Kamal Ghorui
Rugby fans in France are about to watch the Premiership in a very different way. Instead of a big TV network, this time it is a Twitch streamer stepping in. Florian Marliere, who runs the Janusport channel, has bought the rights to show the rest of the Premiership Rugby season in France. His channel has around 11,000 subscribers, but now it will carry a major league. This move comes after the 2024–25 season was shown on beIN Sports for just one year. After that deal ended, there was no clear broadcaster. That left many fans in France unable to follow the competition. Now Marliere has stepped in, paying what he called a “five-figure sum” to secure the rights, as reported by L’Equipe. His coverage begins on Friday with Bath facing Saracens. From there, he plans to stream matches live on Twitch, where he will also do commentary himself. It is a format more common in gaming, but now it is being used for rugby.
Florian Marliere explains why he bought Premiership Rugby rights and what fans can expect from Twitch coverage
Florian Marliere made it clear that this project is not about easy profit. Speaking to L’Equipe, he said, “It all stems from frustration, that a rugby fan like myself, can no longer watch this exciting competition.”He also added, “Honestly, the idea isn’t to make money with this project; we’ll probably even lose some. But I hope that the increased visibility will lead to side projects that might be more profitable.”That honesty shows his main goal is to bring the league back to fans in France. The market has always been tough because local rugby is already very strong. French fans mostly follow their own teams, which makes it harder for foreign leagues to find a place.Still, this is not the first time streaming has been used in sports. Mark Goldbridge already streams Bundesliga matches on his “That’s Football” YouTube channel, which has more than 1.5 million subscribers. In rugby, the Pro D2 league is also available in the UK through a smaller platform called FR-UK.Premiership Rugby has also seen success with online streaming. Matches from the Premiership Rugby Cup earlier this season drew large audiences, including six-figure views for games like Leicester vs Northampton and Gloucester vs Bath.Now, all eyes are on how Marliere’s experiment works. If fans respond well, this could open a new way to watch rugby in markets where traditional TV deals struggle. For now, it is a bold step driven by passion more than profit.
