IMO no event should be free to air - it is upto the BBC to prioritise - perhaps less money spent on endless period dramas and more funds directed towards sport would make them more competitive when it comes to bidding.

But that would suit the arty farty mob at the BBC

They reckon it will cost them £110m - no chance if that is the case of free to air

Thats an argument against having any kind of additional competition at all, not necessarily that it matters where in the season an additional comp would be.

Also thats not relevant to SL now without relegation. If we take away the only competition the bottom half teams have a chance of winning there'd be nothing for them to play for.

It is not about the quantity it is about the quality and the BBC has lost out in almost every major sport - the sports it covers are often minority interest events - like 3 day eventing, Motor GP etc - rather high level soccer, rugby or cricket

If it were me I would play the CC as a five week competition leading up to a final at Easter and then the SL - that way the comp gets maximum exposure and monentum.

But then its just a pre-season comp. Plus the teams who are knocked out in the 1st round have a month without a game.
The timing of the CC is fine as it is. The only issue is maybe there is too much time between a couple of the rounds but thats a minor issue.
The problem has been the price of tickets of the earlier rounds. But its the same issue that the playoff games have, in that they're not included on the season ticket.

I agree that the timing is fine.

Early round games aren't attractive because we all know that there's little chance of David beating Goliath in Rugby league, unlike football.

The clubs will have to be creative in the marketing and selling the early round games.

I'd agree, but those minority sports should also be shown somewhere free to air.
Maybe since the EU ruling that the Premier League cant be shown on just 1 channel the BBC could get the games that the likes of Setanta or ESPN show?

I'm guessing the rights to a season of F1 coverage will have cost the BBC more than a full series of Doctors.

Well the new list is bobbins for me. It used to just have the RU World Cup Final only and now they have put the entire tournament on free-to-air and have not even restricted it based on the home nations like the football qualifiers! So they are going to have to show Argentina v Canada play at RU throughout the whole of the UK but don't have to show any RL on TV at all? Why is that more in the national interest than England v Australia in RL for example? They have to look to find the correct balance with RU and RL for me and if that means taking RU off the list as well as RL then so be it. Otherwise, they have to include some RL on the list if they have RU on the list.

It gets worse!

Why?

Why does what they do with the premier international competition in one sport have anything to do with what they do with a domestic cup competition in another.

If anything, SL and the Challenge Cup should be treated in exactly the same way as the Premiership and Heineken Cup in RU, neither of which are on the protected list.

Make me a convincing case for why the Challenge Cup should be treated any differently from its Union counterparts.

Sorry Andy. I maybe did not make that as clear as I could have. Now I have seen the new list my issue with CC being on free-to-air I agree does not stand up because as you say RU does not have it's equivalents on the list. It was always about RU coverage versus RL coverage and getting that balance right, but not the six nations has gone then I think the CC has to go as well.

But then why upgrade the RU World Cup to full coverage and not include some international RL as well. I am worried about institutional bias creeping back onto the agenda and possibly only due to the ignorance of the panel as opposed to anything more but is the game once again prepared to be treated as the other/second best/minor code of Rugby?

Why indeed. I agree that is where the national interest should be in the international game. Does RL not have it's own World Cup and one with a longer history than the other code as well?