Re: Sky losing interest. : Sat Dec 27, 2014 11:25 am  

William Eve wrote:

Trailing behind Premier League Darts on a Thursday night in terms of viewing figures will soon be as good as it gets for an increasingly marginalised and irrelevant sport.

Flogging exclusive rights of everything (SL, CC, afterthought internationals) to the ghetto of Sky TV from 2017 to 2021 ought to be sufficient enough to consign full time professional RL to several dustbins dotted alongside the M62.

Hopefully, the whole process shouldn't be too painful.

For those with their head in the sand and going " la la la" with fingers in their ears, it won't be painful at all.
Sadly, it was probably the only deal on the table.
Even sadder is that the game has had ample opportunity and finance to market and promote the game but instead most went to the antipodes and the game got a minimal return at best.
The game FAILED to promote itself, and in its current state is going even further to fail.

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:16 pm  

well arent we all full of festive cheer! If I had a pound for everytime Ive heard RL is dying nonsense spouted I'd be able to buy Salford lol.

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:20 pm  

It's that time of year again. Silly season.

It's all the RFL's fault, obviously. Sometimes, a sport gets the success its "fans" deserve.

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sat Dec 27, 2014 7:20 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

It's that time of year again. Silly season.

It's all the RFL's fault, obviously. Sometimes, a sport gets the success its "fans" deserve.

Well all the fans I know deserve better but what we should have is say ITV showing some games that sky don't show and we would get a lot more interest we can live in hope

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 2:56 am  

Getting SL on FTA TV should be one of the big goals of the RFL. As we have seen in union and soccer in Oz, consign yourself to Pay TV and your relevance drops 100%.

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:45 am  

JB Down Under wrote:

Getting SL on FTA TV should be one of the big goals of the RFL. As we have seen in union and soccer in Oz, consign yourself to Pay TV and your relevance drops 100%.

I agree totally, but I wonder what the difference in the bids would be from BBC/ITV compared to Sky's. Would we be able to withstand that difference?

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:07 am  

JB Down Under wrote:

Getting SL on FTA TV should be one of the big goals of the RFL. As we have seen in union and soccer in Oz, consign yourself to Pay TV and your relevance drops 100%.

No FTA broadcaster will pay, or possibly even afford, the money that SL alone would require and the coverage would be minimal at best.

Mo & Ron Ball's game rules most TV in britain, including adverts and news!!!

The game has had opportunities in the past to make great strides, but fear and blinkered attitudes prevented the opportunities to be taken.

Remember that only when 2 massisve Aussie egos went head to head that any "big" money ever flowed into the british game and that was squandered and still is.

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:08 am  

Him wrote:

I agree totally, but I wonder what the difference in the bids would be from BBC/ITV compared to Sky's. Would we be able to withstand that difference?

As other posters have intimated, without exposure on FTA TV, the game is missing out big time.
They may receive more cash via Sky but, the loss in exposure is far greater than the cash reward.
More short term thinking from our governing body ?

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:26 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

As other posters have intimated, without exposure on FTA TV, the game is missing out big time.
They may receive more cash via Sky but, the loss in exposure is far greater than the cash reward.
More short term thinking from our governing body ?

I agree though I have sympathy with the decision to take a higher offer when you have clubs struggling financially.

I have absolutely no idea what the likes of ITV/BBC would be prepared to pay. IIRC the new Sky deal is approx 1.8m per SL club per year. If the ITV/BBC offer wasn't that much less than id bite their hand off to get us on FTA TV.
But, say, if the offer is half of Sky's. Can the game and the club's deal without £8-900k per year of guaranteed income?

Re: Sky losing interest. : Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:53 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote:

As other posters have intimated, without exposure on FTA TV, the game is missing out big time.
They may receive more cash via Sky but, the loss in exposure is far greater than the cash reward.
More short term thinking from our governing body ?

Too late now I'm afraid.

Sky have exclusive rights to the lot from 2017. And they get to choose how much they are going to broadcast.

And we've already seen their attitude towards the CC in the last two seasons where they've purchased rights during the knockout rounds only to then not bother.

May as well kill off the CC after 2017 as nobody will be watching it apart from 50k Moonies on Sky Sports 4 on a Thursday afternoon or evening. And that's assuming Sky even bother with it.

As for internationals? Oh dear.

The sport will get exactly what it deserves for selling its soul for a quick and temporary monetary fix.

There'll be a huge price to be paid for limiting exposure to the ghetto of the handful of Sky subscribers who aren't watching soccer, cricket, union or darts instead.