Premiership Rugby and United Rugby Championship strengthen DTC business with PTI Digital deal

Premiership Rugby and United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced an expanded partnership with PTI Digital to grow their DTC businesses.

Premiership Rugby launched its streaming service, PRTV Live, in the second half of last season. The service, launched in conjunction with PTI Digital, allows viewers to watch non-broadcast matches on pay-per-view. The URC has a similar platform which offers live matches in territories where it doesn’t have a rights deal in place.

The two rugby organisations share a London office with the Six Nations, and this expanded deal with PTI should serve to further expand collaboration amongst the sport’s organising bodies.

Mark Brittain, chief commercial officer at Premiership Rugby, said: “PRTV Live was a huge success in all respects in its initial test and learn phase, hitting budgets and driving incremental revenues to Premiership Rugby. We are excited to roll it out with enhancements to the service and a much deeper understanding of what our customers want.”

Tom Lister, URC chief marketing officer, said: “We have been leading the way in rugby through URC TV and felt like this was a moment in time to challenge ourselves to improve our offering still further. We have been really impressed with PTI’s work in helping Premiership Rugby successfully launch a high quality OTT product inside a short window and we are excited to see how our engagement can bring enhanced value to URC, its clubs and their supporters all over the world.”