Premiership Women's Rugby and TNT Sports announce multi-year broadcast deal
A landmark deal to broadcast top-flight women’s club rugby has been announced this week that will see over 20 Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) matches shown live on TNT Sports and RugbyPass TV (*in certain territories) across the season.
TNT Sports and PWR have agreed on a multi-year deal to broadcast one PWR match each round throughout the season, in addition to both semi-finals and the final, which will take place on 22nd June 2024. BT Sport, who have recently rebranded TNT Sports, broadcast last season’s semi-finals and final, with a number of other matches also featuring on BBC iPlayer throughout the season.
The first match shown as part of the new deal will be Bristol Bears vs Sale Sharks on 18th November, kicking off at 12:30 at Ashton Gate. TNT Sports additionally holds the rights to Gallagher Premiership Rugby and the Investec Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. It is also understood that PWR clubs will be able to live-stream matches that are not broadcast on TNT, providing increasingly comprehensive coverage for fans of the sport.
The coverage will stretch beyond simply broadcasting the matches and will include additional video match highlights, in-depth interviews, and match reports across discovery+ and the TNT Sports App.
Chief Executive of Premiership Women’s Rugby, Belinda Moore said: “This is a pivotal moment in the history of women’s club rugby in England, as we will see at least 21 Premiership Women’s Rugby matches broadcast live on TNT Sports and discovery+ this season.
“For the first time, this ground-breaking partnership with TNT Sports will allow us to create an appointment to view each weekend for our fans and clubs, fundamentally changing the profile of the league. Research from the Women’s Sports Trust shows there are 1.5 million committed women’s rugby fans in the UK, which shows the potential of this partnership.
“We know the standard of rugby played in Premiership Women’s Rugby is exceptional and over the coming season, a huge number of people will enjoy their first taste of the League, to share our passion for the competition.
“We are ambitious to deliver significant growth in women’s rugby in England as we head towards Women’s World Cup 2025 and this partnership with TNT Sports will help us deliver that goal.”
Scott Young, SVP Content & Production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, added: “We are delighted to able to bring live coverage of arguably the best women’s domestic rugby competition in the world to TNT Sports viewers.
“There are many stories to be told across women’s rugby and we are delighted to partner with Premiership Women’s Rugby to tell these stories with a fresh approach that reflects the family-friendly, competitive nature of the competition.”
Rebranded as Premiership Women’s Rugby from the Premier 15s title that was established in 2017, this year’s competition will also see the addition of two new teams who will compete in the top-flight for the first time.
Leicester Tigers Women and Trailfinders Women will join defending champions Gloucester-Hartpury, Exeter Chiefs Women, Bristol Bears Women, Harlequins Women, Loughborough Lightning Women, Sale Sharks Women, and Saracens Women to form a nine-strong league.
The competition was due to feature ten teams this season, but the unfortunate withdrawal of Warriors Women before the start of the competition sees the teams reduced to nine for this season after the departure of Wasps and DMP Sharks at the culmination of the 2022/23 season.
The 2023/24 season kicks off on Saturday 18th November with Bristol vs Sale Sharks, followed by three-time champions Saracens hosting Loughborough Lightning at the StoneX. Trailfinders will make their PWR debut at home against local London rivals Harlequins at Trailfinders Sports Club on the same afternoon.
Leicester Tigers will play their first league match the day after when they host last season’s league runners-up and Cup champions Exeter Chiefs Women at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on Sunday 19th November. Gloucester-Hartpury will get their title defence campaign underway the week after when host newcomers Leicester Tigers in a Slater Cup doubleheader with their respective men’s teams at Kingsholm Stadium on the 25th of November.
Domestic and international stars will continue to provide electrifying action in the PWR this season, with many of the best players in the world returning from the recent WXV competitions to ignite the club scene once more in what promises to be another thrilling season.
One match a round (21 matches) will also be available to be viewed on RugbyPass TV worldwide [excluding UK, Ireland, US and Canada].
Comments on RugbyPass
Just came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
4 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
4 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
4 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
4 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
228 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
87 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to commentsABs lost against a side playing without a hooker - The guy playing, had one shoulder. Line outs were a gimme for the ABs, and the last 8 minutes 14 played 14 against a team that had been smashed 3 weeks in a row… Yet with all that possession, with all that territory, with all the advantages they actually had, especially in the last 8 minutes, they couldn’t buy a point. Those last 8 minutes determined if they outplayed the Boks or not. History will show that the Boks completely outplayed the ABs, especially in those last 8 minutes, the business end of any rugby match
228 Go to comments