Saturday night friendlies have been tried with some success in France, who are keen to switch some of their Six Nations fixtures to a similar time.

Next year’s competition will be the first in its condensed six-week format but so far, no broadcasting deal has been signed following the expiry of the joint BBC/BSkyB deal at the end of this season.

‘‘We are looking to sell the matches in a block and make sure that no individual match would overlap with another,’’ said Six Nations chief executive Roger Pickering.

‘‘We would consider Saturday evening games, but not Fridays because of the travelling difficulties supporters could encounter.

‘‘The intention is to have the dates and kick-off times confirmed for a couple of years in advance but nothing will be decided until a television contract is agreed.’’

Pickering refused to comment on weekend speculation that the Six Nations committee had turned down a €161m television deal with the BBC because the figure fell well short of the organisers’ value of the flagship European competition.

However, with no announcement imminent, it seems as though there is some foundation to the story, even though BSkyB’s lack of involvement in the bidding process means effectively that the BBC have no competition.

The previous Six Nations deal caused huge controversy when England signed an exclusive contract for all their matches to be shown on Sky.

The arguments which followed briefly saw them booted out of the competition altogether, although they were later allowed back in after agreeing to re-distribute the cash which had been received from the satellite broadcaster.

BSkyB didn’t even offer a bid this time round and with the Six Nations committee vowing not to split the rights again, it appears their bargaining capacity with the BBC is somewhat limited.