From the off, I admit don't know the details of the contract with Premier Sports. I can't find anything on the internet stating what the details are (only a quick google search admittedly), only news reports stating that Premier Sports will be televising it. If you have any links, I would be genuinely interested to have a look. Also, I confess to being a St Helens fan, so I realise that fans of Championship clubs will approach this subject differently.

Personally, I enjoyed the coverage on Sky, and whilst the standard of rugby wasn't as good as Super League, some of the games were more enjoyable than the Super League games on the following days. To that extent, as a rugby league fan, having coverage of this level of competition was, and will continue to be, a good thing.

Had SKY not broadcast the games, and therefore Co-Op wouldn't have come in to sponsor the leagues, who would have? Were there other companies waiting in the wings to sponsor the championship? Would a deal with another company be any better financially? I suspect not. Was the Northern rail sponsorship based on television coverage too, especially the final? Genuine questions - not meaning to argue or dismiss your points.

Playing mid-week isn't ideal, but it isn't exclusive to Championship clubs - Super League clubs will have to play some games on Monday evenings this year, and the chances are that attendances will suffer. However, the TV audience will probably be very good, as there will be no competition from any other sport at that time. It's the same with Championship clubs - Sky couldn't broadcast on Fridays or Saturdays (SL coverage), so it's left with Sundays (when most of the league plays, so potentially much fewer viewers, and double header football), Mondays, or Thursdays - I suspect Thursdays were chosen as there was a gap in the schedules.

Out of curiousity - are there any figures that show what effect being on TV had on attendances?

People just wanted to see the green machine in action

The premier ' deal ' , is they will provide coverage of the Championship on thursday nights, thats it, so fans that can access it ( not Virgin Media though ) have the option to pay for it

So for fans of the clubs not involved, it is perhaps a good deal , for the clubs and fans involved, its a pain in the a**

The Co oP deal is a TV deal only, only the clubs staging the games get anything, but they have to give out the eqivalent of 800 free tickets per match.
so no TV coverage, no Co oP money , hardly the deal of the century, I'd have refused it and gone without

Northern Rail were already sponsoring the comp and televised final ( Final was on SKY, now reduced to Premier Sports ) , they just matched the Co oP for the 2 qualifying matches

The more you give for nothing, the less you will ever get, you reduce the value of you product to zero

It has been up to this point, and SL are playing what? 7/8 weeks, we have already had the moaning on here, it will get worse when the matches start , so yes we were ' filling in ' , for free, so once again ' giving it away ' for nothing

There are no concrete figures ( usually skewed by clubs including counting the free tickets to increase their averages even if they didn't turn up ) , but I'd suggest they were down overall

The latter.

Undoubtedly being screened on Premier Sports is a come down from Sky in terms of audience numbers but at least there is still some exposure to a wider audience than what turns up at a match, which will help with sponsorship to a limited degree. Whether the Coop will continue their sponsorship now that Premier Sports are showing the Championships I don't know. Northern Rail have just signed up for two more years but they don't seem too bothered about TV exposure. They appear to be sponsoring the comp for the community element rather than exposure of their brand, which of some companies do. Hopefully the Coop, given its alleged values, will continue to do likewise.

My family has subscribed to Premier Sports in order to continue watching the Championship games as there have been some belters. We also get a bunch of NRL games in with the package plus other less represented sports. So for £7.00 per month there is a good spread of sports generally and rugby league in particular. If Premier Sports honour what they have suggested in terms of their coverage then it should be quite good and they have good pundits too, including Nobby and Dave Woods (when available). I'm looking forward to hearing the video ref explain his decision!

Sky made a commercial decision three years ago to include the Championships in their screening package. They were not interested this time around, apparently claiming that the Championship did not add value. Therefore, they have made another commercial decision, this time to stop screening the Championships. Nobody else was interested in taking up the Championships other than Premier Sports, and they wouldn't pay (except £10 to a club of your choice if you paid a year's subscription up front). That would suggest that rather than the RFL giving something for nothing, nothing was what was being offered in the first place. Whether league fans like it or not - and I certainly don't like it - Championship rugby league is not worth much in commercial terms and subscription TV companies in particular will make decisions based solely upon commercial value. Therefore, if Championship rugby league was to get any exposure at all, it was Premier Sports for £10 a shot, or nothing.

So nothing it should have been, the ' exposure ' isn't worth the costs to the clubs

What costs?

Loss of revenue and general inconvienience of playing midweek, especially for Part Time players

If it's gaining in popularity how come we don't get crowds close to 102,569 anymore?

Midweek as well , but not on SKY