Sky may employ the two most annoying fekkwits ever to sit in front of a microphone but their actual game coverage is excellent. Their camera work, editing and replays are spot on. We probably don’t even notice how good they are until you catch a CC game on the Beeb.

I honestly believe it’s a ploy from the RFL to bump the price up a bit but these ploys sometimes have a habit of backfiring.

Quite.

Sky can afford to lose SL as it would have a negligible bearing on their subscription base. The vast majority of subscribers to Sky Sports are soccer fans. That's where the wonga is.

SL cannot afford to lose Sky!

Someone needs to knock a few RFL heads together. They are seriously misguided on this one.

I don't care who bids for SL (the more the merrier) just so long as it stays on SKY at the end of the negotiations.

I note in the trailer advertiseing the new season it states coverage will be available in HD (as usual) but also in 3D.

No other broadcaster comes close, IMO.

thought they had been caught talking about 'smashing it' and 'hanging out of the back of' ladies for a second

You would of thought so but actually there quite pants!

I miss talk of the town F&C!

You are excruciatingly boring, please leave me alone.

Both seconded. My responses would've read like a combination of the two posts. No need to both now! Moving on....

Reading the article there is more danger of the BBC losing the CC than SKY losing SL. However, the RL need to be very careful in the negtotiating process. As we have seen recently on 2 occassions, when Murdoch's patient has been broken he has taken dramatic action. As has been stated before, the RFL has to balance what SKY has done for the game and its coverage, against the shorterm gain of a few extra bucks moving to ESPN. Would suggest the RFL are not in the same position as the FA to hold SKY to ransom.

If the BBC lose the terrestrial or free to air contract, I wonder if that would allow the RFL to consider moving the Challenge Cup to earlier in the season, thereby freeing the end of the season solely for the playoffs/Grand Final?
That would be my preferred option.
I agree that Sky has driven forward how all sports are televised.
I only took out my first Sky subscription when they started to show RL regularly.
Clever marketing since I now spend an absolute fortune with them, 8 times what I spend on the TV Licence.

Likewise.

I've been a Sky subscriber from the very beginning (they must love me), although I almost switched to the Squarial (BSB) when they started showing RL. Fortunately Sky soon gobbled them up and saved me a dilemma.

If the RFL are insistent on it remaining on a Bank Holiday weekend then it's August or move it from Wembley, as the Football League playoff finals are hosted there on Spring Bank weekend.

Personally I'd go with end of June, but that also tends to clash with football world cups and the like which the RFL may want to avoid.

There's no question that (as annoying as Eddie/Stevo/Phil 'Rugby Gods' Clarke are) Sky's coverage is outstanding. By that I mean general camera work, replays, graphics, stats, post match interviews etc etc.

IMO the BBC's coverage of RL is the reason "most people" think it's a c[ir[/iap, semi-professional sport, when the reality is it's one of (if not THE) most spectator friendly sports there is. I'm sure we all know people who, once they've watched a game or two, are hooked.

"Most People" only get to see RL on the BBC, and thus that is there impression of it. The problem is, on the BBC it looks semi-professional at best (more often than not amateur!!). It's usually presented by somebody who's on the BEEB's books as "General Sport Presenter" who's available on the day. The sort of presenter that usually presents the coverage of The Boat Race, or any other "General Semi-Professional Sporting Event", not to mention the fact that their main "Studio Expert" doesn't even WATCH RL every week, never mind comment on it. I remember Davis saying something this year about Ryan Hall along the lines of... "This kid will top the try scoring charts one day, mark my words!!" (The year AFTER he finished 10 tries clear of the bloke in 2nd!).

I'm afraid it's ever decreasing circles. Nobody watches it, so they spend very little money on it, they spend very little money on it, so nobody watches it.

The other thing is, a Question of Sport, whenever they show RL, they show the challenge cup (fair enough, why pay Sky for a clip when you can use a clip you own!) but they only show, what 6/7 matches a year?! Which just means they've got less material to choose from, so it never appears. Whereas sports that they don't have any rights to at all, Golf for example, appears all the time, because if they're having to pay for clip, they may as well choose a decent clip. It almost works to RL's detriment that they have a few select clips to choose, rather than none.

Last year BBC had the rights to show the following golf: US Masters, The Open, The pre-open tournament at Loch Lomond, World Match PLay as well as Ryder Cup highlights. So they probably show more hours live golf than Sky show live Super League and I doubt that they need to buy any golf clips from Sky for Question of Sport.

By the same token as the BBC already have secondary broadcast rites with the Super League Show would they have to pay again to include a clip they have already paid for once?

if sky suddenly paid extra millions to cover rugby the clammer for a raise in the salery cap would increase so that the players rather than the clubs gain

perhaps whats needed is a better package from sky, look at how many highlights shows there are for different leagues in football where a proper preview and highlights show would greatly help our game