Sky TV secures New Zealand Rugby rights: What it all means for the viewer and what is available on free to air

Friday, 22 August 2025

Captain Scott Barrett’s All Blacks will largely continue to be seen on Sky TV, although some offshore tests remain up for grabs.

A monthly fee of around $55-$60 is now not enough to guarantee every All Blacks test for Sky TV subscribers when the new broadcast deal kicks in next year.

Sky and New Zealand Rugby announced their new five-year agreement on Friday, which starts in 2026 and for subscribers will continue to include all top-level rugby on home soil and the regular staples: All Blacks Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup tests (home and away), next year’s tour of South Africa, the soon-to-be-confirmed Nations Cup (home and away in July and November), plus Super Rugby and NPC.

The asterisk, included in NZR’s release, was around one-off tests, such as the All Blacks’ pre-World Cup match against the Springboks at Twickenham in 2023, or recent ventures into the United States against the likes of Ireland and Fiji. The same would apply to Black Ferns tests outside the Pacific Four competition, September/October internationals and the 2027 women’s British and Irish Lions tour.

It said: “NZR has retained the option for up to five offshore All Blacks and up to five offshore Black Ferns tests outside of the domestic broadcast agreement. The test matches have not been confirmed by NZR and are for the 2026-30 period. The rights to broadcast these matches will be negotiated on a match-by-match basis at the time.”

It means Sky, which The Post understands signed for $85 million annually for the newly-announced deal (down from the existing $111 million per year), would need to outbid stiff competition from other broadcasters to secure rights to these one-off matches. Most likely, New Zealand viewers would need to subscribe elsewhere to watch every All Blacks test.

“Just as we have seen significant growth in international sponsorship, our focus is now on completing these important international broadcast partnerships, which will add to our record commercial, broadcast and match-day revenue,” said NZR chair David Kirk in a statement.

Currently a monthly subscription is $54.99 for Sky Sport Now, or around $59 for the Sky Sport package on the satellite service or SkyGo.

Cricket fans have long been familiar with paying extra across pay TV platforms to watch the Black Caps.

Sky was once the sole pay TV home of cricket in New Zealand before Spark Sport’s arrival. It became NZC’s domestic broadcast rights holder in April 2020 before folding in 2023, when TVNZ inherited the rights (and Sky will reclaim them on a six-year deal starting in 2026-27). It meant for a time, diehard cricket fans needed both Sky and Spark subscriptions to watch all Black Caps matches home and away.

Spark also won the rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup which was a rare tournament to escape Sky’s clutches, and it returned there in 2023.

All NPC matches will be shown on both Sky and TVNZ from next season.

NZ Rugby trumpeted Friday’s deal as: “New Zealanders have more ways to watch rugby than ever before”.

That primarily referred to the free-to-air element which saw TVNZ become NZR’s “free-to-air provincial rugby partner”, meaning the entire NPC, and selected Farah Palmer Cup and Heartland Championship matches will be shown on both Sky and TVNZ.

It means just two Farah Palmer Cup matches per weekend shown live, both double headers with NPC.

NZR and Sky has trumpeted increased viewership this year, with the Super Rugby Pacific final achieving the highest numbers since the 2016 decider. A total of 726,000 watched on Sky Sport 1 and Sky Open (free-to-air), and around 306,000 people watched on digital platforms Sky Sport Now and Sky Go, the release said.

Nearly 600,000 New Zealanders watched the Black Ferns take on Australia in Wellington in July, and over 2 million Kiwis watched the All Blacks v France series across all Sky’s platforms, the release said.

What rugby you will get on Sky TV, from 2026

DOMESTIC

* Super Rugby Pacific

* Super Rugby Aupiki

* All NPC

* Selected Farah Palmer Cup

* Heartland Championship finals

ALL BLACKS

* Bledisloe Cup

* Rugby Championship

* All Blacks and Springboks tours

* July and November internationals featuring the top 12 teams in the world (new Nations Cup tournament once formalised)

* 2029 men’s British and Irish Lions tour of NZ

BLACK FERNS

* Pacific Four Series

* September/October internationals

* 2027 women’s British and Irish Lions tour of NZ

OTHER TEAMS IN BLACK

* Maori All Blacks

* All Blacks XV

* Black Ferns XV

Free-to-air on TVNZ (shown co-exclusively with Sky)

* NPC (70 regular season matches and 7 finals)

* Farah Palmer Cup (12 regular season matches including 2 per week as double-headers with NPC, and 2 finals)

* Heartland Championship finals (2 matches)