ITV will screen in-game commercials for the first time during Thursday’s Six Nations Championship opener between France and Ireland at Stade de France. The broadcaster’s new rights deal includes the option to air two split-screen adverts before a scrum is set in each half of every match of the Six Nations. The commercials will fill the right half of the screen and last about 20 seconds, with live pictures continuing on the left. It has also agreed to pay £80 million-a-year for exclusive rights for every game of the Nations Championship, the new 12-team competition featuring the Six Nations and their major southern hemisphere rivals – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan – which begins this summer. In another change the championship has also been truncated from seven to six weeks weeks this year, with one of the rest weeks removed because of the need to create room in the international calendar for the Nations Cup.

Source: The Irish Times February 05, 2026 12:18 UTC