www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/fe ... ast-rights Good news, IMO.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/fe ... ast-rights Good news, IMO.

Hope this is true - bloody great if so. Show your teeth RFL !! Go and sell the game !!

Great news.let's hope ESPN get serious about bidding for the TV rights.

Let's hope someone like Channel 4 go for CC rights too.

Ideally we'd want ESPN to show enough interest to bump up the money SKY will give us.

ultimately however I don't think it'd be in RL's interest to switch to ESPN altogether.

when SKY lose the rights to a sport, they ignore it completely. When SKY lost the rights to the NRL for example, SKY Sports News didn't even mention it.

the concern would be that the game would play on ESPN to its existing 'loyal' audience...but would lose any interest to the casual fan. RL has picked up many 'fans' over the years from the casual sports fan watching on SKY and in pubs, and seeing what a great product the game is.

It'd be good to see a split bid. Sky have rights to two games on a Friday and Saturday evening and ESPN show one game on a Sunday afternoon.

What nonsense. His rhetoric won't work. Sky own rugby league, lewis and wood. They tell them how far to bend over and when.

Get rid of this weasel

No surprise there is more interest from TV companies now Wigan are in the ascendancy again.

A split deal would be great, ideally with one of the free to air tv stations involved. Of course the Sky funding would be reduced but the new deal will make up the difference. Just like the Guinness Premiership it would lead to an increase of live games along with the inconvenience it causes to fans. It's price worth paying imo.

Whilst I am in favour of the RFL getting the most it can for the rights to show games, there are a few things that concern me :

- Might it be worth going for a lower CC bid in order to keep it on free-to-air TV. In return for a lower bid, the RFL can dictate more when games are shown ... Say for the early rounds, three games a weekend ? Also, like Australia, have the games not live but rather on +30 minute delayed telecast ? Look how Channel 4 really made Italian Football popular by live games, highlights and magazine programmes.

In return for lower TV rights, we could chase some really big organisations who fancy free promotion. We've already got Gillette on board, why not get them (or a similar household name) to sponsor the cup for a lot more in return for the increased media coverage ? At the moment, with the Carnage sponsorship, we're effectively saying the Challenge Cup sponsored by Leeds Poly, which makes the sport look cr*p.

- Ensure that any Satellite rights holder offers a free-to-air package to terrestrial broadcasters. Look how ITV 4 show a weekly kick & clap highlights show .... They've even got the cricket on the back of blagging the Channel 9 rights from down under.

- If the decision is made to go with ESPN, ensure that all the games go with them and not a piecemeal that some games are on Sky and others on ESPN .... One of the things that is really being cut by folk feeling the pinch is additional pay tv subscriptions.

- Ensure that any deal includes decent coverage of the National Leagues too

- Wonder if we'll ever get Academy grade football back on TV too ?

- Get someone big name or coherent in ... Not Ray French commentating. On the other hand, he could do a 'Kenneth Wolstenholme' type role for a magazine programme ?

- Get whoever has the rights to show things like The Footy Show from Down Under too ...

I hope that SKY keep the rights as there is a bigger audience and more publicity. However I think maybe a Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening match, shown by ESPN would excellent. Imagine 4 games of SL on TV each week & the extra money being pumped into the game

I do hope the challenge cup stays on terrestial TV though, think ITV would have a good run with it maybe & when the SL clubs enter the cup one game shown on ITV2 and one on ITV1 each round..? Would hate to see claire balding go though, true RL supporter, loves the game. Also think ITV4 would be a good place for Championship games on a thursday night, think SKY's coverage has got a bit stale..

ITV's coverage of ANYTHING is rubbish.

In my many years of "watching" TV, I can say that probably less than 5% has been from ITV in it's various guises and most of that will have been the various RL programmes.

Yep ITV is total guff. I never watch ITV either, except when Rugby League Raw was on there!

The interest from other terrestrial channels for the CC is good news. Hopefully one of them will pick up the World Cup in 2013, it really needs to be on terrestrial.

In an ideal world:

SL
Two live SKY games per week.
One live ESPN game per week.
A settled timeslot and comprehensive nationwide highlights show of SL on free-to-air TV.