Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:50 pm  

I fully sympatise with people on this, as I'm in a similar position, but I don't know why anyone is surprised that SKY are chopping and changing the fixtures at a whim : something they will continue to do throughout the season, and not just beforehand.

They are in the business of putting people behind TV sets, not filling the HJ. In fact you could argue that they don't want people to change from being armchair viewers to paying speccies, because those who go to watch the live game and love it are people who might then cancel or review their subscription.

Empty stadia might not look ideal on TV but thousands of extra subscriptions, viewers and the associated advertising revenue lines greedy pockets.

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 1:13 pm  

Am I reading this right...

Catalan away, Friday 1 August 2014?

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 1:16 pm  

Peckerwood wrote:

Am I reading this right...

Catalan away, Friday 1 August 2014?

You are, Sky covering the game according to the fixture list on our site. 9pm CET !!

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 2:13 pm  

Wouldn't surprise me that Sky are doing this as a backlash to Premier Sports and the World Cup.

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 2:48 pm  

matt king's cat wrote:

You are, Sky covering the game according to the fixture list on our site. 9pm CET !!

Probably the best kick-off time considering the time of year and the likely temperature. Late finish, straight back to the Irish bar for celebratory sherberts

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 3:02 pm  

My main concern is the tough games just before the play off. There is the Challenge Cup Final (???) then Huddersfield, St Helens and Wigan. This is quite a run of big games and definitely not ideal.

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 3:05 pm  

Duffman wrote:

Probably the best kick-off time considering the time of year and the likely temperature. Late finish, straight back to the Irish bar for celebratory sherberts

Duffman Just PM you, do you want to check and get back to me.

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:33 pm  

Works fine in soccer when fans have much further to travel, bar the odd 'ex pat' driving to Wigan on a Thursday really isn't an issue, plus fixtures have been announced early enough to put in annual leave requests if you really want to be able to drink etc.

I seem to remember hearing all this a couple of years ago when we started with Monday night football however it didn't cause an issue. For many people Saturdays are a problem, especially in the summer when there are various other social engagements.

Maybe I am just used to it with going to a lot of Championship games though.

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:19 pm  

Sky have 4 utility sport channels to fill with product.

They have no (and never had) Europa League football games
They only show stuff like snooker and darts on a Thursday, and that's only in the "winter" months, just leaving live horse racing for summer. They have to fill their schedules with some live sport, or they'll end up looking like BT Sport does now, with very little UK based live sport, just imported stuff, padding out their schedules. So guess what, RL has to move. Given that SL is a highly watched product on their sports channels, it was only a matter of time before it happened. Punters are spending lots of money for Sky subscription. They're going to get peed off, if there's no live sport for them to watch on certain days. I'm surprised it's took them so long to go to change RL to Thursdays.

Without me bigging up Sky too much, we (as a sport) would be a lot poorer but for their injection of cash for the 1996 season, and every season since.
We wouldn't have been able to afford Langer, King, Morley, Briers etc. Most clubs would still be in "ramshackle" stadia IF (and it's a BIG IF) they'd survived some very bleak times.
Don't forget, Bradford are still on very dodgy ground despite nearly 20 years of Sky's money, and all the money generated by Bullmania

Yes, Sky may hack us off with their changing of live fixture days, but without their cash, our game would have been lost (to a large extent).

Re: 2014 fixtures : Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:28 pm  

Looking at the fixtures, Sky really have "nailed their colours to the mast".
In the past, they've only named the first 3 months schedules, yet they've named fixtures up to the final weekly round. Brave call.