The quoted viewing figure for MPG what did sky expect? What was the target? Might have been acceptable for them. As for the union getting higher figures, so what? Union has a bigger worldwide audience that’s what you would expect.
Sky want subscribers, they don’t care how many go through the turnstiles.

1. Sky get between 90k and 170k for regular sl games and then another 50k or so for Catalans games that they pick up. 50k people tuning in to watch the game that decides who is in the top tier the following year and who isn't would be expected to attract most of the 170k who tune into a regular game.......not forgetting that 360,000 watch the Grand Final.
2. South Africa playing Australia on SKY TV might be of interest to ANZACS and South Africans, but a domestic Union club game with nothing on the line other than points drew 3 times that audience.......nothing to do with "global" reach......Leicester v Exeter or Northampton v Quins was getting 30k when SKY showed the Aviva......that game got 157,000........domestic UK VIEWERS!
3. Nope. SKY want to sell advertisers airtime. They do this mainly through their Soccer football but have picked up other sports along the way...darts regularly out ranks us now...the MPG got 5k more than WWE at Midnight! They pay what they now apparently consider too much for our sport but in return they get TOTAL control of it......the MPG is a flop both as an event and as an attractive TV event.....Man City won the EPL with 5 weeks to spare....is Murdoch demanding they have a play-off system?

You are ranting again Dog!
Mpg is a flop in your opinion. It creates discussion in the press, it creates interest in the game.
Darts out rank us, let’s hope Barry Hearn gets involved with RL then.
Not sure if you noticed apart from CC RL is not shown on terrestrial TV.
Football does have a play off system for promotion.
As for league winners, football already have the audience, RL does not hence why the GF is better for our game in my opinion.

But dog, it’s getting dull now.
You have your opinion I have mine. Neither of us can change it so how about leaving it at that!

Not a chance. If you're tired of the debate then fine, don't bother but when you repeatedly spout opinion in the face of facts I'll respond!

1. It is a flop in terms of TV viewers and attendances...that's not an opinion, it's a reality. As for interest in the press, if it does, then why are we looking at fewer fans and even fewer viewers than for a regular season game?
2. Darts out ranking us is not a reason to get Hearn involved, but it is an underlining of the reality of where we currently sit.
3. So you didn't watch any of the England RL games on the BBC then? Nationally, RL at club level get's more FTA coverage than union....but that may change depending on how the C5 experiment goes.
4. Well spotted. Their system is viable because the best they have already replaced the 3 weakest sides in the top tier with the best 2 sides and then the best of the next four......SL doesn't have the system to remove the weakest automatically so it becomes more of a lottery, but again, 50k viewers and 7k fans isn't good.
5. Football is the national sport........ the SL Grand Final attracts 360,000 fans to tune in, so the question is why don't more than 13% of them bother with the MPG.....is that not proof that the MPG is of little interest to anyone other than fans of the 2 sides involved and the hard core RL enthusiasts?

The "sky won't let us" argument is a red herring thrown up by SL clubs jockeying for positions of power. Sure sky could say that's not what we paid for, so the RFL could invite other bidders to come in and replace them....SKY own the broadcast rights, not the sport itself....they can argue that they want the MPG but I suspect any legal eagle and a sport with backbone would tell SKY that they own the rights to broadcast games, not the structure of the sport.....but in doing so, the SL chairman would have to risk something other than just playing it safe.

I say again
But dog, it’s getting dull now.
You have your opinion I have mine. Neither of us can change it so how about leaving it at that!