This marks the beginning of a six-year partnership with the two channels.

Both ITV and the BBC will provide extensive coverage online and on television.

This will be the first time that the BBC has shared the Six Nations and the channels will show an equal number of home games from next month's fixtures.. 

However The Telegraph identified that over the course of the new deal, the BBC will lose two-thirds of England games.  

After ITV’s record-breaking coverage of the Rugby World Cup 2015, the channel will return to Twickenham to broadcast all of England's home games in the stadium.

Last year the two broadcasters joined forces in a battle to outbid Sky Sports in covering next month's tournament. This was to ensure that the games remained on terrestrial television.

Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: “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.”

ITV Director of Sport Niall Sloane said: “We’re delighted to be bringing rugby fans first-class live action from key games in what is set to be one of the most thrilling 6 Nations tournaments ever.

“This is the first time ITV will be broadcasting this superb tournament and we're delighted to be able to provide free to air coverage to viewers in partnership with the BBC.”

The Six Nations kicks off on Saturday 6 February on BBC One at 2:45pm with France v Italy. 

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A breakdown of what time the Six Nations 2016 is on:

Date	Time	Fixture	Location	Channel
Saturday 6 February	2:25pm	France v Italy	Stade de France	BBC One
Saturday 6 February	4:50pm	Scotland v England	Murrayfield	BBC One
Sunday 7 February	3:00pm	Ireland v Wales	Aviva Stadium	ITV
Saturday 13 February	2:25pm	France v Ireland	Stade de France	BBC One
Saturday 13 February	4:50pm	Wales v Scotland	Prinicipality  Stadium	BBC One
Sunday 14 February	2:00pm	Italy v England	Stadio Olimpico	ITV
Friday 26 February	8:05pm	Wales v France	Stadium	BBC One
Saturday 27 February	2:25pm	Italy v Scotland	Stadio Olimpico	ITV
Saturday 27 February	4:50pm	England v Ireland	Twickenham	ITV
Saturday 12 March	1:30pm	Ireland v Italy	Aviva Stadium	ITV
Saturday 12 March	4:00pm	England v Wales	Twickenham	ITV
Sunday 13 March	3:00pm	Scotland v France	Murrayfield	BBC One
Saturday 19 March	2:30pm	Wales v Italy	Principality Stadium	BBC One
Saturday 19 March	5:00pm	Ireland v Scotland	Aviva Stadium	ITV
Saturday 19 March	8:00pm	France v England	Stade de France	BBC One

(Source: BBC and ITV)

 

Photo by Marc