I like to think of Nigel Wood doing this.

It does seem a decent increase on the face of it, although the exact split between the clubs and the time they will actually receive the money isn't that clear.

The only risk this deal seems to bring is the fact it's being pre-sold so early. This is a 5 year deal from 2016/7. It seems a decent deal now, but before this one kicks in Union will have signed a new deal and if their deal was for £500m it would make our deal look very modest. £500m isn't unrealistic, the last NRL deal was around £540m over 5 years I believe. But the SL owners have clearly looked at this and found it will secure the finances of the clubs, which given the fragile state of Bradford, London, Cas, Wakey and Hull KR (And probably many more) is probably more important than actually growing the sport over the short to medium term.

It's a great deal from sky, I can see why they gave us a take it or leave it deal, they'll be sick that RU went to BT, probably after stringing Sky along. We've nailed our colours to the sky mast and they're the biggest player out there. Personally I think BT may go the way of itv digital. Look what happened to championship football there. RU could find themselves nearly or completely bankrupt in a couple of years if BT go under.

Its very hard to pull a massive increase figure in one go, though, in any market. You need to do it step by step.
We've got an improved TV deal and a main sponsor for the league. The next step is to develop the various sponship deal to by more lucrative, probably with the sort of companies that the likes of rugby union seem to attract with ease.

How do you work out that average ticket price is £18???

With season tickets, children, pensioners and other discounts the average ticket revenue for most clubs is around £9 per ticket.

Really? West stand tickets are £22 adults/ £16 cons north stand £26/£20

BT are new to the world of sport through TV pay, but you have to know that they are twice the size in terms of market worth than sky. Also their revenues and profit blow sky's out of the water.

They wont go under, they may just fall away if they cant compete with Sky, if they can then Sky may se their subscriptions plummet. They hang onto the Premiership for dear life, lose that and sky are fecked.

The deal is good for RL, but it would be interesting to see if Big Nigel took the only offer on the table at this time.

BT are yes, but BT sport is a separate company, like itv digital was separate from itv , just incase they fail, they can simply fold it. Just like itv did with itv digital

Eamon certainly sounded upbeat about it on the radio last night, I just hope the RFL confirm the level of funding is what is rumoured on twitter. If thats the case, then it appears a good deal, especially in the current climate.

It thy will confirm it. It's a business deal so both sides will want to keep it as a rough estimate. Sky so it's difficult for competitors to have a base line to work from. The RFL to hedge competitors higher in the future.

In excess of the £200Million can be

£200,000,001

or

£299,000,000

That gives both sides something to work on in future negotiations.

It also keeps it vague for when internationals and CC deals come up.

Any non football sport that BT secure automatically suffers from a reduction in importance within the media and is "hidden away" more than any SKY sport.

For a game with as little coverage as we have, BT would have been an unmitigated disaster - let alone the fact that SKY would have then done as little as possible for the next three years to help the game.