Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:36 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

Well, fair enough, that's pretty funny Roger, but the reality is there aren't any other birds willing to sleep with the RFL.

The only options are well known broadcasters, so hardly hiding and waiting to be discovered by the RFL. The sale of broadcasting rights is a public auction and the others haven't made any successful bids as yet. The good doctor's idea is fine - maybe he should tell us who he has in mind?

I get what you're saying, but I think he was on about accepting on Sky's terms so quickly and the deal was for too long. Without checking I think the deal was for 6 or 7 year. Yes that's a bit of long term security but I'm sure if it was a 3 year deal Sky would of been offering another one in 3 years time. I think the Dr was saying it should be worth more money, not just accept it so quickly

I trust Marwan as a good businessman before anybody from the RFL. Look what a great deal they got for championship clubs

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:59 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

Well, fair enough, that's pretty funny Roger, but the reality is there aren't any other birds willing to sleep with the RFL.

The only options are well known broadcasters, so hardly hiding and waiting to be discovered by the RFL. The sale of broadcasting rights is a public auction and the others haven't made any successful bids as yet. The good doctor's idea is fine - maybe he should tell us who he has in mind?

I'm pretty sure the last time the Sky deal was up for renewal, the RFL never even bothered to speak to any other potential bidders.
I mean, why not at least offer it to the likes of BT/Premier etc. and see what they have to say?

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:22 pm  

Nothus wrote:

I'm pretty sure the last time the Sky deal was up for renewal, the RFL never even bothered to speak to any other potential bidders.
I mean, why not at least offer it to the likes of BT/Premier etc. and see what they have to say?

Shortly after the deal was announced, Premier Sports came out and said that they weren't even consulted or given a chance to bid. They were so vexed by it, they stopped bothering to cover the Championship which they still had rights for, since they were doing that at no profit in order to build their coverage for the future (or words to that effect). Once that future no longer existed through no fault of their own, they saw no point showing the Championship any more.

They probably wouldn't have competed with Sky. But to not even be given the chance after a couple of years of showing Championship rugby every week (god would we all love that back!), that was pretty shoddy treatment from the RFL.

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:41 pm  

If the Championship and lower leagues had some sort of TV deal, they could at least make some additional revenue from advertising.

Given the lack of monies in the game and the issues that have affected several clubs, then the RFL need to held to some account for being at least partially responsible for that

[Bulliac]

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:23 pm  

roofaldo2 wrote:

If the Championship and lower leagues had some sort of TV deal, they could at least make some additional revenue from advertising.

Given the lack of monies in the game and the issues that have affected several clubs, then the RFL need to held to some account for being at least partially responsible for that

I think the idea of championship clubs having their own deal is one way round, but BT have never given any impression of being interested though Premier could beI guess.
In terms of a SL deal I doubt very much that Premier have the clout to outbid Sky and, as before, BT don't seem interested.

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:57 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

I think the idea of championship clubs having their own deal is one way round, but BT have never given any impression of being interested though Premier could beI guess.
In terms of a SL deal I doubt very much that Premier have the clout to outbid Sky and, as before, BT don't seem interested.

Whilst I agree with most of that, what I don't understand is why the RFL couldn't hammer out a deal with Premier.

Sure, during the negotiations, it will have been made difficult by the Super 8s. If Sky have SL rights and Premier have Championship rights, who shows Middle 8s? You'd have to work out a deal for both to show, with one having priority over match choice. But to just give Sky it all and totally neglect to ask the question "Are you actually going to show any Championship games other than a stupid festival weekend" is p!ss poor. Or they asked the question, were told no they're not showing it and didn't actually care. Either way, they totally shafted Championship teams for reasons already outlined regarding sponsorship and exposure.

Premier said they were interested in showing Championship. Sky clearly aren't. So how the rights end up with Sky could only fall down to money. But since Premier were never given the chance to bid, it's hard to use that as a reason when you don't know how much they could have bid.

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sun Jul 09, 2017 6:12 am  

HamsterChops wrote:

Whilst I agree with most of that, what I don't understand is why the RFL couldn't hammer out a deal with Premier.

Sure, during the negotiations, it will have been made difficult by the Super 8s. If Sky have SL rights and Premier have Championship rights, who shows Middle 8s? You'd have to work out a deal for both to show, with one having priority over match choice. But to just give Sky it all and totally neglect to ask the question "Are you actually going to show any Championship games other than a stupid festival weekend" is p!ss poor. Or they asked the question, were told no they're not showing it and didn't actually care. Either way, they totally shafted Championship teams for reasons already outlined regarding sponsorship and exposure.

Premier said they were interested in showing Championship. Sky clearly aren't. So how the rights end up with Sky could only fall down to money. But since Premier were never given the chance to bid, it's hard to use that as a reason when you don't know how much they could have bid.

Yeah, but with the middle 8's you've got 12 matches every weekend to pick from. Surely some sort of agreement could be reached. For example, Sky get the MPG and Premier get the Shield Final

[Bulliac]

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sun Jul 09, 2017 8:53 am  

HamsterChops wrote:

Whilst I agree with most of that, what I don't understand is why the RFL couldn't hammer out a deal with Premier.

Sure, during the negotiations, it will have been made difficult by the Super 8s. If Sky have SL rights and Premier have Championship rights, who shows Middle 8s? You'd have to work out a deal for both to show, with one having priority over match choice. But to just give Sky it all and totally neglect to ask the question "Are you actually going to show any Championship games other than a stupid festival weekend" is p!ss poor. Or they asked the question, were told no they're not showing it and didn't actually care. Either way, they totally shafted Championship teams for reasons already outlined regarding sponsorship and exposure.

Premier said they were interested in showing Championship. Sky clearly aren't. So how the rights end up with Sky could only fall down to money. But since Premier were never given the chance to bid, it's hard to use that as a reason when you don't know how much they could have bid.

I suppose, in this age where every company you deal with is, "our so-and-so partner", that Sky, with a much higher financial input would be the 'senior' partner and they probably got the rights on those grounds - it should, though, have been sorted out well in advance, after all, the eights were factored into the equation from the start and not something stuck in, in a rush, at the end.

I understand that Sky are changing the way their sports channels are arranged by having separate channels for different sports; two for soccer, for instance and one for rugby (including union). Not sure if this means we will only PAY for rugby, by selecting that channel, though I'd still have concerns they may still stick some games on another channel. It could also be that they may have more room for extra (championship?) games. At a guess though, I think they'd probably go for another couple of union magazine programmes if they found any spare capacity...

Re: Relegated before the Shield starts.... : Sun Jul 16, 2017 8:49 am  

Smack him Jimmy wrote:

BKB (Bare Knuckle Boxing) could overtake RFL soon!

Or combine the two? - that would get the punters in.

Stick an octagon in middle of Odsal pitch.

There is so much potential for our sport to get on the bigger stage