England matches back on the Beeb

England's home Six Nations matches will be back on the BBC next season after Sky refused to join the bidding.

The withdrawal of Rupert Murdoch's network, following a Sportsmail campaign to reunite rugby's annual showpiece with its missing millions on terrestrial television, guarantees England-exposure to a much wider audience.

But it is a major blow to the Six Nations organisers, who wanted a terrestrial-satellite joint arrangement to push the value of the three-year deal to £90million. Now they may have to settle for significantly less.

Sky's £65m, five- year deal, which ran out last month, gave them England's home matches. They also had a deal to screen England's games against France in Paris.

The RFU's provocative action in breaking ranks with the other home countries and doing their own deal resulted in England being expelled from the Championship for a brief period on two separate occasions. The Six Nations has seen an increasing number of one-sided matches and decreasing viewing figures, with the BBC's average falling below three million. Sky clearly believes there is better value in its exclusive coverage of England's Tests against the heavyweights of the Southern Hemisphere.

A Sky spokesman said: 'We have not made a bid. We see England's showpiece autumn internationals at Twickenham as the major events in our rugby schedules.