At best 1/10th of those who watched on the bbc will be watch on Sky. Taking the challenge cup and internationals from the bbc is an absolute disaster and a stupid short term is decision.

The first round draw takes place at Wembley Stadium and will involve 40 teams from Aberdeen to London, students, police and the armed forces. In some ways this is the most exciting part of the CC - the start of the Road to Wembley! I know they're all amateur outfits but a half decent marketing team should be able to make something of it. I haven't heard anything about it, nothing on the BBC website for instance. Bit late now, it's scheduled for 12:45 tomorrow!

Absolutely spot on.

Can you see Sky dedicating a traditional Saturday afternoon date to the Wembley CC Final event?

I can't.

It'll be shunted to a Thursday night, or at best a Saturday or Sunday slot with a kick off around 6pm with just a paltry 100k converted moonies tuning into the ghetto of Sky Sports 3 or 4.

It's a disaster in the making and I don't believe it's an exaggeration to envisage the termination of the competition within a few years of Sky's less-than-enthusiastic coverage.

The haste with which the latest TV deal was signed last year was utterly obscene.

My guess is that the RFL will do so regardless. Whether Sky choose to screen it is a separate issue but to be honest whether they do or whether they don't matters little. In fact a refusal to do so might well deliver a boost to the gate while having a negligible impact on the cup's future profile.

Have missed something, or isn't the CC Final still classified as a protected event?

Yeah just the final though.

So RL to the masses is just about finished

Although the RFL pretend that we are in rude health, the reality is more like an ice cube in a tea pot.

I take your point that ideally the CC would be screened FTA. However, I'm not sure how great a benefit to the game the million-odd punters who sit glued to a TV screen on summer weekends actually are. Although the play off highlights packages don't tick the "live sport" box, I do reckon they serve the game well on account of their timing. While such packages won't replicate the CC coverage, if they could somehow be increased it could serve the game fairly well.

As far as I'm aware, there'll be no RL matches broadcast on terrestrial TV during the next TV contract.

Sky have exclusive rights to everything from 2018. That'll be Super League, Challenge Cup (which includes the right not to exercise those rights as they've a clear history of doing) and internationals.

But how can that be if the CC final is one of the events that, by law, must be screened on terrestrial TV?

From what I remember, there was a proposal for the CC Final to be removed from that list, but it was never adopted.

Earmarked to be punted from its protected status along with Epsom Derby and the Winter Olympics.

As of right now the cc final is still on the protected list and that won't be re addressed until 2016. Nothing in Sky or the RFL'S nor those that they had to drag kicking and screaming in to this deal have mentioned exclusivity on the cc or that the cc final will move to PPV and there had been no announcement re the removal from the protected list.

Whether it is simply coincidence that the protection is re ie we'd I 3016 and the new deal starts in 2017 I don't know.