Not sure the exact details of the deal but it looks like Sky will be sharing the cup with the BBC this year.

The BBC had already decided to drop one of the two matches they show from rounds 4 and 5 and it looks like Sky will fill the void with televised cup games on Saturday 14th April (3pm - Sky Sports 1) and Friday 27th April (8pm - Sky Sports 4).

Whether that will continue for the rest of the competition I'm not sure (Sky's listings for May onwards are not released yet) but I'd suggest its likely that the two networks will show one tie each round with BBC getting first choice. We shall see - sure they'll make a full an announcement soon.

An ideal opportunity to bring in a new commentary team and approach IMO, differentiate the CC from SL as it were

I think that would be great news, currently SKY ignore the CC on SKY News and Sports News (as they do with every sporting event they don't cover) and this will only bring more publicity to the competition.

I also agree with the above that the CC would be a good chance for SKY to give Eddie and Steve and co the week off and bring in some fresher faces

so when does the RFL finally decide to tell BBC to do one!!



dunno about earlier rounds but SSN doesnt ignore the final.

So Eddie will only start referring to the CC as an unwanted distraction after the 5th round then.

I'm not sure. Not heard the full details of it, only going off Sky Programme Listings site has said and they don't have listings online for May (i.e Quarter Finals) yet. Seems a pretty recent development considering one of the games is tucked deep on Sky Sports 4.

I suspect like I said it'll be one tie each per round up to the Semis, with BBC getting first choice, and the final will be live on the BBC only with Sky showing highlights, but we'll see.

When will the RFL bin the Beeb? They have rights to the SL highlights but deem the millionth repeat of a US cartoon as more valuable to broadcast nationally. Their Challenge Cup coverage is good at the games but marketing of it to make the public aware it's on is woeful.

If the highlights Sky allow them to have are restricted to regional presentation somehow (I doubt it) then forgive me but the game needs free-to-air coverage. I'm sure ITV4 or CH5 could do better. Or even Dave!

Amazes me that people still bang on about the RFL binning the BBC. One game on live BBC channels 1 or 2 will probably attract at least 4 x the number of viewers that Sky will get.
They also attract interest from very well known BBC personalities such as C Balding. She in turn waxes lyrical about the sport. She is not the only one. But I guess thats not good enough for some RL fans despite the returns it can bring to the game.
But no lets ditch the BBC and stick Halifax vs Bradford CC match on ITV4 where it can hide. Or even worse on C5.
Ok the coverage at times could be better, but as someone who recalls the days of 2min highlights of the first half and only the 2nd half live I know which deal is better for the game.
I would fully ditch Ray French who I feel is worse than Eddie and Stevo for the image of the game and has been since 1981 when he got the gig. Thankfully though he is slowly being fazed out.
The game needs the biggest terrestrial channel. Let's not forget radio 5 coverage in the deal. If we ditched the beeb I would imagine radio 5 would relegate the matches as well. I can't see independent radio nationally picking up the slack.
My one hope is that Sky viewing figures continue to improve and the RFL use that to their advantage to attract a bit more sponsorship and increased BBC deal next time round. They do after all need viewers the same as Sky. That plus the response from us fans to the petition to save local radio must have raised a few questions in the corridors of broadcasting centre / Salford.

Hope they only show it on Premier Sport.

IMO we need as much exposure on "poor mans telly" as we can get.
There is no doubt that sky's broadcasts are better than the beeb (obviously you need to take the margin metre away), but the numbers reached on terrestrial TV far exceed satelite.
The oportunity for kids to view some RL is greater and therefore we need as much coverage of our sport on the Beeb (or ITV)

Does this mean that Sky employees will now stop deliberately belittling and demeaning the Challenge Cup now that they're allowed to do some coverage of it?

I doubt it.

I've always been a fan of the Sky team, and feel in general they do a good job, but more and more Stevo is becoming a pain and Eddie is acting more like an old woman. I think he has been hanging around with RL Fans for too long!

Always amuses me how people think TV deals are done. If ITV or anyone else was interested in showing RL and made a decent offer to the RFL, then perhaps a change from the BBC would occur. But they haven't, so it hasn't. It's really that simple.

Didn't ITV have a stab at covering the NFP (or whatever it was at the time) Grand Final a few years back?

From memory it looked like the coverage was put together as a degree project by a bunch of Media Studies students who had never seen the game before in their life.