Unprecedented coverage for 2025 men's Rugby Europe Championship

The Rugby Europe Championship all kicks off on January 31st where, for seven weeks, eight teams will battle it out to become the 2025 Champions, but that’s not all. This year’s competition will determine the four nations who will take their place on the global stage in qualifying for the Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.

This edition with half of the participating teams able to qualify directly for Australia has generated unprecedented interest and coverage. For the first time fans will be able to enjoy the REC broadcast on linear TV in each participating country, as well as several other broadcasters around the world.

Switzerland will feature this year for the first time, promoted to the Championship after a perfect 2023/2024 cycle in the Trophy division and have the chance to make their dream a possibility by claiming one of the golden tickets on offer. This historic first will be highlighted by the Swiss TV national group SSR, which will use its RTS 2 linear channel and SRI digital platforms to Edelweiss matches for the next two REC editions (2025 and 2026).

Likewise, in Belgium, the Black Devils will be looking for a few similar performances to the one that stunned Portugal in front of a passionate home crowd in Mons last season. It will be on the antennas of VRT, Flemish television and LN24, the news channel of the IPM media group (owner of La Dernière Heure newspaper), that the matches can be found. This is the first time the REC will be broadcast in the territory.

In Romania, the tournament will return to the national broadcaster TVR who will broadcast all the Oaks matches – showcasing the Stejari on its first channel TVR1 and TVR Sport.

Spanish fans have been eagerly waiting the opportunity to see their team back on the global stage, and they will also feature on public television channel RTVE who will cover the Leones' journey, as well as on its sports channel Teledeporte, and on its digital platform RTVE Play.

In Netherlands and Portugal, Liberty (Ziggo) and Sport TV, respectively, will continue to offer Oranje and Lobos fans all the matches of their national teams live, having penned multi-year renewals of their partnership with Rugby Europe.

The reigning Champions, Georgia, will be aiming to reach their seventh Rugby World Cup, and as in past years Imedi and RugbyTV will broadcast The Lelos in Georgia.

This is also the case for the ProSieben group, who will deliver the competition in its entirety to German rugby fans, offering the 20 matches live, with the “Schwarze Adler” matches on Pro Sieben Maxx and the other matches on the digital platforms Joyn and Ran.de

The 2025 competition will reach beyond the European continent with the partnership renewed with FloRugby, the North American rugby platform. American, Canadian or Mexican fans will be able to enjoy all the matches live with English commentary.

For all other territories, fans can watch every game live and free with English commentary on Rugby Europe TV.

Janhein Pieterse, President of Rugby Europe said: “We are proud to see media interest growing around the Rugby Europe Championship. Since the change of format and the constant improvement of the TV product, we have managed to attract new and retain numerous long-standing partners, who are essential for the promotion of our competition, our teams and our sport in general.

I wish all the teams taking part the best of luck as they bid to reach the pinnacle of our sport - rest assured, we’re in for plenty of drama over the coming weeks! “

Florent Marty, CEO of Rugby Europe, said: “This unprecedented TV coverage is a strong sign of the ever-growing popularity of the Rugby Europe Championship. The centralized TV rights model put in place in 2023 is showing increased returns for the footprint of the competition in new markets. Alongside our digital content creation efforts, Rugby Europe Championship will offer fans from around the world an unprecedented access to games and players.”