Premiership Rugby will become the first club rugby tournament to be shown live on national TV in China, according to Gavin Mairs of the London TELEGRAPH. The first game to be broadcast live will feature the Leicester Tigers against Saracens on Christmas Eve. A four-year contract was agreed with Chinese broadcaster CCTV5+, which will "take the global distribution of top-flight English rugby to almost 600 million households worldwide." The deal will see at least 25 Premiership matches per season plus the semifinal and final broadcast live, "with Beijing Elite Rugby producing Mandarin commentary and a weekly highlights show." The only other rugby competition to have been broadcast live in China was the 2015 World Cup, hosted by England. The agreement is "one of several significant television deals and initiatives that have been announced" since RDA and Altice/SFR Sport acquired Premiership Rugby’s global media rights (TELEGRAPH, 12/20). In London, Alex Lowe reported the Premiership has existing int'l rights deals with NBC in the U.S., Rogers in Canada and Fox Sports in Australia, among others. Premiership Rugby Commercial Dir Dominic Hayes said, "This is a very significant day in the history of Premiership Rugby. Launching on free-to-air TV in China is part of our strategic goal of increasing the global impact of Premiership Rugby and helping to grow the game in new countries around the world." China only has 76,000 registered players but Alisports, the sporting division of e-commerce firm Alibaba, has "committed to ploughing" $100M into developing rugby in the country over the next few years (LONDON TIMES, 12/21).
