Premiership Rugby today announced a deal with NBC Sports Group that will see Aviva Premiership matches broadcast live in the USA from the 2016/2017 season. This Saturday’s London Irish vs Saracens game – being played in New York – will also be broadcast.
One game per weekend (24 in total) will be broadcast live on NBCSN, which goes to around 85 million US households, while a further 50 games will be streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra, their online platform.
“Our multi-year partnership with Aviva Premiership Rugby is an expansion of our well-documented commitment to the sport and growth of rugby in the US,” said Jon Miller, President, Programming, NBC Sports and NBCSN.
“Aviva Premiership Rugby is another cornerstone within our growing and unprecedented rugby portfolio and our unparalleled collection of international sports properties, which includes the Premier League, the Open Championship, Formula One, French Open, and Tour de France.”
Permiership Rugby CEO Mark McCafferty added: “We are striving to grow rugby union across the world and this is the latest development in this journey, following the announcement of our strategic partnership with USA Rugby.
“As USA Rugby announced recently, rugby union is the fastest-growing sport in America and we are confident that Aviva Premiership Rugby will soon find a big audience in the United States.
“We have already seen Harlequins play a match in America and this week London Irish and Saracens will make history by playing the first Aviva Premiership Rugby match in the US. This exposure on NBCSN is great news for all 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the profile of English rugby.”
5 replies on “Aviva Premiership to be broadcast live in the USA”
Yes this will be great for USA Rugby and with John Mitchell at the helm USA rugby is a sleeping giant!
More TV revenues for the game.
Good or Bad thing?
There are some fairly obvious questions. Is it the business of Premiership Rugby to grow the ‘Game’ worldwide or are there other organisations better fitted to do that? Will this be a distraction from PRL’sl mission to grow the game in England? If we want to grow the game elsewhere why not help grow the game in the UK or in Europe?. Apart from some high profile egos who will benefit from the US market?, where will the new revenue be spent? will it be ringfenced to improve infrastructure and the fans game day experience?, will it be used to develop grass roots rugby? or, more likely, will it be used to reduce the losses of millionaire owners and inflate the salary cap and reduce competition even further?
If successful this will probably take us further down the ‘football’ route and so is a bad thing for the domestic fans.
This is needed. In the US rugby is the fastest growing team sport. It is however almost impossible to watch on tv.
Needed by who? who will benefit and how?