Bigger than ever across the BBC – the Six Nations 2015
Live coverage of the 2015 RBS Six Nations begins on Friday 6 February as the home nations of Wales and England battle it out in Cardiff. The BBC will be offering its most comprehensive Championship coverage to date exclusively live to audiences across TV, radio, online and social media.
Published: 30 January 2015
The BBC cherishes these great sporting moments that bring the nation together, captivating people of all ages and we are delighted to see rugby union’s centerpiece continuing to thrill audiences.
- Coverage of the Six Nations kicks off with the unmissable Wales v England clash live on BBC One and BBC One HD
- Every game exclusively live on the BBC – TV, Radio 5 live/sports extra and online
- Extensive digital offering puts the entire Six Nations at your finger tips via the BBC Sport website and app
- New for 2015: Six Nations Rewind features classic matches on BBC Two, 10 minute catch-up service for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two documentary 6 Nations Magic
Live coverage of the 2015 RBS Six Nations begins on Friday 6 February as the home nations of Wales and England battle it out in Cardiff. The BBC will be offering its most comprehensive Championship coverage to date exclusively live to audiences across TV, radio, online and social media.
Once again the BBC brings an unrivalled team of experts offering their professional analysis and insight across BBC television and radio, including; Jonathan Davies, Jeremy Guscott, Sir Clive Woodward, Keith Wood, Brian Moore, Andy Nicol, Shane Williams, Sir Ian McGeechan, Thomas Castaignede, Martyn Williams, Carlo Del Fava, Lewis Moody, Chris Paterson, Gregor Townsend, Matt Dawson, Gavin Hastings, Denis Hickie, Rob Jones and Paul Grayson.
Barbara Slater, Director BBC Sport, says: “As excitement builds towards this great Championship, we are proud to bring the most extensive coverage of the Six Nations to date across TV, radio and our enhanced digital platforms. The BBC cherishes these great sporting moments that bring the nation together, captivating people of all ages and we are delighted to see rugby union’s centerpiece continuing to thrill audiences.”
John Inverdale presents the BBC’s TV coverage of rugby's greatest championship alongside Gabby Logan and Jason Mohammed with commentary coming from Eddie Butler and Andrew Cotter. Jill Douglas and Sonja McLaughlan lead the pitch side reporting.
Every game of this year’s Championship will be shown live on BBC One and BBC One HD with coverage starting on the opening day as Wales take on England (KO 20:05) at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. That opener will be preceded by a full hour’s build-up, starting with a Six Nations preview on BBC Two at 1900 and transferring to BBC One at 1930 for the lead up to the match.
Brand new for 2015, John Inverdale presents Six Nations Rewind on BBC Two where the classic matches from the BBC archive mirror those set to take place on that weekend. Kicking off on Saturday 7 February with Italy v Ireland and France v Scotland at 10am.
On Sunday 15 February (1900-2000) there will be a one hour documentary on BBC Two, 6 Nations Magic, picking out the most memorable moments in the famous history of rugby’s greatest championship and featuring a host of famous faces. The documentary will also include the great people stories from the Six Nations including the many lasting friendships and romances that have started and endured over the years, across all our outlets.
Other related programming includes a special Six Nations Question of Sport, special features in some of the biggest BBC brands, such as the One Show, and all this will be supported by BBC Get Inspired, the BBCs campaign to get more people active, as well as coverage from Radio 1 and 1Xtra's Newsbeat and CBBC Newsround.
On Radio 5 live Ian Robertson leads the commentary team joined by Alastair Eykyn, Conor McNamara, Iain Carter and Chris Jones.
BBC Radio 5 live and sports extra will bring live commentary of all matches*, reports on every fixture, the latest news, discussion and debate throughout the tournament with their expert team of analysts. Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra are available to listen to through the BBC Sport website and app and the BBC iPlayer Radio app, meaning listeners can access live commentary wherever whenever.
Getting proceedings underway on radio is a live not-to-be missed simulcast on Radio 5 live and BBC Wales on Thursday 5 February (1930-2030). The comprehensive preview of the entire 2015 Championship will feature special guests and all the build up from Cardiff City Centre. The programme will be streamed online and via the BBC Sport app.
The BBC’s digital offering will provide a comprehensive live page at bbc.co.uk/sport containing TV, radio and text commentary, with the latter showcasing expert analysis, the best of social media and detailed match statistics. There will be extensive news coverage with bespoke pre- and post-match comment from big name analysts such as Jeremy Guscott and Jonathan Davies as well as chief sports writers Tom Fordyce and Tom English.
New for 2015, a 10-minute catch up service, also available to download on iPlayer, will feature the best video highlights, stats, analysis and funnies from the weekend's action. There will also be on-demand clips and highlights following each match.
The full digital offering will all be available on both the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app.
