Nothus wrote:Lots of fans are moaning about these kick off times (not just ours) and I can understand to a certain extent, but it's pretty clear to me what the Championship clubs and the RFL are trying to do here.
You need to remember that when the next TV deal is negotiated, there is a very strong possibility that the central funding allocated to the lower leagues is going to be decimated. I believe the Championship will also have the option of trying to secure their own, separate TV deal from that of Super League.
With that in mind I think we would be in a much better position going into those inevitable negotiations with broadcasters if we can point to real, factual numbers of registered interest and viewing figures of matches. So it makes tons of sense to me for the RFL and the Championship to really push these OurLeague broadcasts as much as they can now. Get the numbers up, get the fans involved so that we are in the best position possible to really sell our sport (and division) when the time comes.
The Bulls pretty much came out and said as much in their press statement about the fixture changes the other day. If you haven't registered on OurLeague yet then do it, now, and make sure you flag yourself up as a Bulls supporter when you do. The mobile app is also completely free and works surprisingly well. The commentary last season was arguably better than what Sky were serving up for the SL games.
This!!!!! For once the RFL seem to be proactive. The way we consume sport is changing. It's no good the RFL rocking up to the party when everyone's on-board the streaming wagon and hurriedly trying to market an app. They will be gathering the data of what does and doesn't work (e.g kick-off times etc) even Amazon with all their billions of pounds and premier league facilities had some issues. They will eventually try and charge for the app once they have more knowledge of what works and doesn't and ironed out any issues, or as you say Nothus, been able to go to broadcasters with actual numbers and data.
As you say Nothus, if Elstone doesn't pull a TV deal out of the bag, the championship will get no funding. I don't want to sound like Chalmers (I'm certainly not anti-SL and fully understand that's the primary comp that attracts the money) but for a sport that doesn't have a lot of money, we've got someone who's earning Marquee player money and I don't see how we're getting value for money.
If you look at Elstones reign, he started off badly by causing a divide instantly when he announced the super 8s were going without the sport meeting about it. He had a PR disaster by criticising Wayne Bennett on the day we were promoting the international game. The attendances seems to have gone down despite a bitter structure change being rushed through. The second lowest attended magic weekend? How are we supposed to be confident he can get a good TV deal? These are issues the RL media should be challenging but unfortunately there's too many who appear on each others podcasts and seem frightened to ask tough questions that need asking in a crucial time for the sport. Chalmers contributed to that mess by trading petty personal insults that it made it almost impossible to challenge Elstone as it felt you were siding with motor mouth Chalmers. Elstone has to get this right(and I hope to go he does otherwise the sport is in trouble) but alarm bells should be ringing from the above I've mentioned.
