Six Nations: When does it start, which games are on BBC and ITV, what time are the matches?

Everything you need to know about the Six Nations on TV

Ireland celebrate winning the 2015 Six Nations championship. (Getty Images)

England will begin and end their Six Nations campaign on the BBC, but ITV will start it’s shared coverage of the championship by screening their matches against Italy, Ireland and Wales after the fixtures were confirmed by the two broadcasters.

A deal was struck towards the end of 2015 that unveiled new plans to share coverage of this year’s Six Nations championship across the two terrestrial channels in a bid to keep international rugby on free-to-air TV. After their hugely successful World Cup coverage, ITV have bagged England’s two crucial matches at Twickenham against Wales and Ireland, while the BBC can at least boast the first match of the tournament in France vs Italy as well as England’s curtain-raiser against Scotland at Murrayfield.

The tournament will come to an end on BBC One as France host England in Paris on Saturday 19 March, and in total the BBC will broadcast eight games to ITV’s seven.

This year’s instalment of the northern Hemisphere tournament is the first of a six-year deal that will see matches shared across the BBC and ITV, with live radio coverage being delivered on BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra. The BBC will also launch a new highlights programme on Sunday called ‘Six Nations Rugby Special’ which will contain action from all three matches each weekend.

So what games will be broadcast on which channel?

Date	Time	Fixture	Location	Channel
06/02/2016	14:25	France v Italy	Stade de France	BBC One
06/02/2016	16:50	Scotland v England	Murrayfield	BBC One
07/02/2016	15:00	Ireland v Wales	Aviva Stadium	ITV
13/02/2016	14:25	France v Ireland	Stade de France	BBC One
13/02/2016	16:50	Wales v Scotland	Principality Stadium	BBC One
14/02/2016	14:00	Italy v England	Stadio Olimpico	ITV
26/02/2016	20:05	Wales v France	Principality Stadium	BBC One
27/02/2016	14:25	Italy v Scotland	Stadio Olimpico	ITV
27/02/2016	16:50	England v Ireland	Twickenham	ITV
12/03/2016	13:30	Ireland v Italy	Aviva Stadium	ITV
12/03/2016	16:00	England v Wales	Twickenham	ITV
13/03/2016	15:00	Scotland v France	Murrayfield	BBC One
19/03/2016	14:30	Wales v Italy	Principality Stadium	BBC One
19/03/2016	17:00	Ireland v Scotland	Aviva Stadium	ITV
19/03/2016	20:00	France v England	Stade de France	BBC One

Ireland head into the Six Nations as defending champions having won the last two championships, but England head into the tournament as favourites with bookmakers BetVictor pricing Eddie Jones' side at 13/8 ahead of Ireland and Wales, both of which are at 3/1, with France (5/1), Scotland (14/1) and Italy (500/1) behind them.