The more time goes on the more I worry we'll end up with the exact same deal (or worse) on sky sports and the other names were just to try get sky to pay a little bit more

Yeah, I feel like we have a few names dropped every new contract and then end up with Sky and the same deal or even a worse deal than before.

On a positive note Saints-Catalan got the 3rd highest audience of the season (suspect season opener and good friday the others) this is a rivalry that has come out of nowhere the last few years due to the strength of both teams performances.

Also shows people just want to watch top teams as Catalan of course dont contribute any viewers in the UK directly.

TNT sports don't even have a rugby league section on their website, so not sure how interested they would be in snowing us

Viaplay announced they are pulling out of the UK due to big losses, so thats a new broadcaster needed for the Championship and additonal CC coverage.

Could work well for channel 4, a mix of super league and championship games

So SL have confirmed they are finalising a 3 year deal with SKY that includes all games having a video ref and being able to be screened, and potential for free to air broadcasts (such as Channel4)

But then the bad part, rumour has it the money is a small drop. I assume SKY offered 2 years at same price or 3 at slightly less per year and the game has gone for the stability of a longer term.

A national audience seeing championship games would be embarrassing.

Can’t see any broadcaster wanting to show the champ

Huh? That's an odd thing to say.

Rugby League must be the only sport in this country that has multiple broadcast offers but still ends up with less money.

You do have to wonder what DAZN and TNT sports were offering if Sky won with £20m per season.

Also going by some of the feedback from the RFL it seems like that sky willing to front the production for all games was a major plus for them winning.

From the way I have read the quote it looks like nobody else was willing to front those production costs. That is what I predicted when the DAZN rumors started. I knew they wouldn't be willing to pay for production for every SL game.

I just hope they change the rules regarding the VR before then or we'll have 6 games a weekend ruined by them.

What the game does with these extra recorded games is key, if we can sell lots of streams and sell the rights overseas (some channels just want cheap content as filler) then great, if not we've just taken yet another hit in money.