Depend if you like CSI i suppose :lol:

ideally the EU would tell us to split the TV rights into 'packages' with no single broadcaster able to buy all of them like they did with the premiership football

something like this

package 1 - friday nights (inc easter schedule ie thursday night,good friday,easter monday)

package 2 - saturday evenings

package 3 - sunday afternoons

package 4 - magic weekend

package 5 - highlights show


so then sky could by packages 1,2 & 4...which is pretty much what they show anyway...and the BBC could have package 3 & 5, this could form a 'full' super league show including a full game plus highlights of every SL game that weekend

Five appear to be cutting down on sports coverage outside of football, as are ITV it seems.

A national TV ad campaign would, I imagine, be far, far too expensive.

Why would the EU ask us to split our rights up when no other sport outside of Premier League football is forced to? And, such a move would cut down the amount paid by BSkyB to the RFL with losing the exclusive rights.

ITV can't get live football right. What on earth makes people think that they can get live RL right?

RL, unfortunately doesn't have a big enough appeal to be commercially viable to a terrestrial, commercial broadcaster. ITV, C4 or C5 aren't interested.

well the reality is the EU would'nt...but theres nothing stopping the RFL splitting the tv rights into 'packages'..

though i don't see how it's any different to what the EU did to football, they concluded that to watch EPL you had to have sky, the EU deemed that a monoply......to watch super league you have to have sky...why is it any different?




half full,half empty question....

do we lose money cos of a loss of exclusivity or make money cos we have more people watching our game (charge more for sponsors,advertising etc cos ,roughly, 3 times as many people watch RL games when on the bbc than on sky)

do BSKYB still own a major shareholding in Channel 5? That would be the ideal fit for a proper highlights programme, they dont have much else on either so should get a proper primetime slot for it - and as they are a commercial broadcaster they couldnt get away with the bilge that the BBC serve up.

IIRC, it was mainly down to the actual amount of money involved in football broadcasting which, by and large, excluded any other broadcaster from realistically being able to screen Premier League football. That isn't necessarily the case with RL (or any other sport).

they did have a stake in C5....not sure of they still do?





however...............sky do have a 18% stake in ITV..

ITV are a mess, and this means they have even pulled out CH4's horse racing funding, so i doubt League would even get a look in there. Channel 5 should make league its number one sport and advertise it widely, just as CH4 did to guge success with American Football a few years ago.
Im writing a letter.

Can it? Of course – it can split the TV rights anyway it wants, if it can find a buyer.

Hoever, in 14 years, exactly two companies have shown any interest in bidding for those rights:

Sky – who are only interested in exclusive live rights to SL, and internationals, and CC highlights
BBC – who are only interested in highlights rights to SL, live rights to the CC and internationals.

The only competition there's been at all is for internationals – where both Sky and BBC would like the live rights.

I'd love to think we could get into a state where other terrestrial TV channels are interested in league games. Unfortunately, there's no evidence at all of it.

The only time's 'other channels' have been interested in Setanta outbidding Sky for NRL rights and Eurosport showing an interest in broadcasting NL games (as were) as long as the RFL paid them to do it. On the back of that, Sky suddenly got interested again in NL/Championship games – without demanding a fee from us.