World Rugby and IMG, the global sports marketing and media agency, announced a long-term strategic media rights partnership on April 30, 2026, designed to accelerate the sports growth in the United States and internationally ahead of the Mens Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the Womens Rugby World Cup in 2033. Under the agreement, IMG will advise on US and global media rights strategy, distribution, content development, and in-market commercial initiatives, while also providing broader consulting across the entirety of World Rugbys global media rights ecosystem. The deal was announced alongside a record schedule of international fixtures on US soil in 2026, supported by an expanded hosting programme developed with national unions.
World Rugbys ambitions in the United States have a well-defined commercial logic: the 2031 and 2033 World Cups represent the two largest broadcast and sponsorship opportunities in the sports history, and maximising their value requires building a credible US audience base before that window opens. The IMG partnership is an explicit acknowledgement that World Rugby lacks the in-market infrastructure and distribution relationships to execute that strategy independently. IMG brings an established US sports media network and a track record of growing international sports properties in North America, having worked across cricket, tennis, and athletics. The selection of a long-term advisory model — rather than a straightforward rights sale — signals that World Rugby views the US market as a multi-year development project requiring strategic patience rather than a near-term revenue extraction opportunity.
The partnerships broader commercial implications extend beyond the United States. World Rugby is simultaneously navigating complex domestic broadcast relationships in its core markets — the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan — at a moment when the sports rights values are under pressure from broader broadcaster consolidation and subscriber fatigue. By engaging IMG to advise on the global ecosystem, World Rugby is signalling an intent to restructure its media strategy ahead of the World Cup cycle in a more coordinated, market-by-market manner. That approach, if executed well, could meaningfully increase the broadcast fees World Rugby commands for the 2031 tournament relative to the $400 million estimated for Japan 2023.
For the wider rugby commercial landscape, the IMG deal raises the question of how domestic unions — particularly those in Tier 2 markets — will interact with a centrally managed global rights strategy. The Six Nations, the Rugby Championship, and the domestic club competitions each hold their own independent rights, creating structural complexity that a global advisory partnership must navigate carefully. Broadcasters and sponsors evaluating rugby investment ahead of 2031 will be watching how IMG and World Rugby reconcile those competing interests, with the commercial coherence of the overall package depending heavily on the answer.
