New deal with BBC for Challenge Cup coverage

The Rugby League has landed a new and enhanced three-year deal with the BBC to extend Challenge Cup coverage until 2024.

The new deal will see the BBC continuing to cover two matches from the last 16, two from the quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final from Wembley.

It will start from 2022 when Rugby League celebrates 70 years since the first Challenge Cup Final to be televised nationally by the BBC from Wembley -- Workington Town’s win against Featherstone Rovers in 1952.

The BBC’s online and digital coverage of the early rounds, featuring teams from all sections of the Community game, will continue and will sit alongside the RFL’s additional digital and highlights rights, allowing the opportunity to promote the sport to a wider audience.

All three 2021 World Cups (Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair), which will take place in England next autumn, will also be covered live on the BBC; 61 matches in total.

Ralph Rimmer, the RFL chief executive, said: “The value of the sport’s enduring partnership with the BBC was never more evident than this year when we delivered a memorable Challenge Cup Final which attracted the strongest viewing figures for almost a decade."