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BBC loses right to show URC games
Western Mail
|April 19, 2025
BC WALES has lost broadcast rights for the United Rugby Championship (URC).
It comes after Premier Sports confirmed on Thursday that it had agreed a new broadcast deal until 2029. The subscription channel which also broadcasts the Investec Champions Cup, the EPCR Challenge Cup and France's Top 14has broadcast every game live from the league since 2018.
Premier Sports will air all 151 URC games per season with 131 of them being exclusive broadcasts for free-to-air broadcasters in Wales and Northern Ireland.
However, they will not be broadcast with BBC Wales, with S4C likely to be the Welsh broadcasters as they continue discussions over Welsh language TV rights.
The Western Mail has seen internal emails sent within the corporation that confirmed that, for the second time, they had lost the broadcast rights for the league that features Wales' four professional teams.
BBC Wales had previously lost out on live coverage of the league when Premier Sports first won the broadcast contract in 2018.
This story is from the April 19, 2025 edition of Western Mail.
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