special is moved back to its former Sunday teatime slot.
  • 1982
    • No events.
  • 1983
    • No events.
  • 1984
    • 22 September – For the second time, Rugby Special is moved from Sunday late afternoon to Saturday mid-evening.
  • 1985
    • 13 October – Rugby Special returns to Sunday afternoons but is shown at the earlier time of 2pm.
  • 1986
    • Autumn – The BBC launches regional versions of Rugby Special so that each nation can receiver fuller coverage of games from their country.
  • 1987
    • 22 May-20 June – The BBC shows mostly recorded coverage of the first Rugby World Cup. This is the only time the BBC has ever shown the competition – ITV has held the rights ever since.

1990s edit

  • 1990
    • No events.
  • 1991
    • 3 October–2 November – ITV shows full live coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup, beginning a relationship with the tournament which lasts to this day.
  • 1992
    • No events.
  • 1994
    • 11 May-11 June – ITV shows live coverage of the 1994 England rugby union tour of South Africa. In addition to showing the two test matches, ITV also broadcasts live coverage of all the tour matches. ITV also broadcast highlights of the other home countries' tour matches taking place in 1994. It shows all of the tour matches live. This is the only time that ITV broadcasts an English rugby tour.
    • 30 October – Sportscene Rugby Special launches on BBC Scotland's to cover Scottish rugby union with the live matches & highlights broadcasting on BBC Two Scotland on Sunday teatimes.[4]
  • 1996
    • November – Sky Sports begins showing live coverage of England national rugby union team’s autumn internationals, replacing the BBC which held the right for many decades.
  • 1997
    • April – BBC Wales loses their share of the rights to domestic Welsh club rugby, as the Welsh Rugby Union agrees a new 4 year deal with HTV Wales (who showed games previously in midweek), and S4C. The deal sees S4C show a live game every Saturday night, HTV Wales Sunday highlights on a new programme "The front Row". HTV Wales also allowed to show 4 live League matches, and 4 live cup matches (not including the cup final) live a season. The deal ends in 2001 when HTV Wales declined to tender again for the rights.
    • May–July – Sky Sports takes over as broadcaster of the British and Irish Lions when it shows full live coverage of the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa. In addition to the test matches, Sky also broadcasts live coverage of the tour matches.
    • 31 May – Even though Channel 5 had said that it hadn't been intending to show live sport at peak time, it buys the rights to one of England's qualifying matches for the 1998 World Cup and two international games of England's rugby union tour of Argentina.
  • 1998
    • February – For the first time, the BBC does not show England's matches in the Five Nations Championships. Live coverage is on Sky Sports and highlights are on ITV.
  • 1999
    • October – The BBC takes over as broadcaster of the Heineken Cup, although it had shown some action from the tournament in some parts of the UK for the previous two seasons.

2000s edit

  • 2000
    • Channel 5 broadcasts weekly highlights of the Aviva Premiership, and does so for just one season.
  • 2001
    • May – The four year deal between HTV Wales and S4C for the coverage of Welsh domestic club rugby ends. HTV Wales elects not to tender for the new deal, and BBC Wales and S4C take over, with the new deal giving each channel a live game each weekend, thus two live matches a weekend. BBC Wales show theirs on a Friday night, S4C a Saturday night as per the previous deal.
    • 11 August – The ITV Sport Channel launches. Although the channel is mostly focussed on football it does show other sport, including the secondary rights to the Heineken Cup.
  • 2003
    • 22 October – Sky becomes the new broadcaster of rugby union's European clubs tournament Heineken Cup, replacing the BBC which had shown the tournament since the late 1990s.
  • 2004
    • No events.
  • 2005
    • After nearly 40 years on air, Rugby Special ends although it does return on an ad hoc basis a decade later.
  • 2006
    • No events.
  • 2007
    • No events.
  • 2008
    • No events.
  • 2009
    • 30 July – ESPN announces that they will cover the French Top 14 live. In addition, ESPN broadcasts live international clashes featuring New Zealand, Samoa and South Africa.
    • 6 September – The first edition of Scottish television's rugby union programme STV Rugby is broadcast after a deal with the Celtic League Association, Scottish Rugby and STV was reached, following the closure of Setanta Sports in the UK.

