We need to get SL onto FTA TV at a reasonable time. As good as Sky has been for the game, until we get season long SL on national free to air TV on a Friday or Sunday night then RL will never be seen by the masses.
When Premier League football isnt on FTA TV in the UK I think you have more chance of Pi$$ing in the queens handbag than seeing SL on terrestrial TV in the UK.
I think that RL fans are more likely to also follow football and be general sports fans than the other way round. I tend to find that football fans are very insular when it comes to sport and don't want to be interested in anything else, especially here in Liverpool and I would guess that it would be the same in Birmingham , London, Manchester etc.
I used to be really into football but now I generally can't be bothered with it, as I became fed up with the saturation coverage that the sport gets in the media, the ridiculous salaries that players earn and how cynical, negative tactics have become the norm. I also don't like you are expected to be a football fan and seemingly aren't allowed to be a fan of anything else. Whilst working in Liverpool I have always been seen as the weird one for preferring rugby to football and there have been a few times when my Hull KR shirts have been mistaken for Liverpool ones :?.
Here the thought that anyone can follow anything other than football just doesn't compute and trying to persuade anyone I know to go to an RL match would be virtually impossible, and even if I managed to they would probably resist any attempt to like it.