BBC and ITV unveil broadcast plans for 2016 RBS Six Nations Championship

The 2016 championship marks the start of a six-year deal between the BBC and ITV that will see the matches shared between both broadcasters on television and online, with radio coverage on BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra.

The BBC’s line-up includes an experienced presenting team led by John Inverdale and Gabby Logan with expert analysis from some of the biggest names in the great championship’s history, including Jeremy Guscott, Matt Dawson, Jonathan Davies, Keith Wood and Gavin Hastings.

The BBC will have exclusive TV coverage of four of the first six games from the tournament, including the Calcutta Cup game between Scotland and England from Murrayfield. There will also be live coverage of the closing match between France and England, along with all of Scotland, Wales and France’s remaining home games. A new Sunday night highlights programme, Six Nations Rugby Special, will have the best of the action from all of the weekend’s games.

BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra has comprehensive radio coverage with live commentary from all of the home nations’ matches and up-to-the-minute updates on the remaining games. Through its digital platforms, BBC Sport will bring audiences enhanced live coverage: every try and penalty, expert analysis, breaking news, exclusive online content and interactive features will all be available across any device, at any time.

The match split between the BBC and ITV is as follows:

Barbara Slater, Director of BBC Sport, says: “We are pleased to be working in partnership with ITV to continue to bring audiences free-to-air access to rugby’s greatest championship.

"We go in to the 2016 Six Nations with a BBC line-up that combines expert analysis from true legends of the game, a strong presenting team that the public knows and loves, along with new digital innovations bringing audiences closer to the action than ever before.

"More than 24 million people watched the BBC’s coverage of last year’s Six Nations and this year we will be there again, from the first kick to the final whistle to deliver a truly fantastic championship.”

On BBC One, John Inverdale will lead the presentation team with Gabby Logan and Jason Mohammad, with expert analysis from an experienced line-up of pundits including Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Mike Tindall, Martyn Williams, Andy Nicol, Keith Wood, Brian Moore, Ali Williams, Chris Paterson, Lewis Moody, Thomas Castaignede and Carlo Del Fava. The commentary team will be led by Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter and Alastair Eykyn. Sonja McLaughlan and Lee McKenzie will be reporting from pitch-side to give viewers the very latest news on the action as it unfolds.

BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra will see Ian Robertson, Chris Jones, Sara Orchard, Iain Carter, Andrew Cotter and Conor McNamara on commentary duties. Expert analysis will be provided by Matt Dawson, Gavin Hastings, Ryan Jones, Rob Jones, Paul Grayson and Denis Hickie. There will be live commentary from all of the home nations’ matches with up-to-the-minute updates from all other games, along with the latest news and analysis as the championship develops. In addition to live action, BBC Radio 5 live will also preview all the forthcoming drama as Matt Dawson presents Matt Dawson’s Rugby Show. Every Thursday night before a game weekend, Matt and Sonja McLaughlan will be joined by special guests to dissect and discuss all of the Six Nations news happening on and off the field.

The BBC will also be offering weekly round-ups of the Women’s Six Nations Championship in the network programmes, and all of the action can be followed on the BBC Sport website.

A strong BBC Sport digital offering enables fans to share in all the excitement through the BBC Sport website and via the BBC Sport app on mobiles, tablets and connected TVs. For the first time, fans will be able to get even closer to the action by signing up for push alerts and the new My Sport service, which provides a more personalised offer. The ever-popular BBC Live pages will cover every minute of every match day with live text commentary, video streams and clips, stats and social media content. A Six Nations catch-up video will allow fans who’ve missed any of the weekend’s action to watch the key moments on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

BBC Sport’s social media accounts, which have almost 17 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+, will provide all the latest breaking news and some of the best clips from the tournament catching the crucial, dramatic and shareable moments you just do not want to miss.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales coverage

BBC Northern Ireland will have all Ireland’s games live on BBC Radio Ulster with outside broadcasts from the home matches. There will also be a chance to catch comprehensive coverage and analysis of Ireland’s games throughout the tournament on BBC Newsline, BBC Radio Ulster and the BBC Sport NI website.

There will be build-up and full live commentaries for all of Scotland’s games on BBC Radio Scotland with all the latest news and features on the BBC Sport Scotland website.

All of Wales’ matches will be live on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. BBC Wales television will also provide live coverage of Wales v Scotland, France and Italy. There will also be live television coverage of every Wales game, including those on ITV, 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 all of the weekend’s action in front of a live studio audience each Sunday evening during the tournament. The Scrum V team will also take over the BBC Radio Wales sport programme every Thursday evening, and the Yn y Ryc programme on Radio Cymru will preview the weekend’s fixtures every Friday night during the tournament. The BBC Sport Wales website will bring news and views as they happen – including live coverage of every Wales match along with a big social media presence.

The BBC and ITV free-to-air rights deal will see both broadcasters showing the Six Nations until 2021.

Notes to Editors

BBC Six Nations pictures are now available at bbcpictures.co.uk

GJ3

Related BBC Links

• BBC One
• BBC Radio 5 live