The capital not doing to much recently but was working as temp laborer and telephone market researcher in Melbourne no consistent hours so decided to come back to my home town.

Interesting article by Ian Lenagan in League Express regretting having voted for it. Saying that it is ridiculous to sign for something occurring in the future and no one else bidding for it. Seems like the SL clubs had a gun held to their heads and 24 hours to decide!

I agree with him. That contract for the short term is fine but there are more players coming into the market now and they should have spoken to BT months ago to see what their position was in anticipation of the new negotiations coming up to strengthen their bargaining capability. People who say Sky aren't bothered about RL are wrong. They just want to screw us for the minimum amount Giving us 24hrs to decide means Sky knew BT would give us a better deal IMO. Ex News of World reporters would have found out for them.

8 Years contract! was completely wrong, it is a superb article written by Ian Lenagan, typical just allowing clubs 24 hours to give it consideration. It also is annoying the way Premier Sports was treated, never given a chance to compete, in fact it was never put out to tender, so BT was never given a chance.

Premier were making plans to go forward with Rugby League, and just to get a call saying this is your last season, so you can't blame they saying, then we will leave it at that and forget about the new season, this is after Premier pulled everything out for The RFL with the World Cup coverage.

As I said when the agreement with Sky was announced, The RFL are quite cleaver and like politicians, and only give headline titbits to their advantage, never tell us straight.

Rubbish he's just upset as he lost the war with the RFL. It's a massive deal, the market is good at the moment in terms of competition and may just as easily go down again in 2 years time.

They've got a massive increase and don't owe Premier Sports anything. They didn't pay a penny to show live RL.

I love the way RL fans turn this excellent deal into a negative within days.

Quote: Paddock Punter "Interesting article by Ian Lenagan in League Express regretting having voted for it. Saying that it is ridiculous to sign for something occurring in the future and no one else bidding for it. Seems like the SL clubs had a gun held to their heads and 24 hours to decide!'" Yes, some interesting points raised by Mr. Lenegan www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26023136

Quote: Paddock Punter "Interesting article by Ian Lenagan in League Express regretting having voted for it. Saying that it is ridiculous to sign for something occurring in the future and no one else bidding for it. Seems like the SL clubs had a gun held to their heads and 24 hours to decide!'" Yes, some interesting points raised by Mr. Lenegan www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26023136

To55er blaming the "lesser" clubs for his decision was how I read it.

Distancing himself, thats all he is doing.

Think he has some valid points.

So why'd he vote for it then? Sounds like a man hedging his bets to me.

"Err I didn't want to m'Lud, but I were forced inta it, 'onest I was, I'm an innocent man and wouldna dunnit if it weren't for t'others".

Premier are not in a position to match the Sky money, BT weren't interested, Sky's increase was dependent on longivity, so it was given.

It would seem that BT never had a chance to be interested

Errr, so I am to believe that BT Sport, are completely unaware of how TV Rights for sports/Events work, I don't think so!

I think you'll find these TV companies are multi-million pound corparations who employ the right people, these people are fully aware that they need to "lobby" those Organisations they wish to be involved with, they do not sit on their backsides waiting for existing contracts to end.

If BT were interested they would have signalled their interest by now.

Good call Pete

Do people think BT are dumb and only think about today. Sky played a cute game and got what they wanted before BT got close to Big Nige and the scouse get.

The TV contract was not put out to tender to anyone, and it was not due for renewal, be interesting what the increased sum is worth by the time the end of the contract comes around, Sky don't give money away.

Dr Koukash last night said he was most concerned as well at the deal, but the short notice gives by The RFL for the clubs to make a decision seems a tactic! just to push it through.

Why would you bother if no-one else is signalling an interest and Sky are already ramping up the existing deal?

Sky have been rattled by BT Sport so they've moved early to wrap up some of their assets, Rugby League being just one of the contracts they announced last week. They put a deal to the RFL, a deal that gives the RFL enough money to fund the new 2x12/3x8 nonsense and the RFL took it. They then gave the clubs just 24 hours notice and just 2 hours to examine the deal before voting on it.

It works for Sky as they get to shut BT out, and it works for the RFL as it funds their new format and thus secures Wood and Rimmer the support of a few more small clubs.

Is it the best deal for SL? We'll probably never know, but signing away TV rights for 8 years must be a worry. And it also includes international fixtures post 2017, so we'll lose much-needed exposure on terrestrial TV.