Assuming that they are interested, I'd like to see all international rugby league and the Challenge Cup on the BBC.

I'm not sure that's the case. £40m is a lot to spend every year for just 15 games.

Yes. But it becomes tedious and counter-productive if all you do is get battered with metronomic regularity.

You see, that's the thing about TV deals: At some point you've got to WIN.

Mugwump's point about the need to win more than the odd match every so often is valid but we do I agree need internationals to be on the BBC for exposure to gain credibilty. I think one option would be to add an England B team (like the Saxons in RU) to the European Cup and try to get that on the BBC. I know it would essentially be copying the 6 nations but it has more chance of being competitive than the 4 nations does.

The staging of the rounds is very frustrating.
3 rounds played in quite a short space of time followed by a 9/10 week gap to the Semis is way to inconsistent; of what was once regarded as the Blue riband event in RL

Agreed but as long as the final is in August that is what will have to happen as every year almost there are larger (spectator-wise) events during June and July - Olympics, Soccer World Cup, Soccer Euro Championships, RU World Cups, Wimbledon Championships all a bigger TV audience so we get bumped to make room.

The only solution is to bite the bullet and move the Challenge Cup final back to late May. We could then have SFs in early May (3 weeks before final) with the earlier rounds every two weeks meaning 4th round (SL enter) in Mid March with 3rd round (Champ & Champ 1 enter) in early March. Rounds 1 and 2 (amateur only) played in Feb. The cup would still fall within the seasons for the participating clubs and we would not have the enforced need for the massive gap. A feeling of building excitement and momentum for the final would be maintained among the fans and casual observers on TV would be more likely to stick with it. After 10 weeks non RL fans would have forgotten the late drama that sent Warrington through to the semis (for example) and would be less likely to remeber that a semi final was being played when it finally was played.

Magic weekend could then be staged in August when the CC final is played now. Having it at the latter part of the season may lead to more attending as fans will know the importance of the fixtures (including those of rivals for position in the league) and would have more incentive to see the games.

We're talking about the Beeb right? At the last round of TV talks they made it clear that they were only interested in bidding for the Cup rights if the final was held in August. Move it back to May and not only does it become a preseason comp for many teams, but it never gets shown on TV.

How is it pre-season when that started in February and amateurs play in the winter?

You're joking right?

The BBC are only interested in the live rights to elite events, they've made that much clear by getting rid of the likes of Grandstand and Sportsnight and switching to single event coverage rather than magazine style shows.

They won't have the slightest interest in taking on the rights to an essentially second-tier competition, even if you gave them away - it doesn't fit their current strategy for sport.

Dave Woods is in a win win situation though. If BBC stick with League, he's the chief commentator. If they ditch it, he can just go back to Channel 5 and continue with his football commentary.

If we want to gain greater interest in the CC we need to make it a 5 week comp in the middle of the SL season - starting 5 weeks before the final.

That way the BBC get some momentum as the competition builds to its finish.

As we have free weeks in the SL calendar the season should not be any longer than now and the CC will get more exposure

a little extreme, i'm not sure a month without income in the height of the summer is a good option for some teams, but every 2/3 weeks is good, the 9/10 week gap between rounds is ridiculous!

I would think that the axing of Grandstand had more to do with the dwindling number of sports that the BBC still has/had the rights to and the lack of things to make up the show with. In its later days it was pretty much horse racing with the odd interruption and then the football scores. If they were concentrating on big events only then I doubt they would have let ITV get their hands on such large cash cows as the FA Cup, Premiership highlights and F1 as they have done in recent years.

On your second point. Unfortunately any RL event at the moment would be viewed by the media as "second tier" as the sport does not have the national profile or international credibility of other sports on offer. The way to get said credibility is to offer and give national exposure for a close, competitive competition that can be won by different competing teams over a number of years rather than dominated by one or two. GB/England have not won an Ashes series for 40 years and a world cup in almost the same amount of years. Australia win almost all with the rare win for NZ. The rest of the home nations and France are at about the same level as each other so the competition between them (as the euro cup will be) is close and the winner not so certain. However there would be no interest for a UK broadcaster without England (who are too strong for the euro nations and too weak for Aus/NZ). So a team of the players missing the cut for 4 nations or of under 23 years old for England could be used to provide an English presence until the others have become sufficiently strong.

Such a competition would be competitive and would help to gain some credibility at international level which is one of the things we severely lack as a sport. As for the amount of cash coming from TV for the rights, the tournament is being run and sponsored anyway so it's not as if it would be being concocted just for TV. Any money from TV rights however small would be a bonus therefore and would increase over time as the tournament and sport gained more credibility and support.

I'm not sure that would work as teams who are out in the early rounds would have a long time without a game.
I agree with your general point though that it needs to be more compact instead of strung out over the entire season. Maybe have the CC and SL alternate weeks up until the final? So 1 week would be SL games then the week after would be Cup games and so on. That way teams who are out would only go 1 week without playing instead of several, but also allows the Cup to gather some momentum.

The two week gap between rounds is something that many people including myself have suggested. The sticking point is the date for the final, if it stays in August then you would have to get amateur clubs to play outside of their season (they still play in winter) or keep the 10 week gap between QFs and SFs as TV won't grant air time against the large events I mentioned in an earlier post. Neither option is favourable. Either that or the final is returned to a slot in late May so that the rounds can be played at 2/3 week intervals and fall within the playing seasons of the competing teams.

The last option is the most sensible and allows for momentum and interest to be built and maintained whilst not competing with any large (global) events for air time. If the problem is noted and rectified however it cannot be done until the current TV deal expires after the 2011 competition.