RTÉ and Virgin Media Television today announced details of its historic partnership to bring all of the 2022 Six Nations Rugby action, in the Men’s, Women’s and U20 tournaments, free-to-air for Irish sports fans.
The partnership will see all matches in the Guinness Six Nations equally aired across both broadcasters and with the new deal starting out on a four-year cycle, there will be a very equal look to which games are to be shown by which broadcaster.
“There’s always great excitement among sports fans at this time of the year about the start of the Six Nations Rugby action and more so this year with all three tournaments – Men’s, Women’s and Under-20s – being available, free-to-air, on RTÉ and Virgin Media Ireland,” said RTÉ Director-General Dee Forbes speaking at a launch at the Aviva Stadium hosted by Jacqui Hurley and Joe Molloy.
“We are delighted to have the Guinness Six Nations back on RTÉ and we are looking forward to bringing great coverage and analysis of all three Championships to audiences across our services.”
Ireland open the 2022 edition of the Championship on Saturday 5th February against reigning champions, Wales in a game that will be shown on RTÉ. They also have the Men’s game against England in Twickenham on Saturday 12th March with Ireland’s other three games on Virgin media this year.
“This unique partnership puts sport and rugby fans first,” said Virgin Media Managing Director Paul Farrell.
RTÉ will also have live radio coverage and RTÉ.ie/Sport will have minute-by-minute match coverage alongside news, analysis and interviews. Against The Head returns with the latest news and discussions on Monday nights on RTÉ2.
Coverage on Virgin will be live every weekend with weekly studio highlights, starting on Sunday at 8 pm on Virgin Media Two. The weekly VMTV Rugby Podcast will also play a part in bringing together news and analysis and there will also be updates across Virgin Media News bulletins and on the @VMSportIE Twitter page.
A new Six Nations promotional campaign, created by RTÉ and Virgin Media Television will be broadcast on both channels from this weekend.
The shared approach also extends to the broadcast coverage sponsor on both channels being Vodafone.
Sport for Business will have lots more coverage and interviews as we build-up to the tournament starting in a little over two weeks.
