Six Nations boost for BBC

England's Paris match provided a gripping finale

The BBC's viewing figures for this year's RBS Six Nations rose by 24% across the whole championship.

Saturday's France v England finale in Paris had an average audience of 7.2m which peaked at 7.7m - the most-watched programme that night.

The highest audience of the tournament came to the Scotland v England game, which peaked at 8.3m.

The average audience rose from 3.3m in 2003 to 4.1m, with matches excluding England up by 25%, from 2.4m to 3.0m.

Pat Younge, the BBC's Head of Rugby, said: "I'm delighted that we're continuing to attract even more viewers to rugby.

"Whilst the figures for this year are excellent, I'm particularly pleased that since we took over the contract in 2002, average audiences across all matches are up by 78%, going from 2.3m to 4.1m.

"This is a fantastic boost to the profile of the sport and the players, and doesn't include the tens of millions who listened to our radio coverage, accessed our interactive services or watched the complementary programmes ranging from Blue Peter to the Weakest Link."