Premier Sports hit Champions Cup targets, says broadcaster chief Sport Business Investec Champions Cup broadcaster Premier Sports insisted they hit viewership targets across the opening weekend of action. The Irish broadcaster has taken over the broadcast rights from TNT Sports for Great Britain as part of a three-year deal with the competition’s governing body EPCR. Despite concerns over the coverage, which featured some technical glitches and [...]
Can English clubs mount an Investec Champions Cup charge? Sport If you were to list the last five English appearances in an Investec Champions Cup final you’d find Exeter there once and Saracens the other four times. Before that it was Northampton Saints in 2011 and before that London Wasps and Leicester Tigers in 2007. But if you were to ask me to predict which [...]
Premier Sports boss on Champions Cup, 24/7 rugby channel and rights Sport Business Ahead of the Investec Champions Cup, City AM sat down with Richard Sweeney of Premier Sports as the broadcaster takes on European rugby’s rights. When the Champions Cup TV deal between TNT Sports and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) came to an end, many assumed a copy-and-paste agreement would see the partnership continue. But the [...]
Exclusive: European rugby chief leaves after 10 years with EPCR November 21, 2024 The Chief operating officer of European club rugby’s governing body Anthony Lepage is parting ways with EPCR after a decade, City AM can reveal. The news comes on the eve of the return of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, with Lepage set to move on to pastures new. He joined EPCR in 2014 as [...]
Premier Sports planning 24/7 rugby channel with Champions Cup at heart August 14, 2024 Broadcaster Premier Sports are planning to create a 24/7 rugby union channel after announcing a deal to show every match of the Investec Champions Cup over the next three years. Club rugby’s top competition is moving from TNT Sports, mainly due to the Warner Bros. Discovery company making an investment into international rugby with the [...]
Challenge Cup offers struggling clubs shot at Champions Cup hope July 2, 2024 Most clubs have been in a rut, unable to win in their domestic competition and with their season looking like a failure, at some point in their lifetime. But the Challenge Cup – for clubs who did not qualify for the Champions Cup, plus invitational teams – offers a chance to reach the top flight. [...]
Investec Champions Cup: Pool draw shows competition is best of the best July 2, 2024 It may only be July but the Investec Champions Cup season got underway on Tuesday with the pool draws in Cardiff. The 24 clubs taking part – who qualified through their league position or by winning the second tier EPCR Challenge Cup – will compete across four pools of six in December and January before [...]
South African involvement in European rugby has given competition lease of life May 27, 2024 “It was international rugby versus club rugby,” said one person at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after the South African Hollywoodbets Sharks beat Gloucester Rugby 36-22 in the EPCR Challenge Cup. That’s not entirely true, both sides had their international representatives, but the point is a good one. The addition of the Sharks into the European [...]
Challenge Cup can be cure to desperate seasons for Gloucester and Sharks May 23, 2024 Before the start of the current rugby season both Gloucester and the Sharks, from Durban, would have been full of hope for their domestic campaigns. But soon into their Premiership and United Rugby Championship campaigns, things began to unravel and any hopes of winning a league title disappeared over a cliff. It left the two [...]