Gf, I get that bit & I agree with you, but just pee's me off especially at the mo that union friendlies take centre stage over a WC by the broadcast partner.

Yet the [iTimes[/i is owned by Rupert 'Sky' Murdoch.

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugb ... --spt.html

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugb ... --spt.html

Just noticed that the England quarter final is confirmed for Saturday night on BBC2, great timeslot to have and it should get a big audience, particularly as an Ireland RU game is just before it.

I've not got the average, but the viewing figure for the England v Fiji match yesterday peaked at an excellent 2.29m. All three England games have had viewing figures over 2m.

There was a section on Points of View earlier with complaints that there was insufficient coverage of the World Cup (especially with regards the other home nations). The official reply from BBC Sport mentioned budget constraints but confirmed the England games had produced record TV audiences for rugby league.

As for next weekend, I'm not sure. Tough going up against the bohemoths of Saturday evening reality TV. A figure of 2m woud put it comfortably in the top 10 for the week for that channel which would be fantastic.

Budget constraints?

That's utter poppycock.

Six o'clock news earlier mentioned Scotland qualifying for the Quarter Finals, but that was it. No mention of why, how or the results that enabled them to qualify.

It was pathetic and seemed like it was just shoved in to fill 2 seconds.

England v Fiji got more or less the same viewing figures as Wales v south Africa on BBC 2. However, this didn't translate into the coverage on the news last night or this morning.

There should be an audit of what the BBC have paid for certain rights vs. their commercial value. Might free budget up for the rest of us!

What they pay for the 6 nations is ridiculous when a product like Rugby League (which is getting excellent viewing figures) comes at a fraction of the cost.

It shows the importance of getting a decent amount of FTA coverage for any sport if you want it to become part of the public conciseness. Wales v SA in a "friendly" should be blown off the ratings by England playing anyone at any sport....but because RL is confined to Pay TV and is considered a northern hobby, it struggles to grasp the attention of the public and the media.
Pipe dreams of TV deals with ITV are all well and good, but in reality, I suspect the best way forward is negotiation with SKY AND A FTA PARTNER with a view to having 1 game a week on FTA. SKY get an average of about 130,000 for a SL game across the season and a quick glance shows that the BBC/ITV digital channels get about 500k for their programmes....for SL to be of interest to these channels then they would need to get 500k figures week in week out to be worth any "investment" on their part.

I suspect the TV money from SKY won't increase too much next time, so maybe the 1 FTA game a week needs to be a bargaining chip.....

Anyone who's up is in for a treat, someone changed EVERY mention of Rugby World Cup on the 2015RWC page to Rugby UNION World Cup. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Rugby_World_Cup#Bids

Anyone who's up is in for a treat, someone changed EVERY mention of Rugby World Cup on the 2015RWC page to Rugby UNION World Cup. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Rugby_World_Cup#Bids