All Blacks July tests to air free on TV3 in Sky’s new broadcast move
In a move that could be seen as the first strike play Sky is instituting since it bought the failed broadcast arm of MediaWorks last year for $1, it will be showing the All Blacks’ upcoming July tests free-to-air on TV3.
Sky, which re-secured the media rights to New Zealand Rugby’s content portfolio in August last year, will be broadcasting the All Blacks’ July tests against France, Italy and Ireland delayed on both the linear TV3 and on-demand Three Now.
The games against France and Ireland, which kick off at 7pm, will be delayed by two hours, while the game against Italy in Wellington, which kicks off at 5pm, will be delayed by four hours.
While the games will be shown delayed live on streaming app Three Now, the content will not remain available after the initial screening.
These are the first All Blacks tests to be shown on TV3 or Three Now since Sky’s acquisition of the channels, which was completed in October last year, and the move hints at the pay TV operator’s strategic plan to showcase its products on a non-paywalled channel to widen its audience and then try to convert casual followers into paid subscribers.
It’s a common strategy in other major international markets where there are dual-purpose media companies that own both free-to-air and paywall subscription entities to use the former as a marketing tool to lead customers to the latter.
Sky had previously been using the linear channel formerly known as Prime (renamed as Sky Open) as a free-to-air offering for select Super Rugby games – but the data coming back from the latter in 2025 suggested the generated audiences were not substantial.
Prime had little brand recognition before it was bought by Sky for $30 million in 2005, whereas TV3, despite a troubled financial history and ultimate failure to build a viable operation, was a well-established name in New Zealand that had reasonable audiences.
Sky snapped it up last year from Warner Bros Discovery, primarily for the increased inventory around which it could sell advertising, but also because TV3 and Three Now came with the sort of brand recognition and established consumer use to support an improved free-to-air (FTA) sports play that could drive users into becoming paid subscribers.
The decision to use the July tests – which will be the first leg of the new Nations Championship – signals that Sky is willing to put its highest-value assets in front of the paywall to try to lure viewers behind it.
Sky’s head of sport content Gary Burchett said: “2026 is shaping up to be one of the biggest All Blacks campaigns we’ve seen in years.
“The introduction of the Nations Championship brings the world’s best teams together and adds a new edge to every test match.
“Bringing the All Blacks to Three is about giving our most iconic team the biggest possible stage, while Sky Sport continues to deliver the depth, analysis and access that fans expect.”
But while the plan to use live FTA sport as a marketing tool for Sky makes sense, there are question marks hanging over the execution.
Sky has typically not shown live sport on FTA channels so long after they have kicked off, preferring instead to begin the broadcast in real time and then use frequent ad breaks.
That method sees the FTA live broadcast end up falling further behind the paywalled coverage – tempting the viewer to convert to a paid package.
It is questionable who will watch an All Blacks test four hours after it finishes, given the difficulties that would be involved in viewers not knowing the result and key moments by then.
But more pertinently, the whole concept of delayed live coverage has been ditched by other broadcasters, who no longer see it as an effective means to win an audience in the digital age of instant gratification.
International broadcasters and sports bodies are experimenting with entirely different strategies, most notably Fifa, which has licensed rights holders to publish, live, the first 10 minutes of World Cup games on their respective YouTube channels.
It is understood that Sky has not yet committed a broadcast plan for the All Blacks beyond July and will determine whether to continue with the FTA strategy for the Greatest Rivalry Tour in South Africa after seeing the results generated next month.
The decision to activate live content on TV3 may also be partly about Sky signalling to New Zealand Rugby (NZR) that it is serious about building an FTA component into its rugby coverage.
NZR carved out the NPC from the rights package it sold to Sky and agreed a deal with TVNZ to show live provincial games this year, to demonstrate its desire to grow the sport’s audience and put more content on FTA channels.
There is an ongoing frisson of tension between Sky and NZR, as the latter feels it was low-balled – the current deal is thought to be worth about $78m a year down from $100m a year – and is keen to build competitive tension in the domestic market.