Premier Sports, reviewed

Premier Sports is the channel you find out about the day the URC starts. It has the rugby the free channels don’t, a fair chunk of European football, and, in Ireland, no front door of its own. You buy it through somebody else.

What you get

Two channels, Premier Sports 1 and 2. On them, per its own Irish site: the United Rugby Championship, the TOP 14, the Scottish Premiership and the rest of the SPFL, LaLiga, the Champions League (shared with RTÉ), the Europa League, some Premier League, the NHL and the Coppa Italia. The club rugby, Premier League and Champions League guides show how it fits with everyone else’s rights.

It also runs LOITV in partnership with the League of Ireland, which is a separate subscription and a separate review. The League of Ireland guide covers what is free and what needs the pass.

What it costs

There’s no price of its own in the table because, in Ireland, there’s no price of its own. Three routes carry it, and the prices sit in those services’ tables:

Premier Sports’ own site says NOW passes for it start “from €11.99”, which didn’t match anything on NOW’s site when we checked. Go by the price NOW shows you NOW Sports Extra price (official source, opens in a new tab). Vodafone TV is also listed as a route, at Vodafone’s price.

The catch

You can’t buy it alone. Every route bundles it with TNT Sports, so you pay for four channels of football and cycling to get two of rugby. Sky’s version has stepped pricing that climbs at six months and again at twelve, and a 12-month minimum. NOW’s Day membership is the escape hatch: one URC weekend, one Champions League night, paid for once.

The small print

Premier Sports has no Irish terms of its own that we could find, because you don’t buy it from Premier Sports. The rules are the rules of whoever sells it to you.

When to have it, when to cancel

• URC season, autumn to late spring: a NOW Sports Extra month at a time, or the intro if you’ll keep it the full year anyway.
• Champions League nights: check first whether RTÉ has the game free. If not, a Day membership.
• Summer: nothing. The rugby stops, the football stops, cancel. If you’re on Sky’s add-on, you can’t, so factor the dead months into the decision.
• Both rugby and Sky Sports: NOW’s Sports Saver Bundle or Sky’s three-way bundle. The finder prices both.

Verdict

The honest answer is that most Irish readers should buy it through NOW’s Sports Extra by the month rather than on any contract. It’s the main home for the URC (TG4 shows some games free), so if you follow a province you’ll want it from autumn to May. If you don’t, one of the Day memberships covers the odd big game.