ITV strengthens its position in rugby: deal for the 2027 World Cup and continuity of England matches
According to a report by The Guardian published on 30 June 2026, ITV has agreed broadcast rights for the men's Rugby World Cup 2027 in the United Kingdom, further strengthening its position as one of the key television partners of international rugby. The deal is important because it builds on already secured rights for the new Nations Championship competition and on the existing package of men's Six Nations matches, in which ITV, according to the official 2025 announcement, will broadcast all England matches until 2029. Although ITV and World Rugby had not publicly commented on the details of the new agreement at the time of The Guardian's report, the available information indicates that audiences in the United Kingdom will continue to have broad access to the most important national-team matches through free-to-air television and digital platforms. For ITV, this is a strategic continuation of long-standing investment in rugby, a sport that can still attract a large audience in live slots on linear television. For World Rugby, such an arrangement means continuity in one of the sport's most important media markets.
A deal that links three major rights packages
According to The Guardian, the new agreement for the 2027 World Cup means ITV will have live coverage of all matches played by the England men's national team at least until 2029. That claim does not arise only from the rights to one competition, but from a combination of several separate arrangements. The official announcement by ITV and the BBC states that the men's Guinness Six Nations from 2026 to 2029 will remain on free-to-air platforms, with ITV broadcasting ten matches each season, including all England fixtures. ITV had previously also announced that, together with STV, it would be the exclusive free-to-air television home in the United Kingdom for the first two editions of the Nations Championship, planned for 2026 and 2028. When the report about secured rights for Rugby World Cup 2027 is added to that, ITV gains an almost uninterrupted line of the most important England national-team appearances in the next cycle.
For the television market, this is significant because live sports rights remain one of the most resilient formats in an era of fragmented media-content consumption. Rugby has a strong viewer base in the United Kingdom, and England national-team matches, especially in the Six Nations and at the World Cup, regularly have value that goes beyond the sports niche itself. The Guardian states that ITV was determined to retain exclusive rights for the World Cup instead of exploring a shared model with another broadcaster, precisely because of the commercial value of advertising around major live matches. According to the same report, the BBC also showed renewed stronger interest in rugby after the viewing figures for the women's World Cup, but ITV, according to available information, emerged as the winner in the bidding for the men's tournament in 2027. This continues the trend in which the biggest sports events are used as an anchor for retaining mass audiences on traditional television and related streaming services.
The 2027 World Cup brings an expanded format
The men's Rugby World Cup 2027 will be held in Australia from 1 October to 13 November 2027, according to official information from World Rugby. The tournament will be the largest in the history of the competition because the number of national teams is increasing from 20 to 24. World Rugby has announced that the new structure will have six pools of four teams, and after the pool stage a round of 16 will be introduced for the first time. The knockout phase will include the two best teams from each pool and the four best third-placed national teams, meaning the tournament will have 52 matches instead of 48, but without increasing the maximum workload for teams that reach the final stages. The organisation states that the goal of the new format is to open up more places for national teams outside the traditional circle of the strongest sides, shorten the overall calendar and maintain a competition rhythm that better suits players and audiences.
World Rugby has announced that the opening match will be played at Perth Stadium, and that the pool draw will be held on 3 December 2026 in Sydney. For the England national team, the tournament in Australia will be an important test in the cycle after the 2023 World Cup, where England finished third by defeating Argentina in the bronze-medal match. In a broader context, 2027 will also mark the first men's World Cup finals in the expanded format, which increases the importance of the television partner in markets where rugby already has a developed audience. For ITV, the rights to such an event are not only a matter of broadcasting individual matches, but also an opportunity to build a months-long programming and digital campaign around the tournament. For World Rugby, presence on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom can help maintain the visibility of the competition at a time when global sports rights increasingly end up behind various subscription models.
The Nations Championship as the new centre of the international calendar
ITV's position has been further strengthened by the rights to the Nations Championship, a new national-team competition that, according to World Rugby's official announcement, debuts in July 2026. The competition is conceived as a biennial tournament that connects the July and November international windows, with matches between national teams from the northern and southern hemispheres. ITV's announcement states that the Nations Championship was created through cooperation between Six Nations Rugby and SANZAAR, with the aim of turning existing international test periods into a more recognisable, more competitive and commercially stronger competition. The first edition includes major fixtures such as South Africa against England, New Zealand against France, and Australia against Ireland, showing that the organisers are immediately targeting matches with global weight. According to the official announcement, ITV and STV have exclusive free-to-air rights for the first two editions, in 2026 and 2028.
