Having recently watched an airing *FaceAche* of Radio Yorkshire RL now to be known as 'Proper Sport' a conversation was started by Phil Caplan.

In a nutshell, Caplan *spelling* ? stated that as part of an onging review into SL finances & financing, it was discovered by those charged with the task that the current 'TV deal' between Bein Sports & Catalans Dragons brings no financial reward to the sport, specifically SL.
Furthermore P.C claimed that a 'New Deal' *2 Years* has just been signed with Bein & that the RFL will not declare it's value as 'it has no value' (notice this is not a quote), or words to such effect.

Feel free to discuss.

Bluddy fRoggies .The sooner we are out of Europe the beter.

It will bring value to Catalans surely. So it’s bringing value to 1/12th of SL whilst not reducing value elsewhere.

Can’t see how it could be viewed as a negative.

Also brings value to Sky as they get a free feed of the Catalans game, gives value to the supporters as they are getting 14 or so more televised games a year. Whether the value of the Bein Sports deal can be quantified in to the amount Sky are willing to pay for exclusive SL rights is difficult.

Every team in SL gets a game on TV to market themselves and the sport as a whole, plus Catalans who will obviously get a lot of new fans that way. Does that not come into it?

I'd have thought that being able to tell prospective sponsors that their brand would receive television exposure across a large European broadcaster would be a good selling point for clubs.

But of course, this is rugby league, so we need to treat it with the same level of suspicion that we treat the horseless cart, the electric lightbulb and food with funny sounding names.

The 11 weeks of telecast of Catalans home games by Sky -- using the BEiN feed -- has financial value to Sky, and may well justify the payout of 1/12 of Sky money to Catalans just on its own.

Note that the initiator of this thread is a flatcapper from lowly Leigh.

I enjoy the Catalans home games. It's a nice little extra every other weekend. Also, how else are they to market themselves in the South of France? Sky Sports won't be showing in French homes. The deal is to market themselves in their home territory, and we get a little freebie off the back of it. It's a non-story.

Absolutely correct, although with the 3/4 Super 8 fixtures it’s 14 or 15 extra games sky are able to show, without any broadcasting costs, as they take the feed from bein. If these games were taken away, and Catalans replaced by Leigh, this would reduce the amount sky would be willing to pay for the Super League broadcasting rights.

Why don't you pop along and have a word with him seeing as you're almost neighbours!!

You could say that John Flatcap Dozey of Chorley, or you could say that Phil Caplan of Leeds is the 'real initiator' as it was he brought it to public attention & I merely offer it up as a topic of discussion !

I agree that it is difficult to quantify the value of the Catalans/Sky/Bein triumvirate deal, however, what I believe Caplan to be putting forward was that there was no direct monetary value to Super League or RL per se, morever that the only beneficiaries were the 3 mentioned.
There was also the question *though cloaked* of why the RFL were not willing to divulge this information, the suggestion being that the RFL are still not an open & transparent organisation, which we all know is true.

Wouldn't it be so much better if the RFL came out at the outset of such deals & say something like ... 'we're going to allow this TV deal or that because it has a wider benefit to the game but there is no monetary payment for it' ? At least this way there is a level of honesty & we don't end up with another 'Private TV Deal' like the one at Toronto being questioned ? The RFL really don't help themselves to be respected where everything appears to be smoke & mirrors.

Jean is obviously a Wigan Warriors fan, his IP address is in Chorley, and he can't type Leigh Centurions without 'having a dig'. Bless him.....

Jean is a well known old Orrell RU fan very bitter about their demise when Whelan got involved

To be fair to Jean, I often see a lad in a Catalans jacket wandering around Preston, with a Mediterranean appearance. Living in Chorley doesn't mean you're from Chorley.

So now people can stop using the TV deal as an excuse to exempt Catalans from relegation, and that annoying, cringeworthy cliche "for the good of the game?".