2010s edit

  • 2010
    • 16 July – ESPN begins showing the pre-season J.P. Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series Series.[7] The new tournament, which took place over July and August 2010, involves all 12 Premiership Rugby clubs competing in Friday evening games. The broadcaster also showed the 2011 and 2012 tournaments. BT Sport now shows this after the acquisition of ESPN by BT Sport.
    • September – ESPN starts broadcasting live coverage of 43 matches per season from the English Premiership.[8] The agreement also provides highlight rights for use on ESPN digital media such as ESPNScrum.com. Sky Sports will continue to show 26 live games per season plus the other semi-final.[9]
  • 2011
    • No events.
  • 2012
    • 17 August – Premier Sports buys the rights to the French Top 14 league, usually broadcasting two live games per round.[10] It shows the league for just a single season.
    • September – BT wins the rights to Premiership Rugby and its associated 7s Series, and in November it picks up the rights to American, Brazilian, French and Italian top-flight football.[11][12]
  • 2014
    • No events.
  • 2015
    • July – The BBC and ITV join forces to stop Sky Sports from picking up live coverage of the Six Nations Championship. The two terrestrial broadcasts will share coverage of the event from 2017 onwards.[14]
    • September – S4C begins showing one live match from each round of the Pro 12. It had previously shown coverage in highlights form since the league's conception as the Celtic League in 2001.
    • December – Coverage of The Varsity Match returns to free-to-air television as part of a new contract between the BBC and the RFU.[15]
  • 2017
    • February – The BBC and ITV begin a five-year contract as joint broadcasters of the Six Nations Championship. They had joined forces to prevent the tournament being sold to pay television.
    • 9–26 August – ITV and ITV4 show the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup live with the final broadcast live on ITV.[16]
    • September – Channel 5 takes over from ITV as broadcaster of highlights of the Premiership Rugby . The deal also sees five matches per season broadcast live by the channel. This is the first time that the league has been shown live on terrestrial TV. The also includes highlights of the Premiership Rugby Cup.[17]
  • 2018
    • The BBC's coverage of the PRO14 Rugby ends when the rights are sold to Premier Sports. The BBC had covered the competition since its inception in 2001.[18]
    • 12 May – Sky's coverage of the European Rugby Champions Cup ends after 15 years of coverage of the event when the rights to the tournament transfer to BT Sport. It also loses its coverage of the Pro14 competition to Premier Sports.
    • 2 June – Channel 4 shows live rugby union for the first time when it broadcasts live coverage of Wales' summer tour.[19]
    • 31 August – Premier Sports takes over as broadcaster of the PRO14 Rugby.[18] The agreement sees all 152 games per season broadcast live, with no less than 21 games (one per round) shown live free-to-air on FreeSports.[20] Sky Sports and the BBC had been the previous broadcasters – the BBC had shown the tournament since its inception in 2001. The start of the contract sees Premier Sports launch a second channel – Premier Sports 2.[21]
    • October – Channel 4 expands its rugby union coverage when it begins showing one match from each round from the Heineken Cup.[22] It also replaces Sky Sports as broadcaster of Ireland's Autumn internationals.
  • 2019
    • November – Coverage of The Varsity Match returns to ITV which shows both the men's and women's matches on ITV4.[23]

