Gutterfax accusing other people of 'playing down the sport' - oh the irony.

How so?

I ing love RL! Just because I criticise its running doesn't make me a hater.......or a unionite.

When was my last post criticising the general play or rules of the game?

How so?

I ing love RL! Just because I criticise its running doesn't make me a hater.......or a unionite.

When was my last post criticising the general play or rules of the game?

Satellite Pay TV is a dying model.



I can see within 10-15 years that RL will have its own online subscription service, ideally globally. A million people+ paying $3-20 a week for 30+ games of RL from competitions in France, USA, Oz, PNG, NZ and England, Internationals and SOO. Hopefully money is pooled and spread to grow the game around the world.



The technology is pretty much there now, just needs some initiative and entrepreneur to bring it all together.

You wouldn’t get a million people paying £10 a week to watch 30 games of RL. But even if you did, what would you do about the 7billion people in the world? RL would just drop off the radar no new fans would be brought in by TV viewing the visibility of the game would disappear.



From a business point of view, companies aren’t going to invest like that. Its too risky. They cant subsidise their less successful programming with the more successful programming because if it is individualised people wouldn’t bother with the less successful content, there would be no lead-in programming. Also they just wouldn’t bother with new content. How/why would people bother with new content if they are having to pay for it. It could be rubbish, it could be great but an individual isn’t going to risk their own money finding that out.



Bundling works because it gives a wider selection to the consumer, generally for a cheaper price than it would to buy everything individually, and it is more secure and stable for networks to programme in that way.

Satellite pay tv will evolve it won't die



how many causual fans would watch it? Frank warren had a similar idea with boxnation and that channel is struggling to survive and hoping for bt to buy it.



As good a a purely rugby subscription channel would be it would struggle to attract new subscribers, the clubs wouldn't get as much tv money so they'd struggle to survive as well.

The trade-off come the next TV deal will be who is offering the most cash against the size of their subscriber base.



BT Sport seems to have a very "winter heavy" portfolio at the moment, focussing on Premier League football and top flight domestic rugby union. I'll be interested to see what it intends to fill its summers with and what kind of subscriber numbers it pulls in compared to say Sky.

You are essentially creating a catch 22 situation- if they keep the traditional Saturday afternoon slot it shows a disregard for RL yet if we move to a different time we are being 'bounced around'. For me Saturday 1745 KOs can be assigned to the history books, poor timing for TV audiences. Whilst they are a pain to get to, I love watching Sunday evening games.

I don't see Sky wanting to lose Super League, given that we provide them their second biggest ratings after Premier League. The biggest question is why we have never pushed them for a deal as big as we deserve.



In terms of BT, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. I'll leave it at that.

Sky used to show premier league football on a some saturday evenings before didn't they? before setanta got the rights i think



sky still showed super league along side premier league then so will be interesting to see what happens

Anyone think that RL could get bumped into the 12:45 slot on Sky??

Hope so, I quite like this KO time. However, would the logistics work after a Friday night game? I have no clue how the turnaround works between games?