I know this keeps coming up but part of me thinks that the competition over football rights like the Champions League will make Sky value us more and part thinks that there is going to be a smaller pot.

Why? sky have lost the champions league now so they will have to fill it with something

they have tied up the premiership for the next 5 years

so how does it effect us???

be interesting if bt bidded for rl next what would sky bid!!!!

Depends whether you see Sky Sports as a stand-alone business or as a mechanism for convincing punters to by Sky's technology. I worry that it is (or was) the latter and it's now served its purpose. Ten years ago I reckon Sky would have bought the Champions League rights almost regardless of cost. Bit by bit their sports portfolio is being eroded. I'm worried that RL won't have sufficient profile to attract a serious bid from BT and if it stays on Sky the amount they're prepared to pay won't increase and may decrease.

ITV has no LIVE sport now.

They could do with something to fill that gap.

One game on a Friday and one on a saturday or sunday with a mixture of being on ITV 1 and ITV 2 for a fraction of the cost would be a good starter for them to get back into the sports business.

They are very strong where RL is strong and if we marketed the game properly and had someone sensible negotiating a contract could easily move to ITV.

If we won the WC this year the game could take off in leaps and bounds,

Unfortunatley none of the above is going to happen.

When RL gets its house in order, only then will networks consider investing.

we'll stay with sky sports but on reduced money

we are their b*tches

We're more likely to get on ITV4, but in the digital age where everyone has access to ITV4, this shouldn't be an issue.

as for SKY, while I get the argument that they have already built their empire, if they lose more rights people will start to cancel. It isn't just the Champions League they have lost, they have also lost domestic RU. And while the Premier League is still the biggest draw by some distance, people will start to question whether they can do without the cost and just watch the football in the pub instead.

Whatever happens I think one the main aims of the next TV deal has to be to get a regular highlights package on free to air TV at a sensible time and shown nationally. We need to end this BBC farce where its shown on the M62 only at various times in the middle of the night. We should make them guarantee us that slot after MOTD2 on a Sunday nationally.

BBC paid RU squillions for 30million viewers for 6nations.
3 SL games on FTA a week could easily drawf those figures. Come on RFL get a better deal!

It’ll stop my wife moaning on when her soaps keep getting shifted about for some banal nil –nil bore fest.

So, to me, it's all good.

Think thats how the other TV corporations see us, just a bi product of SKY Sport. Good job we have the World Cup to keep our heads out of the water.

Yes they do.

Sky losing midweek football is not enough on it's own to effect us (a weekend sport) IMO - Be interesting to see how they react though.

The Super League highlights program is on at 1:30pm on a Monday or Tuesday on BBC2, has been all last season, nationally..
Could be better but far improved than the 2am slot it had down here previously

That though is also the position of BT, particularly at this embryonic stage of the channel.. Much depends on how 'big' they view RL as to how much value they are likely to put on the RL viewers and the value of the wider collateral benefits they might bring. To be honest it leaves us in very choppy waters imo.

Sky are moving away from live sport and spending more on original comedy and drama.

The likelihood is that they won't put up too much of a struggle to keep hold of anything other than their crown jewel events (Premier League football and international cricket).

There's certainly no chance they would want to get into a bidding war to keep hold of SL rights if BT Sport did come knocking, so there's little chance of the RFL being able to turn it into an auction to get more money from the highest bidder.