What the future holds with Premier Sports' EPCR deal entering its final year

Premier Sports face a battle to retain Champions Cup and Challenge Cup TV rights in the UK and Ireland, with their current deal entering its third and final year.

In what could be their final season as rights holders, the broadcaster’s coverage of the Champions Cup kicks off on Friday night at Kingsholm as Gloucester take on defending champions Bordeaux-Begles.

As in previous seasons, all 63 matches in this season’s Champions Cup will be covered live, as well as two EPCR Challenge Cup pool matches per round, two EPCR Challenge Cup Round of 16 ties, and all matches in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Premier Sports replaced TNT Sports as the home of the EPCR-run competitions back in 2024 in a cut-price deal, as the Irish-based broadcaster added the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup to their comprehensive club rugby coverage.

As rights holders of the United Rugby Championship and France’s Top 14, also having the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup aligned well with their strategy to become the go-to destination for club rugby coverage.

Premier Sports’ commitment to rugby now extends to the other code as well, with the subscription channel showing the Rugby League World Cup, which begins tomorrow, 24 hours before the Champions Cup curtain-raiser.

But EPCR will be pushing for a better deal when negotiations over the new Champions Cup/Challenge Cup partnership begin, after the rights were reportedly sold to Premier Sports for a bargain £6m after a £14m offer from TNT had originally been rejected.

Now that Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is complete, TNT Sports’ new owners appear to have cash in reserve to boost a diminishing sports rights portfolio.

Football’s Europa League and Conference League will switch to Sky Sports from 2027/28, while TNT, who still provide blanket coverage of the Gallagher PREM, lost out to ITV for the rights to rugby’s inaugural Nations Championship.

While Premier Sports enjoyed a 27% uplift in audience reach at the end of last season’s pool stages compared to the same stage the previous year, non-streaming viewing figures have been disappointing. According to Barb, only 23,000 viewers watching the final between Bordeaux-Begles and Leinster on Premier Sports, via linear/connected TV.