World Rugby's official calendar for the Nations Championship 2026 shows how ambitious the competition is. Three rounds are played in July, and the continuation follows in November, when the international schedule returns to stadiums in Europe and other key rugby environments. England in the first edition has matches against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, according to the schedule published on the World Rugby website. Such a schedule has special value for a television partner because in one year it connects opponents from different hemispheres and opens space for a narrative about the global order in rugby. For fans and occasional viewers, the advantage is that matches do not appear as isolated tests, but as part of a wider table and a fight for the title in a new international cycle.
Free availability as a commercial and sporting argument
ITV's official announcement about the Nations Championship emphasises that the deal will secure at least 124 international matches on free-to-air platforms over a four-year period. That figure is important because rugby, unlike some globally larger sports, has to balance rights revenue with the need for broad exposure. Paid models can increase the value of agreements in the short term, but they reduce the number of viewers who spontaneously come to the sport, especially among younger audiences and viewers who do not follow rugby regularly. The free availability of the Six Nations, the Nations Championship and, according to The Guardian's report, the 2027 World Cup enables ITV to position itself as the central destination for international rugby in the United Kingdom. At the same time, World Rugby and national unions gain greater visibility for sponsors, the development of the sport and the expansion of national-team brands.
ITV will distribute the matches through television channels and digital platforms, including ITVX, while STV and STV Player have an important role for audiences in Scotland, according to official announcements. In practice, this means that the rights package is not limited only to traditional linear viewing, but also includes the habits of audiences who follow sports content through streaming, clips, social networks and catch-up viewing. For advertisers, such a combination is particularly attractive because major live events simultaneously create mass viewing and digital data signals about audience engagement. The Guardian stated in a separate report that ITV had adjusted its commercial approach for the Nations Championship, including decisions about advertising within broadcasts, which shows that the way sports rights are monetised is also changing. At the centre of the strategy remains the fact that national-team matches, especially England's, can create an event television moment that is increasingly rare in general entertainment programming.
What the deal means for the England national team and wider rugby
For the England national team, the biggest consequence is stability of visibility. If The Guardian's report on the 2027 World Cup is viewed together with the official agreements for the Six Nations and the Nations Championship, England will be regularly present on ITV's platforms in key competitions at least until 2029. This gives continuity to fans, but also to commercial partners, because the national team's appearances can be planned within a recognisable television framework. For the Rugby Football Union and the wider English rugby ecosystem, it is important that national-team sport remains accessible to a broad audience, especially at a time when domestic club competitions continue to struggle with financial pressures and changes in media habits. Although television rights do not by themselves solve rugby's structural challenges, they create space for greater promotion, greater reach and a clearer connection between elite national-team sport and new generations of viewers.
The wider significance of the deal is also visible in the relationship between traditional broadcasters and international sports organisations. In recent years, World Rugby has announced calendar reforms, the expansion of the World Cup and the creation of the Nations Championship in order to increase the competitiveness and value of national-team rugby. In such an environment, television partners are not only signal distributors, but important actors in shaping the way audiences understand new competitions. If ITV through 2026, 2027 and 2028 succeeds in connecting the Six Nations, the Nations Championship and the World Cup into a single programming whole, rugby in the United Kingdom will gain an unusually strong sequence of major free-to-air events. For global rugby, this is a test of whether the new international calendar can simultaneously raise commercial value, expand reach and keep the sport outside the narrow circle of subscription platforms. In that sense, the deal between ITV and World Rugby goes beyond one rights market and becomes part of the broader battle for viewers' attention in an increasingly saturated sports media space.
Sources:
- The Guardian – report on ITV's deal for the rights to the men's Rugby World Cup 2027 and the continuity of England match broadcasts (link)
- ITV Press Centre – official announcement on rights for the Nations Championship, Summer Nations Series and international matches until 2029 (link)
- ITV Press Centre – official announcement on ITV and BBC's agreement for the men's Guinness Six Nations from 2026 to 2029 (link)
- World Rugby – official information on the format, dates and qualified national teams for Rugby World Cup 2027 (link)
- World Rugby – official announcement on the expansion of Rugby World Cup 2027 to 24 national teams and the new competition format (link)
- World Rugby – official schedule of the Nations Championship 2026 and list of matches in the first edition of the competition (link)