All true, particularly the last bit - if you've got falling attendances then making the games more difficult to get to (by playing Thursday night) isn't the solution! It is all very well saying that we need the TV money but we also need money from fans coming through the gate - most SL clubs are far more dependent on attendances than say a PL football club.

The Middle 8s at least made things interesting for the lower half of the SL.

You are correct, but I only raise it as many seem to think there was a 'golden age' of the champions being decided by their final position in the table, and that it is Sky who have foisted play-offs onto us as the price of the TV money.

Immediately Pre Super League it was a standard league system and premiership trophy, so Sky did foist play-offs as the price of TV money.

The RFL is very worried about the next TV deal in 2021. With dwindling viewing figures and attendances the RFL have to act quicky to turn around fortunes. Sky has already bumped SL onto its lesser channel platforms. I think the days of £200M deals * may be in jeopardy.

*www.totalrl.com/ins-outs-super-leagues-lucrative-new-tv-deal/

Don't think that I implied anything as such. In fact, I don't think NFU/RL/Superleague has ever had one, just one struggle after another to survive as long as it has.
I'm not a fan of playoffs deciding who are champions, regardless of Sky's involvement, or when they started, finished, or started again.

Too many fixtures, what's wrong with playing everyone home and away just once? 22 rounds is enough!
Could mean fewer but more intense games, quality over quantity.
A shorter comp also means league positions can change more easily which adds to the interest each week, the qualifiers is a good example of this.

I don't think Sky would accept the drop in output (30 games -> 22) unless we introduce a weekly bye for teams.

If you think of it from Sky's perspective they want games that will either support subscriptions or drive advertising revenue and that is all about viewing figures. They also need to fill broadcast space on their channels.

So Sky want more Wigan vs Saints games (for example) and less Huddersfield vs Salford. That is why the playoffs exist to add more of the "big" games.