Sky started showing them because the RFL negotiated it as part of the SKY SL deal.

Otherwise they'd have have had no interest, but the Championship fans won't tell you this.

I remember reading a few years back another station wanted to show some games, sky then came to the party and started showing a live game on Thursdays because they had the rights.

Eurosport were willing to show it if the RFL paid to have the show made, in reality, no chance. Thursday nights was negotiated into the 08/09 tv deal i think.

:6z3ymof3 covering one game from each division , meaning that all clubs get featured during the season at home on a day when they can make best use of that coverage

Showing any live RL has got to be good hasnt it.

The Thursday night games seem to have considerably higher crowds and would CO OP have sponsored the comp without the coverage on SKY

Has it ? , why how do the clubs benifit ?



Do they ? , not if you take away the 200 family tickets the clubs are obliged to give out



Possibly not , but how much is that sponsorship worth ?

What you hope is that the impressive ratings for the Championship thus far allow a better hand at the next negotiating table. One week recently the Championship outrated the Guiness Premiership.

No, it isn't going to get a multi million pound deal but from small seeds grow bigger plants

The point of this subject is that if you are going to give up the ' live ' aspect of your sport , there must be some financial recompense , if there is not then you dont give it up , if as in Internationals you are able to sell over 75 % of your venues then it doesn't matter , the regular season matches should not be televised live

I would suggest that a magazine programme on a monday night showcasing 2 matches would pull in ratings just as good as a live thursday night game , it would have less impact on attendances , would show the championships in a better light as there would be more travelling support and also give a better fairer spread of coverage

Not a bad call actually, I quite like that.

Let's get the RFL lobbying Sky, it would be a tonic for the Championship 1 teams in terms of publicity and national exposure. With teams from Gateshead, London and South Wales it would probably also help de-bunk the myth or RL being just a northern game.

to put on a better matchday experience that when carfully edited and then broadcast a day later could help them in attracting new support , a thursday match in most cases kills away support giving a low key atmosphere to some games , you also get situations like last thursday when a combination of bad weather and poor lighting makes the game seem dour and dark , when ' derby ' matches are featured attendanices generally suffer as many ' big game ' home and away fans will either stay at home or go to the pub to watch instead of attending



Plus good editing can make most games seem exciting , even low scoring or one sided games , football only gave up live matches for serious money , and even now there is more recorded coverage of the lower leagues than live



For play off or knock out games then live is the best option , regular season needs more coverage without affecting paying fans