Sky, the New Zealand broadcast rights holder for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, has announced free-to-air coverage of this year’s tournament will screen on Prime.

As well as 48 matches broadcast live on Sky Sport, 12 matches will be broadcast on free-to-air channel Prime (six matches live).

Sky said live free-to-air coverage includes a semifinal, bronze final and grand final.

Spark and TVNZ had 14 games free-to-air during the last World Cup in 2019, with both semifinals and the final live and free-to-air.

Prime is Sky’s largest reach platform and was watched by 3,467,900 New Zealanders in 2022.

Sky said 2,907,000 viewers watched the 2015 Rugby World Cup on Sky and Prime.