Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

It would help if they had some kind of plan to allow people in Ireland to see Premier Sports Rugby. They did have their youtube channel show some live games before for Ireland.

Actually, Friday's game is Real Madrid v Girona

The whole problem, I have with this; is that Premier Sports, are the exclusive rights holder for La Liga in the UK and RoI. My view, is - and mabe, I'm missing something here - is that; if you are the the exclusive rights holder, then you should be showing the games.

Premier are also the exclusive rights holders to :-

United Rugby Championship
Champions Cup Rugby
Challenge Cup Rugby
Top 14 Rugby
Japan Rugby Leage
Copa Del Rey
Coppa Italia
German Cup

They also have share agreements for - but some exlusive:

SPL
Scottish Cup
Scottish League Cup

All of the above, get some - but not all games shown in RoI. In fact La Liga, you can consider youself lucky (in RoI), if you have access to four games a week. In Top 14, maybe one or two a month, and Japan Rugby - none at all. And I can go on - German Cup - hardly any (in either durisitiction!), SPL, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup (if they don't include Celtic or Hibs) - you can forget about it being show in RoI. Coppa Italia - maybe, the odd one - here and there (both duristicions), and Copa del Rey - don't get me started - they got the rights this season - and can't even manage to show the final - due to scheduling conflicts - the final will only be on ITV 4! (so OK - I have ITV 4 - but that's not the point). In short - my opinion, is that - Premier Sports are a total fraud, as a legitimate sports broadcaster. All I can say; is that, European professional Sports organisations, must be really hard up, to find a suitable broadcasting partner - if the best they can come up with is Premier Sports!

So it is Real Madrid v Girona, that gets dropped. Also a Eredivisie game on Saturday night - not that I'm all that interested in this - but it wasn't in anythings way, it just need to swithed from 1 to 2.

The last line is the only one that matters. The rights for things like the German Cup, Coppa Italia etc are given away. There is no real audience for these in the UK or Ireland.

If Premier doesn’t pick up the rights, they’d be on some obscure streaming service.

The listings for RoI have now been updated. So Stormers v Glasgow will now only be shown in UK. Also dropped (but previously listed) the first of the Scottish Cup fixtures tomorrow (Sat 18th Apr) will now only be shown in UK. For URC on Fri 24th Apr. previously listed on Premier Rugby - (now removed) - Cardiff v Ospreys (so now only on S4C).

Try being a Nascar fan and relying on Premier Sports , the last number of races have been on PS2 and up until late this week Kansas was scheduled for this Sunday....now its replaced by a mix of highlight - Spanish football and a motorbike race from a few weeks ago(not even the latest round) and magazine shows-NHL and 'Bikeworld'.

UK viewers at least get the streaming option for all the sports that Premier have rights to , on top of the Rugby channel on VM UK.

Premier Sports have retained the rights to first choice Tuesday night Champions League matches until 2031

https://www.thejournal.ie/champions-league-tv-rights-3-7028401-Apr2026/?utm_source=shortlink&fbclid=IwdGRjcARgjzljbGNrBGCOp2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkq7BuLhyjZGB2UddY71hKJc1MpLRURFv8AdKHCNkXAxXLEXnjsuD1Mjh8zM_aem_l4tSGDyYmmPQpxzTwRdOjw

Don't forget those near the border and along east coast who can receive ITV from transmitters in Wales.

Now back to my usual rant on Premier Sports. So now it transpires, that they will indeed show a Premier League game on Sunday 17th - (Leeds v Brighton), and possibly a game on the final day aswell. Both games are already scheduled to be shown on Sky anyway. So that means that the SPL game between Livingston and Kilmarnock - to which Premier have the exclusive rights to - will only be shown in the UK, as Premier 2 will be tied up - I'm sure - with the rare appearance of La Liga games.

This is something that Premier in Ireland, seem to be getting good at - duplicating what is already available, in RoI, from other networks, when they can't manage to show, content from which they have exlusive rights!

Just as an addendum to my post -

Leeds United v Brighton is the game on sky main event - (which if by default the pub channel)

the other 3pm kick-offs being:
Everton v Sunderland (sky premier league)
Brentford v Palace (sky football)
Wolves v Fulham (sky F1)

So now we have the details of Premier Sport for this comming week-end (16/17 May). La Liga have now confirmed the kick-off times for the final two rounds - all games in the penultimate round (37) kick-off on Sunday 18:00, and all games in the final round (38) with one exception; kick-off on Saturday 23rd 20:00. The exception being Villareal v Athleti - which is on Sunday 24th 20:00. And with that exception - non of the rest of them are likely to make it to linear TV.

That leaves Premier with some gaps to fill. And Top 14 Rugby makes it into these gaps.

Friday 15th
19:45 Ulster v Glasgow (URC) - Premier 2
19:45 Edinburgh v Connacht (URC) - TG4 / Premier 1
19:45 Cardiff v Stormers (URC) - S4C / Premier Rugby

Saturday 16th
12:45 Sharks v Zebre (URC) - Premier 2
13:30 Pau v Cleremont (Top 14) - Premier 1
15:00 Bulls v Treviso (URC) - Premier 2
17:15 Leinster v Ospreys (URC) - Premier 1 / TG4
17:15 Scarletts v Dragons (URC) - Premier 2 / S4C
19:45 Munster v Lions (URC) - Premier 1
20:00 Racing v Toulon (Top 14) - Premier 2

Sunday 17th
00:30 Fluminense v Sao Paulo (Brazil Serie A) - Premier 2
13:30 PSV v Twenty (Eredivisie) - Premier 1 UK
14:00 Livingston v Kilmarnock (SPL) - Premier 2
16:00 Brentford v Palace (EPL) - Premier 1 RoI (also on sky football)

There are also some Top 14 games pencilled in for 30th May, but these are unlikely to be shown in RoI, due to the Champions League and URC quarter finals.

I mentioned some Top 14 games pencilled in for the w-end of 30/31 May on Premier. These have now been confirmed, and will indeed be shown in Ireland aswell as UK:-

Sat 30/05/26 20:15 Montpellier v Pau - Premier 2 (clashes with Leinster game)
Sun 31/05/26 15:30 Toulon v Bordeaux - Premeir 1
Sun 31/05/26 20:05 Clermont v Racing - Premier 2

Yes - the same on the UK version of Premier 1 also!, plus all the the streaming channels.