All this one hand clapping is getting a bit dull.

I might change sides, just to give people something to talk about.

It's a crap deal they should have held out for a Billion from Chinese National TV.

Sky's interest in 2nd tier RL is pretty clear, 20 games if that, will feature the teams who don't start in SL and possibly all of those 20 could include at least one team who did.

This has far less to do with our structure and far more to do with a) we were undervalued previously and B) the environment we are now operating in.

BT are haemorrhaging money right now from their sports channels,and with each update they are getting a kicking from their shareholders, so much so the Premier League are going to bring forward their next rights auction because BT will be under much more scrutiny for their sports spending after another few quarters of bad news. This is a shot across BTs bow by Sky, tying up lots of content for a long time, I expect them to massively up their PL bids for the next batch £1.5-1.8billion a year, get all the best games and leave BT as the new ESPN but with much higher costs from RU the champions league and PL

This money needs investing in the game, not spending ,investing, it needs to perpetuate because we probably won't be in such a good bargaining position next round, or in such a favourable market place.

Sensible words.

But you're not actually holding your breath on this one, are you ?

the next thing they need to do with the TV deals is push the BBC to show the Super League Show nationwide in a regular time slot (Sunday night at 11pm after MOTD2 seemed to work for the World Cup Highlights) we also need to get the BBC to return to showing 2 Challenge Cup games per round.

China national tv wouldn't put up with Eddie and stevos commentary!

Offer the challenge cup to Itv, get more cash and more games on, with itv2,3,4 etc

I hope not but you can bet your bottom super league clubs dollar they will.

Would it be Lugby Reague, then?

That'd be a fantastic move for RL. ITV4 already show Europa League and Cycling so having some RL would help it. Plus there's naff all on there on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon too

Agreed.
This TV deal, following on from the RLWC and introduction of the 2x12; 3x8 structure is fantastic news for the game here.

And new sponsorship.

Just don't call it a WC legacy.

Premier Sports have pulled out of covering the Championship in 2014.

Premier Sports were paying how much?

With Superleague games on a Thursday it's no great loss to the general armchair RL fan.

Personally until the CC is compressed or there is some shortened version of RL, such as a 9's for FTA to cover. The problems will remain the same regardless of where the CC is shown.

It's too spread out, it has no buying from people outside of RL , people can't associate with a club as they may not see them from round to round.

FTA needs an element of concentration, similar to Wimbledon, the 6 nations etc.

A short but intense period of coverage to sell the larger game.

The current format is too wide spread.