Quote: notorious "Why does there need to be nine English clubs? As I said they have NFL on their schedule that features zero English teams and still generates interest in this country. I don't think you've fully explained how SL becoming international will impact subscriptions beyond threats from some current rugby league fans to ditch them (many of whom will likely change their minds when faced with the choice).
Sky will look at this with no sentimentality - it will be a decision made on spreadsheets. Viewing figures and advertising revenue. If Toronto pull in decent viewers and they sell all their advertising spots they won't care about the likes of Hull KR and Wakefield even though us fans will.
You could yet be proved right and nobody will watch them but you should at least consider the alternative point of view.'"
SKY show the NFL because they get the coverage from NBC and ESPN. They do not send film and production crews to the USA every week.
SKY will not even send film and production crews to France to cover Catalan, a member of SL for 14 years now. They were happy to get free coverage from Toronto to show their matches but will not be sending any film or production crew to the Lamport this season.
Why on earth then would they even consider jetting crews and equipment around the world televising Ottawa, New York, Belgrade or Valencia. The only way coverage would happen would be if they were getting it for free. This free coverage of course will never happen. Even Toronto, who can apparently afford, for some reason, to pay one player over £50000 per week to play Rugby League have had to cease the professional filming of their own games to be able to pass onto SKY. The broadcaster is hardly likely to be interested in some smartphone shots done by the "CEOs" of New York or Valencia.
The whole direction this could go is akin to the game committing wilful suicide. Sky will NOT be interested in only showing half the teams half of the time and will certainly not pay £200M for the privilege of been able to show only half a dozen British clubs.
The SL chairmen are hopefully savvy enough to realise this is a very, very important time for the game, new TV deal and all, and they will likely put an end to a lot of this nonsense in the near future. In fact it will take care of itself in most instances as most of these new "projects" are about as robust as a chocolate fireguard and have no chance of ever getting within a mile of SL. The RFL however really need to take stock of what they are actually about.
