Yeah, have Sunday lunch time matches for Sky instead of Thurdays, 2.00pm kick off.

And that is the problem.

It works for other sports.

At the end of the day we are a second rate sport and have to accept that. Football is the flagship sport on SKY (TV) everything else works around it, RL, speedway, boxing, Union club rugby.......

The RFL should have broken the rights up so for instance tier 1 would get 2 live games a week and would have the pick of the games. Tier 2 would be 1 live game per week. The tier 2 deal could be sold to fta channels. Just a thought.

Does it? I don't see much Aviva Premiership on mid-week? It seems to be mostly Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

No ones suggesting RL is bigger or more important than football. Just that there shouldn't be too many Thursday or Monday night games and the ones that are should be scheduled sensibly.

Actually we are [ithe[/i second rate sport, the second highest rating domestic sport on Sky traditionally. And a lot of our season happens to be at a time when there is no football, so virtually no competition on a Saturday. As I've already mentioned, Sky have a plethora of live sport on Thursday nights, much moreso than an average Saturday in the summer. They also didn't have any issue with showing the Catalans home matches and the Middle 8s matches in a respectable Saturday timeslot even when the football season was underway. It's not that Sky are unable to televise SL matches in a weekend slot, just don't want to for reasons only known to them. And I can only assume these are the same reasons that they have employed laughable, embarrassing pundits like Stuart Cummings and Terry O'Connor, scrapped all supplemental RL programming, virtually eliminated RL coverage on Sky Sports News etc.

It will be interesting to see what Sky decide to do when they lose the Saturday night football slot in the next football season.

RL did have a run on Saturday nights and, aside from Championship football, there's probably not too much it can use to attract users from BT Sport. At the moment that use the Championship in the lunchtime slot, but football tends to lend itself more to lunchtime KOs (due to many matches being moved for policing reasons anyway).

But ultimately, the sport (like many others) relies very heavily on Sky. It's our biggest source of revenue and in return for that, they're entitled to have some say in scheduling. For all those saying we should go with other broadcasters, there is little to no indication that:
a) they were massively interested in the first place.
b) that they wouldn't do exactly the same thing (even Premier Sport shunted Championship RL to Thursday nights).
c) that clubs would be able to absorb any hit in revenue.

As a club, Rovers' preferred matchday is a Sunday. In 2016 we have 3 Thursday games, 5 Friday games and 4 Sunday games. The Thursday games are the reason Sunday fixtures are harder to accomodate because of player safety and giving rests between games (even though Easter is somehow always ignored). I can almost take Friday games but not Thursdays.

As Him stated, this is not about away fans, its about the home crowd and season pass holders. We as paying supporters continue to get a raw deal from the RFL. I realise that Sky are keeping the game afloat, but if they decide to quit because of a decline in viewing figures/interest, the game will be left in ruins and clubs will also have degraded their own fan base.

Personally, whilst I love my club and stay loyal, Superleague as a product is on very dodgy ground.

So I ask again, how do Thursday viewing figures compare to their weekend equivalents? Are these games simply fillers for the Sky schedule or are they really promoting the sport?

I agree 100% it was not untill I read this post that I checked our fixtures & as most games are night time 8pm I now will not get a season pass & doubt I will attend anymore games after 53 seasons it is a sad day but I can't see me ever going again.

Out of interest, how many home games did you attend last season?

Four & the game at KC that was mainly because of work & late changes of match days by Sky it was a waste of a season ticket. I will be retired by the start of the season but I don't wan't to be out late at night it is not the way I live. It is not the cost & it has realy upset me as I have followed Rovers a long time.

I think why people are up in arms is because they know in advance we only have 4 Sunday games at home. We only had 4 in the first 23 rounds last season but, most were changed with not much notice.