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ITV have confirmed their punditry line-up for the 2025 Six Nations, with three Wales legends set to feature. Controversial former England coach Eddie Jones is a surprise new face.
The broadcaster will again share coverage of the tournament with the BBC and will show all of England, Ireland, Italy and France’s home fixtures. The BBC, meanwhile, have the rights to show Wales and Scotland’s home games.
ITV will kick off their bumper calendar of 10 live matches with Wales’ visit to Paris to face France in the tournament opener on January 31, while other highlights include Ireland’s clash with England the following day, the Calcutta Cup on February 22 and two hotly anticipated fixtures on Super Saturday.
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Leading the coverage will be presenters Jill Douglas and Mark Pougatch, who in turn will be joined by a host of rugby legends to offer their expertise as pundits. Dan Biggar and Jamie Roberts return to bring a Welsh perspective to the punditry team, which also includes Brian O’Driscoll, Sergio Parisse and Johnny Wilkinson.
Outspoken former England coach and current Japan boss Jones is an intriguing addition to the lineup, which is completed by Ugo Monye, Maggie Alphonsi, Rory Best, Johnnie Beattie, Jim Hamilton and Benjamin Kayser.
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Nick Mullins and Miles Harrison will be ITV’s commentators for the tournament, with Shane Williams flying the flag for Wales on co-commentary duties. Also working as co-commentators will be Ben Kay, David Flatman, Nolli Waterman, Scott Hastings and Gordon D’Arcy, while the broadcaster’s reporters will be Gabriel Clarke and Topsy Ojo.
This year’s tournament could well be the last to be shown on terrestrial TV, with 2025 marking the expiry of the current deal which sees Six Nations matches shared between the BBC and ITV.
Instead, those fixtures are at real risk of moving behind a paywall from next year onwards, with Six Nations unions able to listen to offers from terrestrial and paid-for TV bidders due to it not being a protected sporting tournament.
‘Category A’ sporting events, including the football World Cups, the Olympic Games and Wimbledon have to be offered to the main free-to-air broadcasters on “fair and reasonable terms”, which essentially ensures that they are kept on terrestrial TV.
However, the Six Nations is currently a ‘Category B’ event, which means matches can be shown behind a paywall as long as there are highlights or delayed coverage made available to free-to-air broadcasters.
There has been much opposition to such a move, with some Welsh MPs putting pressure on Westminster to move the tournament broadcasting rights to ‘Category A’ status. However, the Welsh Rugby Union are against keeping the Six Nations on free-to-air TV, claiming it could have a “devastating” impact on rugby in Wales at all levels.
Of course, S4C already provides free-to-air coverage of Welsh fixtures in the tournament – as well as every Wales U20s Six Nations match – but such a move would see English language coverage move behind a paywall.