ERC And Sky Sports Tie Up TV Deal

ERC and Sky Sports have extended their broadcast partnership for television coverage of the Heineken Cup tournament until the end of the 2009/10 season.

The new deal will see Sky Sports continue to offer exclusive live broadcast coverage of Heineken Cup matches in the UK, and will extend to include exclusive live broadcasts rights in Ireland from the start of the 2006/07 tournament.

Sky Sports will broadcast up to seven live matches during each of the six Heineken Cup Pool weekends and will show all of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals live.

In Ireland, RTI will continue to have rights to broadcast live Munster and Leinster home Pool games for the 2005/06 season. For the following four seasons, RTI have secured rights to full delayed broadcasts of all games involving Irish teams (home and away) in the Pool and knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup.

RTI will also have rights to a comprehensive highlights package, which will allow the station broadcast coverage of all Heineken Cup matches.

Commenting on the Sky Sports extension and new broadcast partnerships, Derek McGrath, ERC (European Rugby Cup) Chief Executive said: “Sky Sports have made a major contribution to the development and increased profile of the Heineken Cup tournament since they came on board in 2003.

“The comprehensive nature of their coverage, which saw sixty games broadcast last season, combined with their level of expertise and quality of coverage, provides an excellent platform for the Heineken Cup to continue to grow for the benefit of the clubs, supporters and all our stakeholders.

RTI are an excellent partner to the Heineken Cup and have provided wonderful coverage of the tournament in Ireland over the past number of years. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with them in the seasons ahead as they will now be able to broadcast all games involving Irish teams in the Heineken Cup.”

The broadcast partner extensions follow the announcement in January, by ERC, that Heineken will continue as title sponsor of the tournament until 2009.