France’s last-gasp win over England to win rugby union’s 2026 Six Nations Championship delivered major audience figures for domestic free-to-air broadcasters ITV and France Télévisions.
France won the 2026 title after beating England 48-46 in Paris on Saturday (March 14) to celebrate their third Six Nations triumph in the past five years, after Scotland’s chances to secure their first title in 27 years were dashed after losing their final match to Ireland by 43-21.
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UK’s commercial broadcaster ITV drew an average of 3.9 million viewers across its linear ITV1 channel and ITVX streaming service, with audience numbers peaking at 5 million.
The figure is just shy of the broadcaster's highest peak audience of the tournament, which saw 5.3 million tune in to watch The Calcutta Cup game between Scotland and England via ITV1 and ITVX.
Overall, the Six Nations tournament was streamed just under 15 million times across 10 matches on ITVX, up on last year's digital performance.
ITV’s rights package for the competition, struck last March, runs through 2029 and includes the option to air two split-screen adverts before a scrum is set in each half of every Six Nations match.
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By GlobalDataAhead of this year’s edition, the broadcaster announced it would air in-game commercials for the first time as part of its coverage.
Meanwhile, public service broadcaster France Télévisions secured an impressive average audience of 8.02 million for its coverage of France’s victory.
The match was shown on France Television’s France 2 channel, with audience numbers peaking at 9.5 million. The average 8.02 million viewers that tuned into the match represented a 42.5% audience share.
The figure beat the previous France Television’s most-watched match of the 2026 edition, with 7.5 million people secured for France’s win over Italy 33-8 on France 2 earlier in the tournament.
The broadcaster holds domestic Six Nations rights through 2029, in a deal unveiled in mid-2025. Earlier this year, France Television agreed a sub-licensing deal for a significant package of games from this year's tournament with commercial broadcaster TF1, which provided live coverage of nine games (including two France matches).
The opening game between France and Ireland for this year’s edition – held on a Thursday night for the first time – delivered 7.24 million viewers on average, equating to a 39% audience share, a record for the opening game of a Six Nations campaign.
The opening game of last year's Six Nations – which also involved France, who beat Wales in that encounter – brought in 6.67 million viewers for France TV. That translated into a 35.8% audience share.
The 2027 Men’s Six Nations Championship is due to run from February 5 to March 13, opening with a Friday night match between Ireland and England and ending with Ireland facing France.
