One of the first big sports events each year less than a month out: the Six Nations Championship 2024 begins on Friday, February 2, and it'll be one of the must-watch rugby tournaments of 2024.
UK: BBC Sport | iPlayer | ITV Sport | ITVX (all free with license fee)
US: Peacock | live TV channels
Watch abroad with a VPN: ExpressVPN
Ireland are the returning champions for this six-team event and over five weeks England, Scotland, France, Wales and Italy will all try to unseat the 2023 Grand Slam winners (awarded as they didn't lose a single game).
The tournament will be even more spread out than usual: typically, each nation will host games in one of its stadiums, but France is actually using three different locations this year due to preparations for the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics later in the year.
Rugby fans will surely be wanting to know how and where to watch the Six Nations Rugby games, to catch the games of the tournament, and this guide will help you with that task.
Below, you'll be able to see a guide whether you live in the US, UK or somewhere else, as well as current results and upcoming fixtures. If you're abroad from your home country a VPN could be your best bet, and we recommend ExpressVPN.
How to watch Six Nations Rugby in the US
There are two main cable channels that show the Six Nations Rugby games for people who live in the US: these are NBC Sports and TV5 Monde (though the latter shows the games with French commentary). Not all games are being shown, but many are.
If your cable package doesn't include NBC Sports or TV5 Monde, FuboTV has both, while Sling TV has TV5 Monde and Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV have NBC Sports.
Some games are on an odd smattering of channels though, including ESPN and CNBC, so it's worth checking with our TV guide before watching. We'd recommend checking out our TV listing guide before signing up.
However, there's a cheaper option for people who don't have a cable subscription or any of those services. NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, is showing the matches. You just need to be on the $4.99-per-month Premium plan, though the $9.99-per-month Premium Plus one will let you avoid ads on certain shows and movies (not live sports).
How to watch Six Nations Rugby in the UK
In the UK, the Six Nations Rugby games either air on BBC Sport or ITV Sport, so every single game is on one of these two channels (and, occasionally, both).
At the moment, the actual breakdown for which match will be on which channel hasn't been announced. We'll update this article when that changes, but you can check out our TV listing guide for more advice too.
If you can't watch live TV on your set, there's an alternative for anyone with a TV license, and that's streaming via the web. For BBC, you can use iPlayer to stream live TV, while ITV has ITVX, which offers the same function. This works on smart TVs, mobiles, tablets and computers.
For Wales games, S4C also airs the matches with Welsh-language commentary.
How to watch Six Nations Rugby everywhere else
Wherever you live, there's a good possibility that a national broadcaster is streaming the Six Nations games, particularly if your country has a team playing in the tournament.
However, there's a possibility that there's no easy way of watching Six Nation games. Thankfully, you can solve this issue with a Virtual Private Network (a VPN).
A VPN lets you get around the usual digital barriers by changing your IP address, meaning you can watch events like the Six Nations tournament even if it is not directly broadcasting where you are. Our favorite is ExpressVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
Six Nations Rugby fixtures
The Six Nations games play out over five weekends, with each team playing once per week. You can see all the games below and in the brackets which UK broadcaster airs it.
Round 1
- February 2: France vs Ireland — 3 pm ET/8 pm UK
- February 3: England vs Italy — 9:15 am ET/2:15 pm UK
- February 3: Wales vs Scotland — 11:45 am ET/4:45 pm UK
Round 2
- February 10: Scotland vs France — 9:15 am ET/2:15 pm UK
- February 10: England vs Wales — 11:45 am ET/4:45 pm UK
- February 11: Ireland vs Italy — 10 am ET/3 pm UK
Round 3
- February 24: Wales vs Ireland — 9:15 am ET/2:15pm UK
- February 24: Scotland vs England — 11:45 am ET/4:45 pm UK
- February 25: France vs Italy — 10 am ET/3 pm UK
Round 4
- March 9: Scotland vs Italy — 9:15 am ET/2:15 pm UK
- March 9: England vs Ireland— 11:45 am ET/4:45 pm UK
- March 10: Wales vs France — 10 am ET/3 pm UK
Round 5
- March 16: Wales vs Italy — 9:15 am ET/2:15 pm UK
- March 16: Ireland vs Scotland — 11:45 am ET/4:45 pm UK
- March 16: France vs England— 3 pm ET/8 pm UK
Your Six Nations Rugby questions answered
Where does the Six Nations Rugby take place?
Unlike in some sports tournaments, which see one country host the whole cup, in the Six Nations Rugby each of the six countries has one stadium which will be used for some games:
- Italy: Stadio Olimpico in Rome
- England: Twickenham in London
- Wales: Principality Stadium in Cardiff (formerly known as the Millennium Stadium)
- Scotland: Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh
- Ireland: Aviva Stadium in Dublin
The one exception to that norm is France. Due to the Olympics being hosted there several months later, it has three stadiums in play, and each will only see a single game.
- Marseille's Stade Vélodrome for Round 1's France vs Ireland
- Lille's Stade Peirre-Mauroy for Round 3's France vs Italy
- Lyon's Parc Olympique Lyonnais for Round 5's France vs England
Who could win Six Nations Rugby?
The Six Nations 2023 champions were Ireland, which also won the Grand Slam by winning all of its matches.
Since 2000, when Six Nations began (it was Five Nations before Italy joined that year), France has won six times. Wales have also won six times, while Ireland have five and England have won seven times.
So any of those four teams has a good shot of winning, especially given the fact that, in the last five years, each has won at least once.
Less likely to come out on top are Scotland and Italy, which haven't won once since 2000. Italy are the real underdogs, as they have taken the Wooden Spoon (last place) for the last eight championships and have "won" that trophy all but six years since they joined.
Why is it called Guinness Six Nations?
You might sometimes see the tournament called "Guinness Six Nations," named after the popular stout, and that's its official name.
That's because Guinness serves as the sponsor for the tournament and has done since 2019.
However since the sponsors change frequently, the tournament is usually referred to simply as "Six Nations," with most eschewing the sponsor name. That's especially the case in France, as it's illegal for alcohol companies to sponsor sports there, so the Guinness name is dropped for one of the six nations.
