The Six Nations is upon us once more, with rugby fans buzzing for Europe's premier international competition. The games will be shared between BBC and ITV - but ITV can be a little tricky to access over here in Ireland. We've done some digging and compiled all the info you need on how to get ITV in Ireland for all of their sports coverage.
The punditry team on ITV is certainly worth tuning in for, so you'll want these pointers.
There's plenty of other sport to offer on the channel as well. With the World Cup, European Championships, FA Cup, Rugby World Cup, Champions Cup, La Liga, MotoGP, as well as the Grand National, you'll want to know how to get ITV's channels in Ireland.
How to get ITV in Ireland on a Sky Box
There's a little bit of effort involved in accessing ITV on a Sky Box, but it is possible using the right settings. Because a Sky box uses satellite rather than cable, you can tune the box to find ITV's frequency and add it to your channels.
Please note that most ITV channels changed their transponders in late 2024 so even if you had ITV tuned in, you'll need to retune. If you have ITV channels tuned in that aren't connecting, you'll need to delete them.
Then, on a Sky Q Box, just follow the following steps to tune in ITV:
- Scroll down to the settings section on the home screen.
- Enter the 'Manual Tuning' section (you may need to enter your PIN).
- Select 'Add a channel'
- Enter the following settings:
- Frequency: 11.386 (11386)
- Polarisation: V
- Symbol rate: 27.5
- FEC: 2/3
- Standard: DVB-S2
- Modulation Scheme: 8PSK
- After you've plugged in all of that info, you should get a list of ITV channels. You can choose one by one which you want to add to your box.
(More tuning info here)
To access the channels after you've added them, just return to the 'Manual tuning' section of 'Settings' and the channels you've chosen to add to your box will be there.
How to get ITV on Saorview in Ireland
Some Saorview boxes will come with ITV pretuned with other British channels such as BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5. If you have a satellite and a Freeview box, you should be able to access ITV.
If your box doesn't come with ITV pre-installed, you should still be able to tune in to their coverage using the same frequency settings listed above for Sky boxes.
Which Six Nations games will ITV show?
ITV will share the live coverage of this year's Six Nations with the BBC in the UK. BBC will show every Wales and Scotland home game, with the remainder of the 15 fixtures going to ITV.
This means that three of Ireland's five games will be shown on ITV, including the two massive home ties against England and France.
The full line-up of televised games is below.
Round One
- Friday January 31: France v Wales (k/o 8:15pm, ITV1)
- Saturday February 1: Scotland v Italy (k/o 2:15pm, BBC One)
- Saturday February 1: Ireland v England (k/o 4:45pm, ITV1)
Round Two
- Saturday February 8: Italy v Wales (k/o 2:15pm, ITV1)
- Saturday February 8: England v France (k/o 4:45pm, ITV1)
- Sunday February 9: Scotland v Ireland (k/o 3pm, BBC One)
Round Three
- Saturday February 22: Wales v Ireland (k/o 2:15pm, BBC One)
- Saturday February 22: England v Scotland (k/o 4:45pm, ITV1)
- Sunday February 23: Italy v France (k/o 3pm, ITV1)
Round Four
- Saturday March 8: Ireland v France (k/o 2:15pm, ITV1)
- Saturday March 8: Scotland v Wales (k/o 4:45pm, BBC One)
- Sunday March 9: England v Italy (k/o 3pm, ITV1)
Round Five
- Saturday March 15: Italy v Ireland (k/o 2:15pm, ITV1)
- Saturday March 15: Wales v England (k/o 4:45pm, BBC One)
- Saturday March 15: France v Scotland (k/o 8pm, ITV1)
Who is on ITV's rugby punditry team?
The star attraction for Irish audiences will be Brian O'Driscoll, who has been a part of ITV's punditry team for several years for both the Six Nations and Rugby World Cup.
Joining BOD on the ITV punditry team will be ex-Ireland teammates Gordon D'Arcy and Rory Best, with D'Arcy on commentary duties.
The highlight of the rest of the lineup is former England head coach Eddie Jones, who will no doubt offer some hot takes as the tournament progresses. The rest of the star-studded punditry team consists of Jonny Wilkinson, Ugo Monye, Maggie Alphonsi, Dan Biggar, Jamie Roberts, Johnnie Beattie, Jim Hamilton, Sergio Parisse, and Benjamin Kayser.
On co-commentary will be D'Arcy, Ben Kay, and Shane Williams, among others.
What other sports do ITV show live?
Similarly to the Six Nations, ITV shares the rights to the FA Cup with the BBC each year.
The rights to international football tournaments are also shared by ITV with BBC, an arrangement that will continue for the 2026 World Cup.
ITV also hold free-to-air rights to the Investec European Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup in the United Kingdom.
ITV hold the rights to broadcast La Liga in the UK and Ireland and broadcast ten games each season on ITV4 and ITV1. They have also recently acquired the right to broadcast EFL games on free-to-air TV, with the first games landing this January.
Cheltenham and the Grand National are broadcast live on ITV each year, as is the Tour de France.
They also hold rights to broadcast MotoGP. ITV show highlights of each race, with occasional live races.