They also have a pretty good streaming service for catch up. 4 is actually a really good medium for us I think.
It'll be important to get those games right so they come back for more.

If I was the RFL I would subsidise them and get the place packed with cheaper tickets

Couldn't agree more. I hate subsidised tickets but for ten games a season to make our game look more dynamic I'd do it.

£10 refund to all ST holders for that game and £10 tickets for the rest. The RFL to pick up the tab with the club, say 70/30 in the club's favour.

Just for year one, not forever.

Channel 4 always try forward thinking ideas , the recent Paralympics been a success over the past 9 years. Also they introduced us to Serie A football in the 90s, up until then I had only heard of Lazio because Gazza had played for them. They don`t seemed phased to introduce new programmes , so hopefully this might push Rugby League in to the public eye.

They like their "firsts" don't they?
First channel to broadcast overnight too.
Another plus is that the new Channel 4 HQ is in Dirty Leeds - can only be a help as far as I can see......

Wire v Trinity, March 19, is on C4

Are the games on the Main Channel 4 or one of their lesser channels?

Don’t think so, think it’s on the main one. But they are all free to air so it would be available to all but clearly not as obvious.

RFL? The deal's with Super League so promoting games probably sits with individual clubs.

Could be great for us this one, lets hope Adam Hills promotes the game in the usual manner using his profile (although the game took a bit of ribbing on The Last Leg Tonight).

Good news for the game this, their cricket and rugby union coverage were much better than the same games on the BBC.

Well I think we are in for a treat having just watched a bit of channel 4s coverage of harlequins v Cardiff reds ,when the viewing public get to see rugby played how it should be it’s going to knock the socks of people watching for the first time compared to the stop/start /kick game I just watched

I quite enjoyed the game to be honest but I did think the coverage was good and like the idea of C4 covering rugby league.

RU has come a long way but I think it’s gone as far as it can mow in terms of a spectator sport.

Problem is it really needs to replace the mauling and the line our. It could also do with reducing the number of players on each side. That of course is impossible because it would then be RL.

I’m hoping this year for a fairly balanced league. Saints will be a cut above but not unbeatable with the normal suspects chasing them.

I can’t see an obvious whipping boy with probably places 12 - 4 pretty much up for grabs in almost any combination.

I see Saints, Catalan and Warrington as the main contenders.

That hopefully will look good on C4, tight leagues usually do. Fingers crossed.

I can't watch Oonion as I find it too frustrating for the same reasons as you 1315, the so-called technical infringements are just too baffling to understand as you can get 2 identical rucks (or are they mauls ?? ), and one team will get penalised in the first one and the other will get penalised in the second and don't get me started on "phases" when they have 23 of them to end up 2 yards further back from where they started and then just kick the ball into touch

Clearly I'm a league man and have sent many days converting my union friends but I played Union for a long time and can appreciate the game, especially the forwards.
There is a lot to learn in rugby league from union.

Those phases are all about forcing a mistake. They are not trying to get yards, they are trying to commit players to the ruck so that there is a space elsewhere.
A good scrum half will know when the time is right to move it.

No different to a league prop running it down the middle at waiting tackles. He isn't making yards he's trying to tie them in and get a quick ptb so there are gaps elsewhere.

The game is too complex in some ways as, like you say, they can have a penalty for anything, but equally they don't fuss with technicalities that we do. A knock on in league is judged to a nanometre. They judge it in metres to just let the game flow.

Union supporters think league is stop start because of all the play the balls. In union, the forward play is slower but they don't actually stop the game to recycle the ball.
It's what you get used to.