World Rugby Launches World Cup 2019 Broadcast Rights Tender in UK and Ireland

World Rugby has launched the United Kingdom and Ireland broadcast rights tender process for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. World Rugby has issued bidding information to interested parties in both markets and bids for Rugby World Cup 2019 as a stand-alone or coupled with Rugby World Cup 2023 will be considered

 World Rugby has issued bidding information to interested parties in both markets and bids for Rugby World Cup 2019 as a stand-alone or coupled with Rugby World Cup 2023 will be considered. Broadcasters interested in receiving the tender documentation should contact Jeremy Stone (Jeremy.Stone@img.com). The Rights Holding Broadcaster for each market will be announced later this year.The United Kingdom and Ireland markets were at the heart of the success story with Rugby World Cup programming achieving heavyweight viewing figures across both markets and broadcasters reporting strong ad sales returns. With rugby continuing to achieve record participation and interest growth around the world, the demand for the rights is set to remain strong.

In the UK, host broadcaster ITV achieved peak audiences reaching 11.5m for England's matches against Fiji, Wales and Australia and the final. The total UK three-minute reach was 40.2 million, while the 15-minute reach was just under 34 million, demonstrating just how Rugby World Cup 2015 captured the imagination across the host nation.

In Ireland, TV3 attracted its biggest-ever audiences for Rugby World Cup 2015 matches involving the Ireland team, while Rugby World Cup matches delivered three of the top four broadcast audiences in the Republic in 2015.