New deal agreed and signed between SL and SKY. Its good news that a deal has been struck for the sport just not sure of the financials but for me any money currently for the sport is good. Would hope that there is some leeway in the deal to be able sell other games to other platforms once SKY have had their pick of games. The idea of some free to air games is a good idea to be fair to try to expand the audience for both RL and SKY. Not sure of the full affect it will have further down the line in terms of below SL level either. More here and here

New deal agreed and signed between SL and SKY. Its good news that a deal has been struck for the sport just not sure of the financials but for me any money currently for the sport is good. Would hope that there is some leeway in the deal to be able sell other games to other platforms once SKY have had their pick of games. The idea of some free to air games is a good idea to be fair to try to expand the audience for both RL and SKY. Not sure of the full affect it will have further down the line in terms of below SL level either. More here and here

lets hope thursday night games are scrapped.about time too.

Agreed, much preferred the Friday & Saturday night games though. A lot will depend on when SKY televise the roundball games.

I wonder if the 66 games are including the Catalan home games or that figure just relates to the SKY camera games?

Good news but the devil is in the detail, how much money being the big one, but also have the terms about steaming games and giving games SKY don't want to other channels being modernised?

Would love to see a few games on YouTube to bring in a new audience, the OurLeague app has improved but its aimed at existing RL fans not a general audience.

UllFC wrote:Good news but the devil is in the detail, how much money being the big one, but also have the terms about steaming games and giving games SKY don't want to other channels being modernised? Would love to see a few games on YouTube to bring in a new audience, the OurLeague app has improved but its aimed at existing RL fans not a general audience. Interesting bit by Matthew Shaw on his twitter here

UllFC wrote:Good news but the devil is in the detail, how much money being the big one, but also have the terms about steaming games and giving games SKY don't want to other channels being modernised? Would love to see a few games on YouTube to bring in a new audience, the OurLeague app has improved but its aimed at existing RL fans not a general audience. Interesting bit by Matthew Shaw on his twitter here

Chris71 wrote:Interesting bit by Matthew Shaw on his twitter here If that's the case, then the Championship needs to be allowed freedom to sort its own deal out, the problem at the moment is SKY hold the rights but then only want to show the Big Bash and Playoffs. While the TV money won't be huge, someone like Premier Sports may want to show a game a week to fill their schedules up.

Chris71 wrote:Interesting bit by Matthew Shaw on his twitter here If that's the case, then the Championship needs to be allowed freedom to sort its own deal out, the problem at the moment is SKY hold the rights but then only want to show the Big Bash and Playoffs. While the TV money won't be huge, someone like Premier Sports may want to show a game a week to fill their schedules up.

Also just seen that the Premier League are considering scrapping the next round of bidding and just extending their deals with SKY, BT and Amazon as its believed the market has peaked and well the world is in a mess right now. So not only RL having this issue.

Indeed, on the face of it whilst it may not seem a great deal in terms on money due to a reduced amount in the current climate I would say that a % of something is far better than a % of nothing.

I also think the ever changing landscape of how people view TV with new streaming sites appearing more and more hopefully means the sport in general as well as SL are able to have some freedom to explore this as well which appears may well be the case. If so then RL could end up doing better than the old SKY deal as long as they can promote sell the sport to a wider and audience etc.

despite all the new ways to watch,youtube,streaming.the long term aim must be to get more people through the turnstiles.you cant beat being live at a ground.

Obviously completely agree with that but the problem is I think that the continued periods of lock down and sport behind closed doors has changed a lot of fringe supporters feelings about attending games and many sports are starting to feel that a mixture of the hardened fans in ground and live streaming or broadcasting etc of all games for the rest, as with the NFL and the NRL is the way forward for sustainability or at least like with this deal they are keeping their options open to see what happens after things have settled down after the pandemic..