Broadcast Sport: Japan v England rugby to be exclusively on RugbyPass TV

Story from Broadcast Sport:

England men’s first rugby union match of the summer will be shown exclusively on free streaming platform RugbyPass TV in the UK and Ireland.

Kicking off at 6.50am on 22 June in Tokyo, the match will be free to view via the RugbyPass TV website and app on mobile, tablet, laptop and smart TV. It is the first time that RugbyPass TV has hosted an England match in the UK and Ireland, and the first time anywhere outside of a World Cup.

The coverage will include a pre-match, half-time and full-time show and exclusive commentary, all produced by World Rugby Studios.

RugbyPass TV was launched ahead of the World Cup last year, and was created in partnership with Endeavor Streaming. It gained over 350,000 subscribers during the tournament, as its broadcaster in territories where there were no rights deals, and it has since also become the international broadcaster of Premiership Women’s Rugby.

England Rugby marketing director Ewan Turney said: “This is an exciting partnership with World Rugby to enable all fans in the UK and Ireland to watch this historic match for free.

“We know that younger audiences are gravitating towards streaming platforms and fans are watching matches on a multitude of devices, so we have chosen this free-to-air route.”

In addition to live coverage of the men’s team, England U20’s will also feature on the platform as part of its Embedded series taking fans behind the scenes as the team competes in the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa from 29 June-19 July.

James Rothwell, chief marketing and content officer at World Rugby, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the RFU to provide fans in the UK and Ireland with exclusive access on RugbyPass TV to what will be an historic match, the first official test match between Japan and England in Japan.

“Provision of world-class live content and unique storytelling is core to RugbyPass TV’s mission to broaden rugby’s accessibility and World Rugby Studios will be producing comprehensive coverage for fans on RugbyPass TV, including a pre-match, half-time and post-match show and commentary.

“Importantly, this marquee live event represents a continuation of our strategic focus on programming in both the UK and Japan. We have recently finished production on Japan U, a series following the most successful university teams in Japan and their stars which will be available in English and Japanese. We will also be producing our next series of Embedded’with the England U20s in South Africa in June.”