Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 has acquired rights for rugby union’s European Champions Cup, allowing viewers to watch free-to-air coverage of the competition for the first time since 2006.
The deal will allow TV3 to show nine live Champions Cup matches per season for four years, from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
The rights include live coverage of one quarter-final, one semi-final and the final each season, as well as a weekly highlights programme featuring the Irish provinces.
TV3 showed coverage of the recently-completed 2018 Six Nations Championship after striking a sublicensing deal with Irish public-service broadcaster RTÉ.
Pay-television broadcasters Sky and BT Sport currently share coverage of the tournament in Ireland, with the latter having secured exclusive pay-television rights in the UK and Ireland over the next four seasons.
European Professional Club Rugby, which operates the tournament, also said that rights extensions secured last year in France with pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports and public-service broadcaster France Télévisions had secured “a significant boost in revenue”, with a “likely future announcement of additional free-to-air Champions Cup coverage in that territory”.
Irish news website The 42 said that UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 is expected to acquire free-to-air rights to the tournament in the UK.