Well, I'd say the fact that Sky are introducing Monday Night SL games after the football season ends shows that they think we're popular enough to fill a large gap on their schedules

I've noticed SL results getting greater prominence on the BBC Sport website also.

I might be wrong, but has every game so far been on Sky Sports 1 as well? That makes a bit of a difference.

Also, there are RL adverts on a lot more than there used to be on Sky, I was watching something the otherday for an hour, and there was the triple header advert every ad break.

I think in general, it probably is.

The saints TV game figure was particularly impressive, no doubt swelled by the fact it was the official opening game of the new stadium (curious onlookers), coupled that it was the only game played on Friday. Still very good though.

If we look at the individual components of the gameInternational

The 4 nations I think should be classed as a success. The crowds were pretty good, and there was decent terrestrial coverage on BBC, including a relatively successful return to Wembley. The exiles game could become an excellent additional fixture (or fixtures if expanded to a 2 or 3 game series) to the calendar. This year will be quiet of course, but with a World Cup looming, we have a massive opportunity to sell the International Game.

Super League

Attendances this year should be quite impressive. Saints should increase their average to around 13,000 hopefully, which is a 3000 jump from KR days, and almost double from last year at Widnes. Salford should be getting better crowds with their new stadium too. Wigan, Leeds and Wire should continue to get good crowds, whilst Hull and Bradford are still getting good crowds despite struggling on the pitch. Cas and Wakefields crowds last week were very promising too. Widnes should also get much better crowds than Crusaders did.

Competively speaking, there are 5 teams as I see that have a genuine chance of Silverware (Saints, Wire, Wigan, Leeds and Catalans), with a few others having an outside chance in the cup. This will hopefully fuel interest in the competition, and lead to more "big" games.

TV audience for Super league may be better too - the Monday night slot could get a larger audience than the Saturday slot, but it remains to be seen. Sky continue to give the game excellent coverage - 2 SL games a week, Origin and WCC, and 4 magazine shows (SL Fulltime, NRL Fulltime, SL Super Men, Boots'nAll). BBC's Super League show has had favourable comments regarding content, format and quality - it's just the broadcasting times that remains an issue, but nothing has really changed on that from previous years.

Challenge Cup

BBC's coverage of the cup reduces slightly, with only 1 game shown from the 4th and 5th rounds. The coverage on the BBC has certainly got better over recent years - Dave Woods is probably an improvement on Ray French, and the Red Button forum is pretty good. Claire Balding continues to impress with her enthusiasm and quality of her presentation (including some very good interviews with Richard Lewis). Not sure what the viewing figures were like last year. Attendance wise, the challenge cup seems to struggle still except for the final.

National Leagues / Northern Rail

This is probably the area of most concern. Whilst the competitions are pretty good in their own rights, not having automatic promotion certainly has had an impact. Numerous posters on here are known for their opinions on this, and I think it is a common one (may not be the majority opinion, but a significant number of fans feel dis-illusioned).

The TV coverage on Premier Sports will be interesting too - it's good that this level of the sport will have weekly TV coverage (plus the extensive NRL coverage on the same channel).

Amateur

This is a biggie - with the move to summer, there is a massive potential to attract more people to play the game. We also constantly hear good news about "expansion" areas, with new teams and competitions appearing.


So, overall, I would say the popularity is increasing. There are areas to work on, as always, but at the moment, rugby league is in a pretty good place. The amatuer move to summer, and world cup next year, are massive opportunities to attract a lot more people to the game.

The Tv figures are amazing, considering the first game had a 1hour build up. I'd imagine the match average would have been 350K+.

The thing that always annoys me is the play offs. There needs to be a reduced price ticket deal offered.

People praising the RFL need to think again. The sport is growing in participation, viewing figures and attendances seems to be the conclusion from the do gooders on here.

So why then could the RFL not negotiate a improved TV deal or a competition sponsorship deal worth any money at all?

In the same notion I question as to why you couldn't negotiate arm rests for your seat?

