Sky withdrawing their support is a sobering thought, isn't it? I wonder if clubs could support themselves and if the players would be happy to become part-timers on a significantly lower wage. I very much doubt it.

Arguably, we're held to ransom by Sky. All the more reason that the RFL should be doing everything they can to support the clubs and ensure that, when big name overseas players do sign (and in doing so improve the game), they see out their contracts.

Completely agree on all points.

Luckily for RL in this country, Sky have had a bit of a wobble and have lost the rights to Rugby Union and a lot of top level football, so I think that should keep them interested in Super League for the foreseeable. They do tend to see RL as a 'filler' sport though, so if/when they regain the rights to more top level football and RU, we will see RL shunted to even more obscure time slots and away from the main channels to red button/online formats. This could also be the time they decide to drop the price they'll pay for RL, and the worry is, what serious competition will be out there to bump up the rights value - particularly with the current level of rugby being played in Super League.
Name 1 current super league player who has the same sort of exposure or national profile as Schofield, Hanley, Offiah, Jonathan Davies.... The only RL players from the last decade or so with any sort of profile are Burgess and Farrell (both got more exposure due to RU) and Sinfield (Sustained success, but more the SPOTY nomination which was after he retired from RL anyway).

The profile of the sport is at an all time low nationally. BIG BIG problems!

The static salary cap is really crippling us at the moment.

A quick Google shows £1.8m in 2000 (I can't remember the exact salary cap at the time) is £2.82m now.

The NRL Salary Cap is $7m in 2017, which at todays rate converts to £4.15m.

Union's Premiership will be £7m I believe next season (171icon_cool.gif.

And the NRL cap is scheduled to be raised to around $10m in 2018. The problem we have over here is that the sport simply can't afford to raise the cap - there's currently not enough money in the game here to support it, the issues run much deeper and there is no short term or quick fix.

The current position in the NRL is that the clubs will receive funding of 130% of whatever their cap is from the NRL (though the NRL are trying to lower this now). Our clubs simply don't get that level of financial support and most appear incapable of raising enough funds to support an increased cap.

It seems to me that the only hope is twofold:
first, that folk get fed up of seeing overseas mercanaries providing most if not all of the players in the Premieer Legue - Sky's soccer viewing figures are falling.
Secondly, that BT Sport or another TV provider competes with sky for the next era of superleague.

True, but with BT coming in as a competitor to Sky, and for the first time it looks reasonably serious competition, Price hikes for TV deals will continue to Sky rocket (pardon the pun

), no matter how much people think the money in the game is at vulgar levels. SKY have already shown they are prepared to cut other sports adrift in the desperate efforts to hog most of the football, they have released a lot of the Tennis package they had and the Ashes cricket has gone to BT, so the worry has to be that they would do the same to RL next time the renewal comes. Or at least offer us a reduced price as there is no obvious competitor to them for it. It would maybe help if the RFL lobbied the likes of BT to get them bidding off with sky on SL rights but we all know how well the RFL do at selling the game so that is highly unlikely to happen.

BT's coverage of RU & the premier league is the equal if not better than Sky's in my opinion.

don't watch union but football they have really caught sky up

I can't stand Alan Parry on the football or Mark Robson commentating on the rugby, both on Sky.
Plus Stuart Barnes has always been anti RL.
Has there been any announcement yet as to the new Sky RL commentary team?

i've met parry and he is a grade one prick

What did McGuire say?

I agree, although I don't watch football. Just got BT sport and cancelled Sky. The RU coverage is excellent from BT. I do like Sky also except the one big issue, their lead commentary team of Harrison and Barnes. Barnes simply doesn't comment on what is actually happening on the pitch and Harrison doesn't know what's happening on the pitch. Sky's other teams however are very good.

Big improvements then. Excellent.

Is that Hardaker on the right?

Disappointed to see they have retained Barrie and Terry.

James Graham seems to have lost a pound or two.

I agree about BT's RU coverage and presentation and Union has become a much better spectator sport with high skill levels and a depth of talent.

& I agree with you on this.
The occasional interminable scrum fest is the main fly in the ointment.
So much of that is down to the referee.

Agreed, the quality in coverage is better than Sky on most criteria... proper commentary (as opposed to Sky's plethora of screaming banshees), erudite panel discussions, less adverts and even the picture quality is better, whether it be in SD or HD, as Sky channels are far too digitally compressed.

I like Aussie Rules, UFC and German soccer so it's ideal for me. As Sky were fleecing some of their customers for an extra £16.95 to watch tedious second-rate boxing at the weekend, I watched UFC 206 instead at no extra cost. The recent addition of all Aussie cricket is a very nice bonus too. The Ashes Series in less than 12 months time on BT Sport is another huge kick in Sky's goolies, as much as the loss of all Champions League soccer continues to be.

I've dumped Sky... don't need it... full of screaming, shouting and balling, intrusive ad's and I'm not Murdoch's biggest fan. Received a phone call from Sky last week offering me 75% discount off any package for 12 months which I turned down. Since the quality and entertainment levels in SL are so poor, I doubt I'll be tempted to re-subscribe in February either, even if that discount is still on the table.

Clermont v Ulster at the weekend was one of the best games of any version rugby I've seen in a long while. The attacking and handling skills were superb.

Now I have broadband fast enough to stream I ditched Sky this week. Amazon Prime for 79 quid a year is a give away. Already saved that on free shipping over Christmas.
Get BT sport with my phone deal.

I also get BT Sport via phone deals. I flit between BT and Plusnet (owned by BT) every year (on 12 month contracts) in order to take advantage of new customer offers. I currently pay £6 a month for BT Sport and watch it on a Sky+HD box.

Don't bother with Amazon prime or Netflix as I can access all films and series using Kodi for free. And they are all ad-free too

If I want to watch the latest episode of GoT, Walking Dead or whatever, I don't want it serially interrupted by 20 minutes of ads, as is the case on Sky.

The only other essential for me is a PVR with recording (essential) and live pause (not so essential) features. Freesat using a Humax-HDR1100s covers that base for me.

Anyone interested in the last cpl of posts should check out Sportsnation HD. You won't regret it.

It's not free.