The legendary northern hemisphere rugby tournament returns on Friday 31 January, 2025.
Watch Six Nations 2025 to see some of the world’s best players in one of the biggest rugby tournaments in the world. Here, Rugby World brings you all the information on how to watch Six Nations live streams and TV broadcasts, wherever you are in the world.
– Six Nations 2025 Dates: January 31-March 15
– Six Nations Free Streams: BBC, ITV, FranceTV, RTE
– Watch Six Nations from anywhere: Try NordVPN 100% risk-free
The 2025 Six Nations kicks off on 31 January 2025, with France hosting Wales at the Stade de France. The Tournament, in which six northern hemisphere national sides all play each other once, runs over five weekends, culminating on 15 March 2025, when the champions will be crowned.
Ireland have won the past two editions and are out for a historic third straight title, although they have lost their head coach Andy Farrell to British and Irish Lions duty. France look set to be the closest challengers, England remain capable contenders despite mixed under Steve Borthwick, and Scotland are dark horses in the eyes of many experts. The greater question marks surround Wales, who are sticking with head coach Warren Gatland despite a poor patch of form that stretches back to their last-place finish last year – that Wooden Spoon is usually reserved for Italy.
For a deep dive into the tournament and its history, check out our guide to the Six Nations 2025. And read on for all the details on how to watch Six Nations online, on TV, and from anywhere in the world.
Watch for FREE: Six Nations free live streams
In many parts of the world, you can watch the Six Nations free of charge – something of a rarity for sporting events of this magnitude in this day and age.
That’s because the Six Nations has been afforded protected status in the countries in which it’s played, meaning it’s shown free-to-air on public broadcasters. That is looking shaky in the future, especially in the UK where the Six Nations could disappear behind a paywall from 2026, but for the 2025 Six Nations there is still extensive free coverage available.
In the UK, the games are split between the BBC and ITV, which is also free-to-air. In Ireland, they’re split between RTÉ and Virgin Media. In France, all matches are on France Télévisions. In Italy, the five games involving Italy will be shown free on TV8.
How to watch the Six Nations from anywhere
Away from home during the Six Nations? Don’t worry, you can still watch your usual stream from abroad, thanks to the wonders of a VPN.
A Virtual Private Network – to give it the full name – is a piece of software that can change your device’s IP address to make it appear to be in any country in the world. That means you can access your streaming services and watch the rugby like you would in your living room, even if you’re in another country.
It’s perfect for watching rugby on the move and it also comes with a host of internet security benefits too – that sounds like a winner to us.
Our colleagues at TechRadar are experts in this field, regularly testing hundreds of VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN provider out there. Handily, it’s available at a huge discount just in time for the Six Nations.
How to watch Six Nations 2025 in the UK
In the UK, the rights to broadcast the 2025 Six Nations are shared between the BBC and ITV, both being public broadcasters and free-to-air.
The split works like this; the BBC broadcasts all home matches for Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations, while ITV shows all home games for England, France, Ireland, and Italy. That means all games are covered, with five on the BBC, and 15 on ITV.
All games will air on TV on both broadcasters’ terrestrial channels, and will also be available to watch online via their streaming services: BBC iPlayer and ITVX. You need to register on those streaming platforms but you don’t need to pay anything.
How to watch Six Nations 2025 in Ireland
In Ireland, coverage is shared between RTÉ, Ireland’s main national broadcaster, and Virgin Media, which is also free-to-air.
The exact division of the games has yet to be confirmed but fans can expect a similar split to 2024, when RTÉ had eight games and Virgin Media had seven games.
The games will be shown on TV, on one of the main RTÉ channels or on Virgin Media, which is also available on Ireland’s terrestrial TV service, Saorview. Additionally, you can watch the games online on the RTÉ Player or Virgin Media Play.
Watch Six Nations: live stream from South Africa
We know plenty of fans in South Africa will be wanting to tune into the Six Nations, and they can do so through SuperSport.
SuperSport will be familiar to rugby fans in South Africa, with a host of other tournaments airing on the network. You can get SuperSport on your TV via DStv, or you can stream online.
There are various SuperSport packages available, so have a look at what works best for you.
Watch the Six Nations: live stream from the USA
NBC is the rightsholder in the US for the 2025 Six Nations, with its streaming platform Peacock set to show all 15 games online.
A subscription to Peacock costs a modest $7.99 per month, or $79.99 for a full year. You get plenty of sport with that, including lots of Premier League soccer.
As it stands, only Italy vs Ireland on March 15 is set to go out on the NBC cable TV channel, but that could change. If you don’t have traditional cable, you can still get all the channels online, thanks to the new wave of ‘cord-cutting’ streaming services, such as SlingTV and Fubo.
Watch Six Nations from Australia
For fans in Australia, Stan Sport is the place to go. The streaming service has the rights to all 15 Six Nations 2025 matches.
Plans start from $12 per month.
Live stream the Six Nations from New Zealand
In New Zealand, Sky Sport NZ has the rights to the 2025 Six Nations.
Watch the Six Nations from France
All 15 matches from the 2025 Six Nations are available for free on France Télévisions, the main public broadcaster in France.
Selected games will air across France Télévisions’ terrestrial TV channels, while they’re all available to watch online on the FranceTV streaming platform.
Watch the Six Nations from Italy
In Italy, the 2025 Six Nations games are split between Sky Sport and TV8.
Sky Sport is a paid-for service available on satellite television and its own streaming platform – all games are being shown online, and Italy’s on TV.
TV8 is a free-to-air channel that will show all of Italy’s games on TV and on its online platform for free.
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