So less likely that any non SL clubs will feature in the clubs oldest competition , and yet the BBC actively look for giant killing ties in the FA cup

Explain to me how , having TV coverage during the week on a channel nobody has access to that earns the clubs nothing is a ' Good ' thing ?

They did. Its worth significantly more than the last deal.

The BBC doesn't have rights to the FA Cup (not even highlights) and hasn't for a few years now.

Is it better than clubs having no TV coverage at all, which was the alternative?

Good post hotpot. Especially re amateur. The amateur game has failed spectacularly over the last couple of decades in almost every respect. Hopefully a more positive and pro-active approach like the move to summer and the spread of the amateur game into new areas will bring lots of benefits including increased participation and exposure.
Also another good move in my opinion is the setting up of regional coaching associations where the SL club takes responsibility for the coaching in its area instead of relying on overworked RFL Development officers who are better deployed to "non-SL" areas. I'm more positive about the amateur game now than I ever have been.

Ok , sorry I meant whatever broadcaster has the current rights to show it , they actively look for potential giant killing games , its called the ' romance of the cup ' , now highly unlikely any clubs outside SL will be shown

WHY , is it better than no coverage at all , do you think the SL clubs would be happy to play midweek and be televised on essentially a ' pay per view ' channel and recieve nothing for it ?

How many potential "giant killings" have the BBC screened in recent years? Games between SL and non-SL sides more often than not end in blowout scores, hence the BBC predominantly choosing games between SL sides which they hope will at least be competitive. Nothing is likely to change in terms of how the BBC picks its games.

SL sides wouldn't accept such a deal from Premier Sports, but then again they have a product which is worth something to a broadcaster.

Championship and Championship One rugby league is the equivalent of Conference and Conference North/South football in terms of interest. Comparing its media rights to SL is ludicrous.

I'll ask again, is it better for clubs to have the opportunity to sell sponsorship, advertising etc on the basis that they might get watched by 50,000 people on Premier Sports every few weeks, or to not have any TV coverage at all?

I agree about the point of competition sponsorship - I have yet to be convinced that having players on the side of trucks is £2.5 million worth of sponsorship. Saying that, the majority of clubs agreed to it in favour of other (I presume) cash sponsorship deals - we'll have to wait and see, but I am sceptical.

The TV deal I thought was a good one. In these times of financial difficulties, to get a similar (was it a small increase) in the deal was pretty good, especially when there was little competition from other stations, and other sports have had their contracts decreased (The football leagues for example). Also, I think I'm right in saying that this deal excluded International Rights, which previous were covered in the same contract - meaning there will be additional money for International match rights on top of the SL contract.

In reality, there is only SKY who can offer rugbly league what it gets now. ESPN and Premier sports are the rival sports channels - ESPN I don't think would capacity for 2 games a week (I may be wrong), and premier Sports tend to buy other channels produced programmes (NRL, Nascar, NHL, Football) - which is why the NL coverage will be interesting this year, as I think they are producing the coverage themselves.

BBC don't tend to show domestic league coverage of any sport (maybe Celtic league union on BBC wales, and scottish football on BBC Scotland, I'm not sure) - it's mainly sporting events, or cup competitions. League competition coverage is generally in the form of highlights (MOTD, Football League show etc.), for which we have the Super League show.

ITV could probably accomodate 2 games a week across their channels (ITV4 in particular), but already have a good sports portfolio (CL football, FA Cup, Arrive RU Highlights, Touring Cars), and seem to want to broadcast as many "reality TV shows" as possible, as they generate the most money.

The last 3 that spring to mind are , leigh - Salford 2001 , Toulouse in 2004 , HKR-Warrington in 2005 , but if they dont cover any potential matches , they never will actually show one

So you admit , the coverage is worthless

I wasn't comparing it to anything

No it isn't if the clubs are losing income from spectators unable to attend midweek , and Championship sponsors tend not to be the type of companies that would benifit from national TV coverage

have you ever heard the term ' Flogging a dead horse ' ? , well TV coverage of the Championships is a dead horse , time to let it go and move on , it serves no purpose , it was bad enough being on SKY , it's only purpose there was to bring in the Co oP sponsorship , which was poor , on Premier Sports it will only be worse