Getting SL on FTA TV should be one of the big goals of the RFL. As we have seen in union and soccer in Oz, consign yourself to Pay TV and your relevance drops 100%.

I agree totally, but I wonder what the difference in the bids would be from BBC/ITV compared to Sky's. Would we be able to withstand that difference?

No FTA broadcaster will pay, or possibly even afford, the money that SL alone would require and the coverage would be minimal at best.

Mo & Ron Ball's game rules most TV in britain, including adverts and news!!!

The game has had opportunities in the past to make great strides, but fear and blinkered attitudes prevented the opportunities to be taken.

Remember that only when 2 massisve Aussie egos went head to head that any "big" money ever flowed into the british game and that was squandered and still is.

As other posters have intimated, without exposure on FTA TV, the game is missing out big time.
They may receive more cash via Sky but, the loss in exposure is far greater than the cash reward.
More short term thinking from our governing body ?

I agree though I have sympathy with the decision to take a higher offer when you have clubs struggling financially.

I have absolutely no idea what the likes of ITV/BBC would be prepared to pay. IIRC the new Sky deal is approx 1.8m per SL club per year. If the ITV/BBC offer wasn't that much less than id bite their hand off to get us on FTA TV.
But, say, if the offer is half of Sky's. Can the game and the club's deal without £8-900k per year of guaranteed income?

Too late now I'm afraid.

Sky have [uexclusive[/u rights to the lot from 2017. And they get to choose how much they are going to broadcast.

And we've already seen their attitude towards the CC in the last two seasons where they've purchased rights during the knockout rounds only to then not bother.

May as well kill off the CC after 2017 as nobody will be watching it apart from 50k Moonies on Sky Sports 4 on a Thursday afternoon or evening. And that's assuming Sky even bother with it.

As for internationals? Oh dear.

The sport will get exactly what it deserves for selling its soul for a quick and temporary monetary fix.

There'll be a huge price to be paid for limiting exposure to the ghetto of the handful of Sky subscribers who aren't watching soccer, cricket, union or darts instead.

Would anyone like to point me to a sport in the UK that has live coverage of its regular season on free to air TV?

The BBC has a handful of live FA Cup games a season in football. Otherwise, that's it. The Premier League, Football League, Conference and SPL are all on pay TV. Cricket's Championship, T20 and limited overs competitions are on pay TV. Rugby Union's Premiership and Pro 12 are on pay TV.

Free to air TV in the UK has absolutely zero interest in showing regular league games in any sport. Anyone expecting the RFL to magically find a FTA broadcaster to take live SL coverage is talking absolute nonsense.

Absolutely correct.

As the Challenge Cup is no longer a protected sporting event(s), it had to be sold somewhere but, it is indeed short sighted not to take a lower bid from FTA.
Having said that, with the new "every second counts" structure, expansion is out of the window so we may as well insulate ourselves further and enjoy life in our own shrinking bubble and in 10 years time, we can all complain that the game has shrunk even further.

Complete rubbish and you know it. Sky didn't and won't bother until they have the final.




Go on then, tell us who's got TV rights for internationals in the next 5-10 years?



What, being the 2nd or 3rd most watched weekly sport on the country's biggest sports channel?

It could be worse, the Super League could be the Aviva Premiership on the ghetto, which is BT Sport William Eve.

William Eve is spot on, the RFL were too hasty with their SKY deal. When you look at how many people in the UK physically sit down and watch Aviva rugby every week on TV, be it live or highlights, it easily beats Super Leagues figures because its shown on BT and ITV/ITV4.

The BT numbers for RU aren't nothing to write home about and anybody who thinks ITV would be interested in SL must be taking some pretty strong drugs. On Sky we get 2 live games (sometimes 3 with the Catalans home games) along with the shows like Boots n All. To lose that for one live game on ITV4 and a highlights show tucked away more obscure to find than the current BBC SL show would be daft.

Maybe the RFL could've gone chasing the dream of offers from other channels......and maybe when ITV, BBC turned around and said no thanks then Sky would've offered less with the knowledge that the RFL had no other good options.