Premier Sports has secured more live rights for its portfolio to beef up new channel Premier Sports Rugby.
The service - launched last month - becomes Premier Sports' third station and its first genre-based offering, with a schedule of rugby programming 24/7.
Unlike Premier Sports 1 and Premier Sports 2, the channel is not being broadcast as a traditional linear service but as a streamed service.
At present it is available to Premier Sports customers on the website and app, as well as for Virgin Media customers, with a launch on Sky Glass and Sky Stream planned for later this year.
Newly added into the mix are two games a week from Japan's Rugby League One and USA's Major League Rugby under two-year deals, adding to all games from the URC, 80 live games from the Champions Cup/Challenge Cup and 110 games from France's Top 14.
Premier Sports chief executive Richard Sweeney said: "We are very excited and delighted to be able to bring our UK rugby fans even more premium rugby from around the globe as part of our new rugby channel, Premier Sports Rugby.
"We hope adding these two international rugby competitions to our rugby family will really excite UK rugby fans. We now offer five premium rugby competitions under one roof in an easy to access one-stop shop platform, which is something that rugby fans have been asking for and gives our customers even more value for money.
"The addition of top-flight Japanese pro rugby and the chance to watch its host of world rugby stars plus the hugely popular MLR from the USA live every weekend, gives fresh and intriguing new rugby viewing for our customers.
"As we have done with Top 14 - which has seen huge growth with viewing numbers increase significantly over the past year - we want to give fans access to the best club rugby from across the globe.
"We aim to be an integral part of the rugby communities we broadcast; to promote the very best players in the world as well as emerging talent and to highlight different cultures and rugby perspectives from a range of rugby leagues around the world. We're now opening a window into Japan and USA's rugby scenes and we really hope rugby customers enjoy it."
Neil Wilkes
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