It was in league express not long after MSK started broadcasting that it would eventually be a subscription channel.

I was hoping that it would be after the playoffs but no such luck!!!!

well that channel wont last long then will it!!

It was always going to be subscription, minority channels cannot survive on advertising alone, even ITV struggles to make a profit. The adverts on MSK have mainly been government backed safety warning so they won't have got much from that.

Instead of wishing its doom, we should be praising them for actually showing RL, we all moan enough about the lack of TV exposure. Despite the success of SL, Sky showed no desire to show NRL on a weekly basis and was it just a coincidence that Sky started showing a weekly NRL review as soon as MSK started.

If it doesn't succeed as a subscription service, then its more likely it will fold rather than return to FTA - it must already have been running at a loss, its not cheap to broadcast a channel and also pay Sky to use its encryption and epg.

Sky at least do have the NRL GF. Pity they didn't get the rest of the playoffs.

Mine has just scrambled, can't see too many paying for it. Gutted because I was just getting into Gaelic Football but NRL won't be a problem.

At about 50p a game for the NRL I will be subscribing I think it is a bargain given what I pay to watch mainly second rate rugby programs on Sky.

Not as good as free but more than happy to sacrifice a 6 pack a month if times get tight to watch the best rugby on the planet.

When you put it that way it really does look like a bargain.

I sacrificed my 6 pack many years ago lol, if I had no other way of watching NRL I'd probably get it but my Sky bill has gradually crept up and up and I need to draw the line somewhere.

It does have a way of doing that doesn't it, slyly creeping up. To be honest I am considering scrapping my Sky Sports package apart from Sky Sports 1 and subscribing to MSK as its generally only the second rate games that are not on Sky Sports 1.

I heard a few weeks back that Sky plan to put Sky Sports 1 & 2 on Freeview as a Top-Up option.

yeah the annoying thing is you used to be able to get SS1 and 3 and they only ever had rugby on those two channels, then they started gradually putting them on 2 from time to time and now apart from the big games its pretty much a lottery especially when Guinness Premiership season starts when they'll have some crap rah rah game on SS1 on a Friday night. I think our Magic Weekend game was on SS4 which you can only get when you have both SS1 and 2. It wouldn't annoy me as much if they had a decent Rugby programme on like the footy show in Aus but since Boots n All became two programmes it just seems even more rushed for some reason. I also hate the fact that they choose games like Harlequins v Crusaders all the time, there was a long period where most of the games seemed uninspiring. They didn't even show Saints home game v Wire this year for some strange reason, I know they have to show so many games for each team but surely that'd have been near top of the list for a 'must show' game beforehand?