Whisper appoints Ugo Monye to advisory board

The former England Rugby International will help Whisper create and develop new business opportunities in the UK. Former England Rugby International Ugo Monye has joined The Whisper Group Advisory Board. Whisper says his appointment will help the company create and develop new business opportunities in the UK, as well as help with its diversity and […]

World Rugby partners with Whisper ahead of 2021 World Cup

Whisper has also made a double appointment to boost its sport production offering in Australasia ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand World Rugby has appointed Whisper as its key digital video and audio production producer for 2021. In a year that includes the 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Whisper will create […]

Scotland’s victory over England bags ITV 8.7m viewers

It is the biggest Calcutta Cup audience in over a decade on the free-to-air broadcaster ITV drew a peak audience of 8.7 million viewers for Scotland’s victory over England on Saturday. It was Scotland’s first win at Twickenham since 1983, and clearly excited viewers across the nation. It beat the 8.6 million peak for last […]

World Rugby recruits new broadcast operations manager

She joins the organisation from IMG’s media arm World Rugby has appointed Amanda Godson as its new broadcast operations manager. She joins the organisation after leaving IMG Media last year, where she had worked since 2017 as commercial manager, media rights and aquisitions. She also had roles at the company acting as broadcast manager at […]

Amazon Prime launches diversity in rugby documentary Everybody’s Game

The documentary tackles the issues of race and class within the sport. Amazon Prime Video is releasing rugby union documentary Everybody’s Game, by Bath Rugby player, Beno Obano. The documentary includes contributions from professional rugby players Maro Itoje, Anthony Watson, Ellis Genge and Biyi Alo, and focuses on the backgrounds of BAME players within rugby […]

BT Sport kicks off Gallagher Premiership rugby coverage

Every match will be shown live on BT Sport. BT Sport is to show all Gallagher Premiership Rugby matches live when the new season starts tomorrow (20 November). Six games per weekend will be shown live across BT Sport’s TV channels, app and website (btsport.com), and then, once crowds can safely return to stadia, the […]

RugbyPass reveals plans for rugby content platform, The XV

Rugby editorial site will host 600 articles a year about the sport, as well as podcasts and video content. RugbyPass has released some stats around engagement levels in its new online rugby magazine – The XV, which launched in September. The XV is a subscription-based platform that offers rugby fans a host of editorial content, […]

BLOG: Will Carling talks stats for the 2020 Guinness Six Nations championship

The best things come to those who wait. We’ve been waiting a long time for this; the finale of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Championship. And it didn’t disappoint. In a final round of fixtures that could have seen England, France, Scotland or Ireland emerge victorious, it offered a nail-biting finish to a competition that […]

Autumn Nations Cup 2021: Every Wales match in Welsh for free on S4C

The broadcaster is airing all Wales’ games after reaching an agreement with Six Nations Rugby Ltd. Live coverage of every Wales match in the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup will be shown on S4C. This includes Wales’s three pool matches – against Ireland, Georgia and England – and the country’s fourth game, which is in the […]

Amazon and Channel 4 score rugby tournament

Rights to Autumn Nations Cup to be shared. Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4 are to jointly air rugby’s inaugural Autumn Nations Cup. The tournament, featuring the Six Nations teams, Georgia and Fiji, kicks off on 13 November and will run until 6 December. Every game in the round-robin, two-group format will be streamed via […]

Rugby League World Cup 2021 to co-pro with International Rugby League

The production and sales of broadcast rights for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 will be handled jointly between the two organisations. Rugby League World Cup 2021 (RLWC2021) and The International Rugby League (IRL) have agreed to work together on the broadcast production of matches at the tournament, as well as on the sale of […]

S4C takes Super Rugby tournament free-to-air

Welsh broadcaster to present weekly highlights programme from the tournament, available on BBC iPlayer. S4C has secured rights to show New Zealand’s Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament. The 10-week competition involves five New Zealand teams – Blues, Hurricanes, Crusaders, Highlanders and Warren Gatland’s Chiefs – playing each other home and away, with two matches played every […]

S4C lines up schedule of Welsh sporting classics

Welsh broadcaster goes big on Wales-focused sporting re-runs. Welsh broadcaster S4C is the latest to announce a series of archive broadcasts, to fill the slot left by live sport cancellations. Naturally, it’s focused on Wales’ sporting past, with the broadcaster commissioning a number of productions it will TX over the coming weeks. The programming includes […]

Will Carling blog #6: The odds of placekicking

Will Carling continues his exclusive blog series for Broadcast Sport during a Six Nations tournament now abruptly halted by coronavirus. This week he looks at the insight provided by the new kick predictor on-screen graphics. To say the Guinness Six Nations Championship has been a little unusual this year is an understatement. While the last […]

BBC director general expects Six Nations to ‘probably’ go behind paywall despite bidding plan

Tony Hall does not hold high hopes for stopping pay-tv providers BBC director general Tony Hall has revealed how the BBC and ITV hope to keep the Six Nations free-to-air. Speaking at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport hearing on the work of the BBC on Thursday, Hall revealed that the public broadcaster is currently […]

Will Carling blog #5: Power Game

Will Carling’s fifth exclusive blog for Broadcast Sport, covering the new on-screen graphics unveiled for the Six Nations tournament. This week, Carling discusses the power game, showing where a team is dominant, where a team is lacking, and potentially where the match is being won or lost. The Guinness Six Nations Championship always delivers an […]