2020s edit

  • 2021
    • 3–24 April – The BBC is the exclusive broadcaster of the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship. Previously the tournament had been shared between the BBC, and Sky Sports which had shown the England matches.[27]
    • 28 May – Premier Sports begins showing coverage of French rugby union's top flight competition – Top 14.
    • July–August –
    • 27 August – BBC Northern Ireland secures a three-year deal with Ulster's United Rugby Championship (URC) to screen home matches, and will air six games over the 2021–22 season.[29]
    • 30 October – Amazon Prime Video begins showing almost all of the autumn international matches played by the six Nations countries. The only exception is Ireland's matches which are seen on Channel 4 although Ireland's games will move to Amazon in 2022.[30]
  • 2023
    • No events.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Rugby Special – BBC Two – 1 January 1966". BBC Genome. BBC. January 1966. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. ^ BBC programme Index – BBC2 2 October 1988
  3. ^ "Schedule – BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  4. ^ The Guardian – 30 October 1994 – Page 99, via Newspapers.com
  5. ^ "ITV secure Euro rugby cup deal", Evening Herald, 25 October 1995
  6. ^ Brown, David. "BBC reclaims Six Nations rugby from Sky with £70m three-year contract". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  7. ^ "ESPN to air Premiership Rugby 7s". Digital Spy. 9 June 2010.
  8. ^ "Guinness Premiership agrees ESPN deal". English Premiership. 14 December 2009. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011.
  9. ^ Conlan, Tara (14 December 2009). "ESPN buys rights to Guinness Premiership rugby matches". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  10. ^ "Wall Photos". Facebook. 17 August 2012.
  11. ^ "BT poaches Premiership Rugby rights from ESPN, Sky". Digital Spy. 12 September 2012.
  12. ^ "BT deals further blow to ESPN with new rights deals". Digital Spy. 6 November 2012.
  13. ^ SOTB (2013-06-25). "Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 live on Sky Sports". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  14. ^ Rees, Paul (2015-07-09). "BBC and ITV join forces to stop Sky winning Six Nations broadcast rights". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  15. ^ SOTB (2015-07-14). "BBC & RFU agree new England highlights deal". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  16. ^ "ITV appointed UK rights holder for men's and women's Rugby World Cup events". World Rugby. Archived from the original on 2017-02-21. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  17. ^ Meagher, Gerard (2017-05-04). "Channel 5 to show live Premiership match for the first time on terrestrial TV". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Ltd. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  18. ^ a b "Pro14 rugby broadcasting deal confirmed". BBC News. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  19. ^ SOTB (2018-05-16). "Channel 4 to show Wales summer rugby union tour". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  20. ^ Holmes, Elena (1 May 2018). "Premier Sports and FreeSports score Pro14 rights". SportsPro. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  21. ^ "Every game for only £9.99 per month! |". www.premiersports.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  22. ^ SOTB (2018-03-21). "Channel 4 secures free-to-air European Champions Cup rights". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  23. ^ SOTB (2019-11-21). "ITV4 to broadcast 2019 Varsity Rugby Matches". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  24. ^ SOTB (2020-09-11). "Prime Video & Channel 4 to screen Autumn Nations Cup". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  25. ^ SOTB (2020-09-11). "Prime Video & Channel 4 to screen Autumn Nations Cup". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  26. ^ SOTB (2020-09-14). "S4C strikes deal to show Wales' Autumn Nations Cup matches". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  27. ^ SOTB (2021-03-23). "Women's Six Nations 2021: Every match live on the BBC". Sport On The Box. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  28. ^ "The British & Irish Lions return to terrestrial television on Channel 4 | Channel 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  29. ^ "BBC NI agrees broadcast deal with URC". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  30. ^ Amazon Prime adds Rugby Union Autumn Internationals
  31. ^ Premiership Rugby seals new partnership with ITV Sport
  32. ^ Premiership Rugby seals new partnership with ITV Sport
  33. ^ ITV to show Heineken Cup
  34. ^ Barthes, Lola (2022-12-07). "EPCR and Viaplay announce UK partnership for EPCR Challenge Cup". European Professional Club Rugby. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  35. ^ Sherriff, Scarlett (8 February 2024). "Guinness and ITV bring live audio description to Six Nations". Marketing Beat. Retrieved 10 February 2024.

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