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With the Six Nations Championship in full flow and the dust barely settled on the 2015 Rugby World Cup, TV companies are set to do battle for the 2019 Webb Ellis Trophy extravaganza in Japan after World Rugby launched the UK and Ireland tender process on Monday.

The process is open to all interested parties, including terrestrial companies like the BBC and ITV who broadcast the last tournament, and companies like Sky Sports and BT Sport. The only protected listed event that must be shown in terrestrial TV is the final itself.

Rugby World Cup 2015 was the most widely viewed rugby event ever. The live audience saw a 48% increase on the 2011 event in New Zealand, with viewers through 106 broadcasters reaching nearly 724 million homes across the globe.

The UK and Ireland markets were at the heart of the success story. In the UK, host broadcaster ITV achieved peak audiences reaching 11.5m for England’s matches against Fiji, Wales and Australia and the final between winners New Zealand and the Wallabies.

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

World Rugby has issued bidding information to interested parties in both markets and bids for Rugby World Cup 2019 as a stand-alone or coupled with Rugby World Cup 2023 will be considered with the successful bids expected to be announced later this year.

World Rugby Chief Executive Brett Gosper said: “Rugby World Cup 2015 was a very special and record-breaking tournament. 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.

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“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 Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.”

ITV, who are jointly screening the 2016 Six Nations Championship with the BBC in a deal that runs until 2021, held exclusive rights for the Rugby World Cup last autumn with S4C having nine live games, including all of Wales’ matches, and ITV remain strong favourites to secure the 2019 showpiece once more.

The opening ceremony is set to take place at Tokyo Stadium on September 20, 2019 with the final set for November 2.

Details of the match schedule will become clearer later this year following a review of the 2015 edition.

The format is set to the same as the previous four tournaments with four pools of five teams.

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The top two sides from the four groups will qualify for the quarter-finals.

There will be 12 venues throughout the country with the final taking place at Yokohama Stadium which hosted the 2002 football World Cup final between Brazil and Germany.

With Japan being nine hours ahead of UK time, Welsh rugby fans can expect plenty of early morning games during the tournament.