MPs demand answers on Six Nations paywall deal

It has been reported that a deal is likely The Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport (DCMS) committee has demanded answers from the Six Nations on reports that a pay-tv deal is possible. It has asked Chairman of the Six Nations Council, John Jeffrey, to explain the timescale and operations of the bidding process. MPs have […]

Six Nations refuse BBC/ITV joint bid to leave door open for Sky

It would be the first time in two decades it has gone behind a paywall It has been reported that the Six Nations has refused to let the BBC and ITV make a combined bid for the competition in the next set of TV rights bidding. This could leave the door open for Sky Sports, […]

Will Carling Six Nations blog #4: Drawing the battle lines with ruck insights

Will Carling’s fourth exclusive blog for Broadcast Sport, covering the new on-screen graphics unveiled for the Six Nations tournament. This week, Carling discusses the analysis of rucks and turnovers. We’re now over the half way mark in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Championship, and the action is really starting to heat up. While Italy took […]

Premiership Rugby appoints chief marketing officer

It has also found a chief commercial officer Premiership Rugby has appointed Zoe Clapp as its chief marketing officer. Meanwhile, Mark Brittain has joined the organisation as chief commercial officer. Clapp was formerly at UKTV, where she spent 15 years and before she left was the chief marketing and communications officer. In her new role […]

Will Carling Six Nations blog #3: Big hits, big Insights

Will Carling’s third exclusive blog for Broadcast Sport, covering the new on-screen graphics unveiled for the Six Nations tournament. This week Carling discusses the analysis of dominant tackles. The second weekend of matches was certainly one to remember, set against the backdrop of dramatic gale force winds and heavy rain caused by Storm Ciara. Scotland […]

Will Carling blog: Six Nations graphics (Visits to 22) explained

Will Carling explains how the Visits to 22 graphic provided added insight during England’s opening game of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations The 2020 Guinness Six Nations has arrived. The opening weekend offered up three huge clashes among the finest teams that Northern Hemisphere rugby has to offer. The pick of the fixtures for me […]

Will Carling: How technology is changing our experience of rugby

The first in a series of six weekly blogs from rugby legend Will Carling, written exclusively for Broadcast Sport Last year, for the very first time during the 2019 Guinness Six Nations Championship, fans had access to never-before-seen insights into the great game of rugby through new on-screen dynamic stats powered by Amazon Web Services […]

BBC and ITV ‘confident’ of retaining Six Nations

Tender process for next rights cyle opens next month The BBC and ITV are confident of retaining the rights to the Six Nations when the tender process for the next rights cycle begins next month, according to a Daily Mail report. The Mail said that new investors CVC Capital Partners had hoped to take some […]

Six Nations adds in-depth tactical analysis to TV coverage

Five new stats will provide fans with a deeper level of insight into team tactics and performance A series of new insights have been created for The Guinness Six Nations Championship that attempt to reveal the subtle plans, plays, attacks, and defence of each team. The five new stats supplement seven stats added for the […]

Sports Channel Network picks up rugby head injury doc, Head On

Rugby doc will TX on free-to-air channel in the UK A new documentary, Head On, which tackles the issue of head injuries in rugby -– is being screened in the UK exclusively by Sports Channel Network. There’s been an increase in the number of head and neck injuries in the sport, which has driven changes in […]

Spalk extends live commentary options for Rugby World Cup 2019

The Rugby World Cup 2019 has teamed up with ‘Virtual Sportscasting Studio’ Spalk to provide rugby fans around the world with the choice of German, Spanish and Japanese live commentaries for every match. A total of 20+ commentators in 15 countries will be commentating from Spalk’s Virtual Studio across the six-week tournament. They have been […]

ITV creates ‘window on the world’ for its Rugby World Cup studio

Broadcaster’s studio set uses mixed reality to show stylised Japanese cityscapes out of huge panoramic ‘windows’   ITV has turned to mixed reality to create a ‘window on the world’ for its Rugby World Cup 2019 studio. The studio builds on the approach it took for the men’s football World Cup studio in Russia, where augmented […]

BT Sport broadcasts live 8K rugby at IBC 2019

Broadcaster behind one of the world’s first live 8K sports broadcasts BT Sport used IBC 2019 to demonstrate one of the world’s first live 8K sports broadcasts – of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby 7s tournament. The images were captured in 8K on a single Ikegami SHK-810 8K system camera with Fujinon lenses and displayed on […]

Rugby World Cup 2019 to offer fan-controlled 3D highlights

Seven matches from the tournament, which kicks off on Friday 20 September, will have highlights created by Canon’s Free Viewpoint Video System Seven Rugby World Cup 2019 matches will offer fans post-match highlights with viewpoints and angles not possible with conventional cameras. Canon’s Free Viewpoint Video System is being used to create replays the company […]

Maidstone Studios lands ITV Rugby World Cup 2019 deal

ITV Sport’s coverage of the Rugby World Cup 2019 will be hosted and broadcast live from Maidstone Studios Maidstone Studios has revealed it will host all ITV Sport’s live studio coverage of the Rugby World Cup Japan 2019. Throughout the tournament, which kicks off on Friday 20 September and runs for six weeks, Maidstone Studios […]