NBC Sports Group Acquires U.S. Rights to Six Nations Rugby Championship

NBC Sports Group has agreed to a multi-year agreement to air the Six Nations Championship, an elite rugby competition featuring top national sides from Great Britain and Europe.

The deal starts with the 2018 Six Nations, with NBC Sports airing live coverage of all matches across its linear and digital platforms.

The annual competition features 15 matches, with six teams playing each other in a round-robin format. England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales take part. England won the 2017 tournament.

All matches will stream live on streaming platform NBC Sports Gold. NBC, NBCSN, and CNBC will combine to present linear coverage, and NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app will stream.

“Our multi-year partnership with Six Nations Rugby further establishes our commitment to the sport of rugby, one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States,” said Jon Miller, president, programming, NBC Sports Group. “The Six Nations Championship is an iconic centerpiece of our robust rugby portfolio, which has featured the addition of exclusive U.S. media rights for the Rugby World Cup and Premiership Rugby in the past two years.”

The deal increases NBC Sports Group’s rugby offerings, which include the Olympics, the Rugby World Cup (7-a-side and 15-a-side) through 2023, and Premiership Rugby.

“We are very excited to be working with NBC Sports Group on the broadcast of the Six Nations Championship in the USA,” said John Feehan, Six Nations CEO. “It is fantastic that rugby’s greatest annual championship will now be showcased on NBC Sports’ broadcast, cable and digital platforms, which will allow us to bring it to a bigger audience in the USA.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.