The UK and Ireland markets made significant contributions to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which became the most widely-viewed event in the sport’s history.

The live audience for the tournament in England increased by a factor of 48 per cent over the previous edition in New Zealand, with live viewership through 106 broadcasters reaching nearly 724 million homes worldwide.

In the UK, host broadcaster ITV achieved peak audiences which reached 11.5 million for England's pool matches against Fiji, Wales and Australia and the final, which New Zealand won 34-17 against the Aussies.

It is claimed the total UK three-minute reach was 40.2 million and the 15-minute reach was just under 34 million.

Ireland’s TV3 attracted its biggest-ever audiences for Rugby World Cup 2015 matches involving the Irish team, while Rugby World Cup matches delivered three of the top four broadcast audiences in the Republic in 2015.

"Rugby World Cup 2015 was a very special and record-breaking tournament," said World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper.

"Central to its success was the reach and appeal of the tournament through our broadcast partners in the UK and Ireland, where record rugby audiences were achieved.

"We are inviting all interested parties to enter the process and look forward to appointing our rights holding broadcasters for these important markets later in the year as the exciting momentum continues towards what promises to be a ground-breaking 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan."

ITV, which has broadcast every tournament since 1991, looks set to face a battle to keep hold of the rights to the Rugby World Cup with all major UK television networks reported to have expressed an interest.

The commercial network paid £60 million ($86.7 million/€77.6 million) to secure the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup rights. 

World Rugby has issued bidding information to interested parties in both markets with bids for the tournament in Japan as a stand-alone, or coupled with the 2023 Rugby World Cup, to be considered.

The rights holding broadcaster for each market is due to be announced later this year.