And it doesn’t stop there as live coverage of the Women’s Six Nations between England and France (Saturday 21 March) will follow the men's match at Twickenham on the final day of the Championship. Sara Orchard commentates on the match on BBC red button, connected TV and the BBC Sport website and England World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi joins James Burridge for commentary on Radio 5 live sports extra. The Women’s Six Nations will feature in weekly round-ups in the network programmes and all the action will be followed on the BBC Sport website.
The BBC will utilise its social media reach, across a range of sport and pan-BBC accounts, to promote the Championship, including the launch of a dedicated rugby account on Twitter for the first time. In broadcast, the BBC will incorporate user comments from social media into coverage, feature the best user-generated content under #friendlyrivalry and allow users to vote on topical issues via the BBC Sport website and Twitter. BBC talent will also occasionally take part in Q&A sessions via our social media channels.
Working with the Six Nations the BBC will feature the best social media content from the professional game on BBC Sport’s live pages. For the first time, select action clips will feature on the BBC Sport Facebook page, and we will also carry non-match footage from within the stadia across our social media channels globally.
BBC sports news will be covering all the major stories and moments of the tournament across TV, radio and online. The coverage will include a special preview programme 'Inside Six Nations' on the BBC News Channel, presented on location, on the Friday before each match weekend. The show will include special guests and features building up to the weekend’s action in both the men's and women's tournaments.
BBC Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:
All Wales internationals will be live on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru, as well as on BBC Wales television. There will be live television coverage of each Wales game for S4C on Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol.
In addition, Scrum V will broadcast a Six Nations preview on BBC Two Wales on Sunday 31 January plus highlights, analysis and debate on each weekend’s action in front of a live studio audience each Sunday evening during the tournament.
The bbc.co.uk/sportwales website will bring news and views as it happens – including live coverage of each Wales match as it is played along with a big social media presence.
The Scrum V team will take over the Radio Wales Sport programme each Thursday evening, and Yn y Ryc programme on Radio Cymru will preview the weekend’s fixtures each Friday night during the tournament.
BBC Wales TV or S4C will show full live coverage of the Wales U20 team.
BBC Scotland series, Sport XV, will feature a special 6 Nations Preview programme on Sunday 1 February, on BBC Two Scotland.
There will be build-up and full live commentaries for all of Scotland’s games on BBC Radio Scotland in addition to all the latest news and features online, on the BBC Scotland sports website.
BBC Northern Ireland will have all of Ireland’s games live on BBC Radio Ulster with outside broadcasts from home games at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland games will be streamed live on the BBC Sport website and on the Red Button with an option to listen to the BBC Radio Ulster commentary. BBC Newsline, BBC Radio Ulster and the BBC Sport NI website will also have extensive preview and analysis of all of Ireland’s games throughout the tournament.
*except Italy V France on Sunday 15 March, which will have live updates on Radio 5 live
The BBC holds exclusive live broadcast rights to the RBS 6 Nations through to 2017.
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Six Nations 2015: BBC Television Schedule
Please note all broadcast details subject to change. Kick-off times are shown in brackets.
Week 5 Friday 06/02/2015
BBC Two 19:00-19:30 0:30 Wales v England (Build Up)
BBC One 19:30-22:00 02:30 Wales v England (20:05)
Week 6 Saturday 07/02/2015
BBC Two 10:00-11:00 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:00-16:30 02:30 Italy v Ireland (14:30)
BBC One 16:30-19:00 02:30 France v Scotland (17:00)
Week 6 Sunday 08/02/2015
BBC Two 10:20-11:20 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
Week 7 Saturday 14/02/2015
BBC Two 10:00-11:00 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:00-16:30 02:30 England v Italy (14:30)
BBC One 16:30-19:00 02:30 Ireland v France (17:00)
Week 7 Sunday 15/02/2015
BBC Two 11:20-12:20 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:30-17:00 02:30 Scotland v Wales (15:00)
Week 9 Saturday 28/02/2015
BBC Two 10:00-11:00 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:00-16:30 02:30 Scotland v Italy (14:30)
BBC One 16:30-19:00 02:30 France V Wales (17:00)
Week 9 Sunday 01/03/2015
BBC Two 10:20-11:20 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC1 14:30-17:00 02:30 Ireland v England (15:00)
Week 11 Saturday 14/03/2015
BBC Two 10:00-11:00 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:00-16:30 02:30 Wales v Ireland (14:30)
BBC One 16:30-19:00 02:30 England v Scotland (17:00)
Week 11 Sunday 15/03/2015
BBC Two 10:20-11:20 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 14:30-17:00 02:30 Italy v France (15:00)
Week 12 Saturday 21/03/2015
BBC Two 10:30-11:30 01:00 Six Nations Rewind
BBC One 12:15-14:25 02:10 Italy v Wales (12:30)
BBC One 14:25-16:30 02:05 Scotland v Ireland (14:30)
BBC One 16:30-19:00 02:30 England v France (17:00)
BBC Two 19:00-20:00 01:00 Six Nations Doc
BBC iPlayer 19:30-21:30 02:00 Women’s Six Nations: England v France
