The 2015-16 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series is set to reach more fans than any previous series, World Rugby has announced.
Both the men’s and women’s series kick off in Dubai this week and with the men’s series visiting 10 iconic locations* around the world and both the men’s and women’s series now welcoming two global partners HSBC and DHL, the stage is set for sevens to inspire in a game-changing Olympic Games season.
The new series is expected to increase on last season’s record numbers, which included 5,884 hours of airtime to an estimated 400 million homes in 144 nations in 12 different languages.
In addition to the live output, World Rugby’s official highlights programme is set to air on some new free-to-air broadcasters, ITV4 showing highlights in the UK for the first time with deals pending in further territories.
Following on from the recording-breaking success of Rugby World Cup’s digital platforms, World Rugby will again complement its traditional broadcast offering with online highlights and feature content in a dedicated ‘video hub’, bringing fans around the world closer to the players and to the action than ever before, and giving them the chance to tailor their own action sequences.
With increased exposure on the road to Rio 2016, broadcast media are able to access Video News Release (VNR) footage for online use and features at the end of each day from both the men’s and women’s events, while Gillette World of Sport will now feature sevens content in their magazine programme into 200 markets, bringing yet more exposure for the series.
WHERE TO WATCH: No matter where you are in the world you can either watch the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series on TV or on www.worldrugby.org. By clicking here for the men’s series or here for the women’s series, you can find out where the series is being shown.
Above report courtesy of World Rugby.
*While the men’s series has been increased to ten events the women’s has very sadly been cut from six to four with both London and Amsterdam dropped from the series. We are hoping that someone will realise that in order for good preparation for Rio 2016 the women’s tour needs more events and hoping even more strongly that they will decide to stage the London event again, this time with some proper promotion. We await to hear more.
You can see the schedule for the opening day of the women’s event here.
