The Premier Sports email says....

Premier Sports are delighted to announce that Championship Rugby League from England will be coming to the channel live and exclusively from next February 2012. We intend to broadcast at least 30 matches from the league, Grand Finals of both Championships and the Cup. The coverage will have a local rugby league community approach and will include behind the scenes features on clubs and staff. The hope is that the current and new subscribers will feel the £7.99 subscription offers great value with over 180 live rugby league games available to view from Australia's NRL and now the Championship in Britain.

I'll definitely subscribe to that.

Out of curiosity, is there any news of a deal for the Challenge Cup yet?

Does it state ' live ' matches , or just matches ?

Bloody Hell, you want jam on it , just hoping it changes from Thursday nights , costs us money we can't afford

I'm signed up to Premier Sports but will be cancelling once the NRL season ends, and will start again in February.

Makes the subscription worth more with them having Championship RL as well.

Given the number of people who seem on here to be prepared to pay monthly subscriptions to watch RL outside the Super League, then perhaps pay per view streaming of games is a way forward, particularly if the clubs involved might see some of the money, which doesnt seem to be the case with the likes of Sky/Premier.
Having listened to the poor & disinterested 5Live commentary of St Helens v Salford last night on Freesat, I know the dedicated RL media (weekly/monthy press & forums) that already exists could do a better job if they expanded into that area.

Glad the Championship has found a home.

Can't agree with the idea of a Rugby league only channel. It seems like preaching to the choire, how many non and new fans would tune into a specialist channel or bother looking for it.

Let's see what that home looks like first before getting excited

When the Championship clubs and fans were clamering for a TV deal , a non paying mid week attendance killer wasn't what they really wanted

A paying mini SL deal is what they really meant , this doesn't sound like that either

Ash, think your right about an RL only channel we have to use the media we already have control over better. My own view is that there are a lot of games filmed by clubs both Semi pro & amateur that are never aired. The technology is there to stream them through the internet, but most need editing & commentary adding, so that the clubs could make some money from them.

Its a good idea in principle, but the problem there is that clubs usually film with one cheap fixed zoom camera. If you're going to try and sell it you need it to look good. To look good you need one camera for the wides, one for close ups and one camera behind each of the try lines, not to mention someone to deal with sound, then you need a producer and you need a good editor and your specialist IT technician. Lot of people, lot of time, lot of money. I suppose you could try and sell the cheap, fixed zoom camera stuff, but I can't see you making more money online than burning them onto DVDs for your hardcore fans.

even if a tv network was interested I am pretty sure it couldn't happen. Sky would have made sure the deal was water tight so no other channel in the UK could negotiate a separate deal with the dragons.

As I think this forum shows there is the technical knowledge & ability within the RL community at large to vastly improve the current situation with regards to TV & Radio broadcasting, bringing the game to the wider audience & also make some money for clubs. The option of the game self broadcasting into existing Satellite TV & Radio stations is always there assuming it can be done cost effectively.

Am I right in thinking that football clubs who have their own TV stations sell time slots to shopping channels so that the expense is not fully at the clubs' door??

What if the RFL were to buy some slots to put these games on? Could this be a cost effective measure? I buy the HKR match DVD's regularly at £10 a pop so if I had to pay per view at that price and all I got was a fixed camera with a zoom, I'd happily still do it because it is only what I am used to with the dvds.