British broadcaster Premier Sports has snapped up the rights to air Japan Rugby League One in the UK and Ireland.
SSBL Limited-owned Premier Sports’s coverage of Japan’s star-laden top-flight began with Richie Mo’unga’s Toshiba Brave Lupus’ win over Aaron Smith’s Toyota Verblitz on Saturday and continued with Kurt-Lee Arendse’s Mitsubishi Dynaboars’ upset win against Cheslin Kolbe’s Suntory Sungoliath on Sunday.
Subscription channel Premier Sports aired both games live on their streaming service and they were repeated several hours later on linear channel Premier Sports 2.
League One was previously broadcast in the UK on Rugby Pass TV which started to air two live games per round this season on their streaming service.
As the new home of Japanese Rugby in the UK, Premier Sports will now be the only platform to broadcast games live and will be part of the new Premier Sports Rugby 24/7 channel.
An official announcement regarding the deal is expected in the coming days.
The channel has also acquired the rights to America’s top domestic league, the ever-improving Major League Rugby competition.
League One and Major League Rugby will join an extensive and varied collection of rugby programming on the channel which includes all 63 games from the Investec Champions Cup plus 17 games from the EPCR Challenge Cup.
Premier Sports is also showing every match from the United Rugby Championship this season and up to four games per round from TOP 14 as well as full play-off coverage.
League One coverage continues this Saturday with the mouthwatering prospect of Shannon Frizell’s champions Toshiba Brave Lupus facing Damian de Allende’s leaders Saitama Wild Knights in a rematch of last season’s final.
The highly-anticipated heavyweight clash - the return fixture of February’s pulsating 28-28 draw - will air on Premier Sports Rugby from 6.00am UK time.
Round 12 coverage continues Sunday when Sam Cane’s Suntory Sungoliath take on Brodie Retallick and George Turner’s Kobe Steelers from 5.25am on Premier Sports Rugby.
Click here for Premier Sports’ TV guide
Stay tuned to RugbyJP for more information on Premier Sports’ new League One TV deal.
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