Statement: Six Nations Rugby Union Championship 2025 (Listed events)

Statement published 27 January 2025

Ofcom has given its consent to the BBC and ITV to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the Men’s Six Nations Rugby Union Championship in 2025 (“the Six Nations”).

We consulted between 19 December 2024 and 16 January 2025 on requests from the BBC and ITV for consent to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the Six Nations in 2025. The Six Nations is due to take place from Friday 31 January until Saturday 15 March 2025.

Six Nations matches involving home countries are designated by the Secretary of State as Group B listed events for the purposes of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (“the Act”).[1] Under the Act, Ofcom’s consent is needed for exclusive live coverage of listed events.

For the 2025 Championship, the BBC and ITV plan to share coverage. The BBC plans to broadcast live coverage of the Wales and Scotland home matches on BBC One or BBC Two. ITV and STV plan to broadcast live coverage of the England, Ireland, France and Italy[2] home matches across the Channel 3 network. S4C also has an agreement with the BBC and ITV which enables it to show Welsh language coverage of 2025 Six Nations matches involving Wales.[3] The BBC will also broadcast live radio coverage of all the matches in the 2025 Six Nations on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.

Our consultation explained that we were minded to grant consent to the BBC and ITV for the 2025 Six Nations, and noted our provisional view that, although no secondary coverage would be provided by a non-qualifying service, broadcasters of both qualifying and non-qualifying services (for the purposes of the Act) had a genuine opportunity to acquire the rights to secondary coverage of the 2025 Six Nations on fair and reasonable terms.

We received eleven responses to the consultation. All were in favour of the BBC and ITV’s proposed coverage of the 2025 Six Nations on the grounds that the coverage would be available to the widest possible audience. A number noted how much they had valued the BBC and ITV’s live coverage in previous years.

We have decided to grant consent to the BBC and ITV to broadcast exclusive live coverage of the 2025 Six Nations, noting that their plans would secure that live coverage of the tournament is available for free and to audiences across the UK.

[1] For Group B listed events, the listed events rules aim to ensure that coverage (but not necessarily live coverage) is widely available to audiences for free. To this end, the Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events sets out that Ofcom will give its consent to exclusive live coverage of an event by a broadcaster providing a service in one category (that is, either a qualifying or non-qualifying service), if adequate provision has been made for secondary coverage by a broadcaster providing a service in the other category, and rights to provide live radio commentary have also been acquired.

[2] The match played between France and Italy is not a listed event for the purposes of the Act.

[3] S4C does not need Ofcom’s consent for this coverage as each of these matches will also be broadcast by the BBC or ITV. As S4C is a non-qualifying service (for the purposes of the Act), and the BBC and ITV’s coverage is to be broadcast on qualifying services, the exception in section 101(1) of the Act applies.