Gilpin cast’s doubts over Rugby World Cup free-to-air future coverage 

World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin confirmed that the Men’s competition in 2027 could see radical change with broadcasting landscapes a far contrast to when the previous rights were sold in 2017. 

The Women’s World Cup in 2025 would remain available to all, but Gilpin and World Rugby are keen to maximise revenue within the game with streaming services including their own platform Rugby Pass TV to be a realistic possibilities for the 2027 men’s tournament in Australia. 

The current edition of the competition has been screened in the UK exclusively live on ITV and its platforms, which include ITV X and sister station ITV4 since 1991. Whilst in Wales there is also Welsh language coverage provided via S4C. 

However, with the television rights for matches coming up for renewal, World Rugby will be testing the water into marketing the rights for the next coverage cycle, along with the screening of its women’s equivalent with a host of streaming services keen on investing. 

In recent years, Amazon Prime have broadcasted Wales’ Autumn international fixtures, along with this season’s World Cup warm-up Vodafone Summer Series against England and South Africa, whilst only last year Sky Sports attempted to hijack the tender of the current competition. 

“The starting point is always going to be how can we make as much of this fantastic competition in the case of men’s and women’s World Cup’s available to the biggest audience possible,” explained Gilpin. 

“The secondary consideration to that is, can we do that in a way that provides the revenues that we need to continue to invest in the growth of the sport? 

“Like any sports event owner, it’s finding that balance and there is a balance to be found there across different markets. We’ll look at it as a broader set of opportunities. 

“A brilliant, expanded, 16-team, eight-venue Women’s Rugby World Cup in ‘25 will be on a much bigger scale than we’ve ever done in the World Cup before. 

“That has to be available, particularly in the UK and the home market, for free and to the biggest audience. That is our short-term focus, at the moment there have been no commitments past that. 

“There’s no doubt that free TV and partners like ITV have been great for us and will be part of that future because we want to reach audiences that wouldn’t otherwise pay for a subscription for rugby. 

“We feel though that it is just as important that we use the platform [Rugby Pass TV] and invest to get the widest possible audiences.  

“Once we start to do that and we’ve got a deeper relationship with those fans, I think they’ll be telling us when they’re prepared to pay for that type of content in the future. We’re not going to rush that though at the detriment of growing audiences.” 

[Lead image Welsh Rugby Union]