IMG sells coverage of RLWC 2013

The tournament will be watched by a potential global audience of over 115 million viewers - the event's biggest exposure to date.

Live action will be shown in nearly 40 countries as well as every match being streamed live on the internet by Premier Sports. "Our role has been to ensure the tournament receives the maximum exposure globally across a wide range of media platforms to help promote both the event and the sport of rugby league," said James Tree, vice president at IMG Media. "Extensive live and highlights coverage will be seen in more countries than previous Rugby League World Cups on a mixture of platforms including terrestrial, pay TV, cable, satellite and IPTV."

Nigel Wood, tournament director said: "Rugby League World Cup 2013 presents a wonderful opportunity for the sport to reach new audiences both nationally and internationally through the range of broadcasting deals that have been agreed. I am sure the next five weeks of top class international rugby league will excite and entertain sports fans across the world."

Final at Old Trafford

The tournament is being staged at 21 different venues in England, Ireland, Wales and France with both semi-finals being played at Wembley Stadium over the weekend of 22 and 23 November and the final staged at Manchester United's Old Trafford.

The first World Cup took place in 1954 with France hosting a four team tournament that also included Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. Great Britain emerged victorious with a 16-12 win over their hosts in the final at the Parc des Princes.

In 1995 the tournament was expanded to ten teams with an Emerging Nations World Cup running in parallel.The 2000 World Cup featured 16 nations and the number was back down to ten in 2008 with New Zealand running out winners for the first time in Australia.

This year there will be 14 teams participating. In addition to England and Australia, the other teams taking part are the Cook Islands, Fiji, France, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Scotland, Tonga, the USA and Wales.