ITV said it accounted for 4 of the 5 best-performing matches in the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations, as the commercial broadcaster highlighted strong audience delivery across this year’s championship.
According to ITV, the England-France match drew a peak audience of 5 million viewers, with an average audience of 3.9 million across ITV1 and ITVX. The highest peak audience of the tournament came from Scotland’s Calcutta Cup victory over England, which reached 5.3 million viewers across ITV1 and ITVX. ITV also said the Men’s Six Nations was streamed just under 15 million times across its 10 matches on ITVX, up on last year’s digital performance.
The figures come at the end of a tournament in which ITV had the larger share of live rights in the UK. ITV showed 10 matches in the 2026 championship, including all England fixtures, while the BBC carried five matches.
With twice as many fixtures as the BBC, ITV had more opportunities to deliver the tournament’s biggest audiences, particularly as England matches have historically been among the strongest rating draws in the competition. This does not invalidate the performance, but it does make direct comparisons with the BBC less straightforward.
