The Gallagher Premiership is one of the most exciting rugby divisions in the world. Due to that, a lot of people want to watch the league. So where can you watch the Gallagher Premiership?
Where can I watch the Gallagher Premiership? In the UK you can watch the Gallagher Premiership on either BT Sport or Premiership Rugby TV. All Premiership Rugby games are shown on one of those two broadcasters.
BT Sport have owned the rights to show Gallagher Premiership Rugby games for over a decade now. Having acquired the rights in 2013, BT Sport usually has at least two games on TV every game week. The broadcaster will usually try to choose the most exciting games coming up whether that be because of local rivalry or position in the table.
This means that BT Sport will at the maximum have four games on TV throughout the weekend. When it is a weekend with Premiership Rugby there is usually one game on Friday night which is shown by BT Sport. The channel will then also show one more game on Saturday and usually one on Sunday.
There are sometimes two games on Saturdays depending on if Premiership Rugby has one of the games starting earlier than another on Saturday. Some fans do complain that BT Sport is expensive, as you can only get it if you add it to an existing Sky package or you’re a BT customer through their broadband.
BT Sport costs £30.00 per month and some fans are not massively happy that they do not show every game in the Premiership. In a similar way to football, the big broadcasters do not necessarily show every game across the weekend, only the ones that they choose to broadcast.
You might think that if BT Sport chooses not to broadcast a game, there is nowhere to find it. But this is not the case. In the last couple of years, Premiership Rugby have come out with a revolutionary new streaming service for all of the games that are not shown on BT Sport. This is Premiership Rugby TV.
Any games that BT Sport decide they do not want to broadcast on a Premiership Rugby weekend will be shown on Premiership Rugby TV. It is the official streaming service of Premiership Rugby and offers even more coverage for fans. The streaming service has a slightly more simple payment plan.
At the start of the season, you can pay £99.99 to get access to PRTV games for the entire season. This was the figure for the 2022/23 Premiership Rugby season so we don’t know whether Premiership Rugby may choose to increase this figure in the future.
If your favourite team is not playing on BT Sport then you can choose to buy a single game.
A Match Pass is £4.99 to watch the game of your choice. If you want PRTV but for just one single round of the competition then it is £6.99. PRTV is streamed directly to the Premiership Rugby website.
There is one more place where you can watch Premiership Rugby in the UK. That is with ITV. ITV have a deal with Premiership Rugby to show a few Prem Rugby games this season. These are the only games in the season that are on free-to-view TV. But these are only select big games.
Can I watch the Premiership Rugby Cup on TV?
BT Sport may have the rights to show Premiership Rugby games, but do they also have the rights to show the Premiership Rugby Cup?
Yes, they do. You can watch the Premiership Rugby Cup on BT Sport. In the past, BT Sport have shown a few of the group stage games. Once you get into the knockout stages of the competition BT Sport will usually show a few more of the games in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
You can watch the Premiership Rugby Cup Semi-finals and Final on BT Sport which have shown the competition for the last few years. Their coverage of the Cup is very similar to Premiership Rugby and watching the Cup can show you some of the exciting talents that Premiership teams have coming through their academies.
Will Channel 5 show Premiership Rugby?
Channel 5, the free-to-view channel in the UK, used to show occasional Premiership Rugby games as well as previously having a highlights show at the end of each Round of the competition. However, this is not the case anymore.
Channel 5 do not show Premiership Rugby anymore. The highlights show that the channel was axed around the beginning of the 2021/22 season, with the broadcaster not revealing why they decided to axe the programme.
ITV then took over as the channel which shows Premiership Rugby on Freeview TV.
Where can I watch Premiership Rugby in the US?
The USA is starting to like rugby a lot more. The MLR has made the sport start to grow in popularity in the USA and so a lot of fans are looking for ways to watch the top European leagues, including the Gallagher Premiership.
The official broadcaster of the Gallagher Premiership in the USA is NBC which is streaming all Premiership games in the 2022/23 season. They are doing this through Peacock Premium which is available for $4.99 per month.
As Peacock Premium is the exclusive streaming partner of the league, this is the only channel in the USA which will be showing Premiership Rugby. This is just for the 2022/23 season as any deals further into the future have not yet been revealed and the sport’s growing popularity in the USA could lead to a different streaming service bidding for the rights.
One other way that you can watch Premiership Rugby in the USA is by getting a VPN and then purchasing Premiership Rugby TV. Premiership Rugby’s streaming service is not available in the USA or Canada at the moment, likely because of the deals the league has with existing streaming services.
But a VPN could still allow you to watch Premiership Rugby games even if you are in the USA, by allowing you to purchase PRTV.