The channel, which also screened the 1999 World Cup, gets the rights to the 2003 tournament in Australia and New Zealand and the 2007 tournament, likely to be held in France.
It will also show the 2005 World Cup Sevens and the World Sevens series, from 2001 to 2005.
However, although fans will no doubt be happy that more rugby will be shown on terrestrial TV, it is more likely that much of the rugby will be used to market the recently launched subscriber-based ITV Sport digital channel.
The decision contradicts official comments from ITV executives and spokespeople over the past four months who constantly claimed they were not bidding for the tournament.
In April, ITV Sport?s head of press, Paul Tyrrel, told sportbusiness.com
UK terrestrial and pay-TV broadcaster ITV has secured the rights to the next two Rugby World Cups in a six-year deal with the International Rugby Board (IRB).
