www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/29 ... st-utility

www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/29 ... st-utility

Whatever you do, don't mention the legacy!

Just 65000 watched prem rugby? With the most popular team, Leicester playing away from home? Say it ain't so!

BT are definitely getting their money's worth there!!

Although there's no issue with banging the drum and it's right to mention the Sky viewing figures, it's utter nonsense to compare this to a new TV outfit (BT) who are just starting to attract subscribers.

Excellent numbers on Sky though

It does point out the benefit of being on a much wider viewing platform though. There are 6/7million people with sky sports, 2m with BT sports.



I think we can all guess where this thread will end up though, with a spreadsheet and a complaint that the RFL didn’t issue the same press release when some game is 3.1% down on last years viewing figures.

How dare the RFL produce a press release that shows something good has happened!

I've not been his biggest fan, but I'd like to think big Nigel ran IL personally to hear his thoughts on this!

I think the RFL are unsubtly making a very clear point to both sponsors and supports, given the amount of complaints there has been amongst the RL community that the RL didn't look to BT Sport as an option....



Good work by the RFL - need to get this message through to as many journos and potential sponsors as possible. It's all about slowly changing perceptions.

Of course it is! BT have just paid a £1 billion for CL rights. They need to claw their money back and with viewing figures of 65k for an English prem rugby match, will it will be difficult to do! Will they really get that many more viewers for PSG v.s Galatasaray for example? If not they may not have been able to bid a large amount when our contract came up for renewal.



Outstanding viewing figures and this is why going wit SKY is such a better deal. It's not just about the £££'s (although I still don't think BT would have bid as much as SKY just have). But it's about marketing and exposing the game. On Friday SKY went around all SL clubs interviewing and marketed Fridays game superbly, hence why we got outstanding viewing figures.

BT aren't really in a position to do this and I never see any marketing for union premiership games ( I couldn't tell you which union games are on BT this week)



Everyone should be proud of these figures! Well done RFL. I like Koukash and have a lot of respect for IL, but I think they were wrong wen saying we should have waited for BT IMHO

I am sure you don't understand what Koukash and Lenagan are complaining about.



IL response would be "so why have you secured such a small amount of money for the main league sponsorship when we are getting viewing figures that smash rugby union? Obviously we are a main attraction from sky sports, so why panic and accept the first offer? Clearly it is a sellers market at the moment why didn't we wait and capitalise on it? Have you just used the new deal to fund the new league structure, so if it falls flat on its face we still have money? and not actually had any forward thinking."



and the Nigel would stutter and say well i am still in charge here is a 3000pound fine.

By the way they are fantastic figures and it just shows it may be a game from up north but people still love it.

And on that point I completely agree with them! The sponsorship of our great sport is continually undersold. If wire can get Emirates on board anything is possible.

I don't agree with them that the tv deal isn't brilliant though