Fresh off the back of their World Cup coverage, ITV's sporting coverage barrels on. The Six Nations will arrive on ITV this weekend - but the channel 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.
There's plenty of other sport to offer on the channel, with FA Cup, La Liga, England football internationals, live MotoGP, as well as the Grand National, so 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.
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: 10.891
- Polarisation: H
- Symbol rate: 22.0
- FEC: 5/6
- Standard: DVB-S
- Modulation Scheme: QPSK
- 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.
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.
Who's on ITV's rugby panel?
ITV have lined up a mega panel for this year's Six Nations, with ex-pros from across the continent - including a few Irish legends.
Brian O'Driscoll will be in studio for the tournament, alongside fellow former Ireland captain Rory Best, while O'Driscoll's old centre partner Gordon D'Arcy will be on match commentary duty. O'Driscoll is the star attraction, but no doubt Best and D'Arcy will be enticing options for Ireland's games.
Elsewhere, ITV have lined up English World Cup winners Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Maggie Alphonsi, and Clive Woodward, as well as Welsh legends Gareth Thomas, Shane Williams, and Jamie Roberts. Jim Hamilton is also part of the panel, and ITV have recruited the iconic voice of rugby Miles Harrison for match commentary.
Which Six Nations games will ITV show live?
ITV and BBC share the British broadcasting rights for the tournament, as they do for the football World Cup, European Championships, and FA Cup.
ITV will broadcast two games per match weekend, showing Ireland, England, France, and Italy's home games.
The full line up of Six Nations games is below (ITV's fixtures are in bold).
Six Nations ITV and BBC fixtures
- Wales v Ireland - Saturday 4th February, 2:15pm, BBC
- England v Scotland - Saturday 4th February, 4:45pm, ITV
- Italy v France - Sunday 5th February, 3pm, ITV
- Ireland v France - Saturday 11th February, 2:15pm, ITV
- Scotland v Wales - Saturday 11th February, 4:45pm, BBC
- England v Italy - Sunday 12th February, 3pm, ITV
- Italy v Ireland - Saturday 25th February, 2:15pm, ITV
- Wales v England - Saturday 25th February, 4:45pm, BBC
- France v Scotland - Sunday 26th February, 3pm, ITV
- Italy v Wales - Saturday 11th March, 2:15pm, ITV
- England v France - Saturday 11th March, 4:45pm, ITV
- Scotland v Ireland - Sunday 12th March, 3pm, BBC
- Scotland v Italy - Saturday 18th March, 12:30pm, BBC
- France v Wales - Saturday 18th March, 2:45pm, ITV
- Ireland v England - Saturday 18th March, 5pm, ITV
What other sports do ITV show live?
ITV also hold the exclusive British rights to show the Rugby World Cup live every four years, giving you an alternative option to the Irish coverage for the 2023 edition in France.
The broadcaster shares rights to live FA Cup matches with the BBC, with the 5th round coming up at the end of the month featuring Manchester United, Manchester City, and Spurs. Every two years, ITV also share the rights to the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships, again with the BBC.
ITV recently acquired the rights to broadcast La Liga in the UK and Ireland, and will broadcast 10 games across the season on ITV4 and ITV1. Their next La Liga game takes place on Thursday 2nd February, with a tie between Real Madrid and Valencia at 8pm on ITV4.
The Grand National is broadcast live on ITV each year, as is the Tour de France.
As with the World Cup and the FA Cup, ITV also share the rights to the Six Nations with the BBC, showing all of Ireland, France, England, and Italy's home games. That means that ITV will show all but one of Ireland's Six Nations games in 2023, with Wales v Ireland being shown on BBC.
They also hold rights to broadcast MotoGP. ITV show highlights of each race, with occasional live races.
