IMO no event should be free to air - it is upto the BBC to prioritise - perhaps less money spent on endless period dramas and more funds directed towards sport would make them more competitive when it comes to bidding.

But that would suit the arty farty mob at the BBC

They reckon it will cost them £110m - no chance if that is the case of free to air

Thats an argument against having any kind of additional competition at all, not necessarily that it matters where in the season an additional comp would be.

Also thats not relevant to SL now without relegation. If we take away the only competition the bottom half teams have a chance of winning there'd be nothing for them to play for.

True, but the BBC is supposed to be for everybody not just for sports fans. There has to be a place for everything on the BBC. Is there an imbalance? Possibly, especially if you look at the midweek schedules. But then take a look at the weekend and theres a fair amound of sport on the BBC.

It is not about the quantity it is about the quality and the BBC has lost out in almost every major sport - the sports it covers are often minority interest events - like 3 day eventing, Motor GP etc - rather high level soccer, rugby or cricket

If it were me I would play the CC as a five week competition leading up to a final at Easter and then the SL - that way the comp gets maximum exposure and monentum.

But then its just a pre-season comp. Plus the teams who are knocked out in the 1st round have a month without a game.
The timing of the CC is fine as it is. The only issue is maybe there is too much time between a couple of the rounds but thats a minor issue.
The problem has been the price of tickets of the earlier rounds. But its the same issue that the playoff games have, in that they're not included on the season ticket.

I agree that the timing is fine.

Early round games aren't attractive because we all know that there's little chance of David beating Goliath in Rugby league, unlike football.

The clubs will have to be creative in the marketing and selling the early round games.

I'd agree, but those minority sports should also be shown somewhere free to air.
Maybe since the EU ruling that the Premier League cant be shown on just 1 channel the BBC could get the games that the likes of Setanta or ESPN show?

I disagree. Certain sporting events should be available to all, major football, international football, rugby, critcket should be included in it.

You say that the BBC shoudl prioritise its money then make a daft comment that it should spend less on period dramas and more on sport, without taking into account the relative cost of the programming, and the amount of screen time it takes up.

I'm guessing the rights to a season of F1 coverage will have cost the BBC more than a full series of Doctors.

Well the new list is bobbins for me. It used to just have the RU World Cup Final only and now they have put the entire tournament on free-to-air and have not even restricted it based on the home nations like the football qualifiers! So they are going to have to show Argentina v Canada play at RU throughout the whole of the UK but don't have to show any RL on TV at all? Why is that more in the national interest than England v Australia in RL for example? They have to look to find the correct balance with RU and RL for me and if that means taking RU off the list as well as RL then so be it. Otherwise, they have to include some RL on the list if they have RU on the list.

It gets worse!

Why?

Why does what they do with the premier international competition in one sport have anything to do with what they do with a domestic cup competition in another.

If anything, SL and the Challenge Cup should be treated in exactly the same way as the Premiership and Heineken Cup in RU, neither of which are on the protected list.

Make me a convincing case for why the Challenge Cup should be treated any differently from its Union counterparts.

Sorry Andy. I maybe did not make that as clear as I could have. Now I have seen the new list my issue with CC being on free-to-air I agree does not stand up because as you say RU does not have it's equivalents on the list. It was always about RU coverage versus RL coverage and getting that balance right, but not the six nations has gone then I think the CC has to go as well.

But then why upgrade the RU World Cup to full coverage and not include some international RL as well. I am worried about institutional bias creeping back onto the agenda and possibly only due to the ignorance of the panel as opposed to anything more but is the game once again prepared to be treated as the other/second best/minor code of Rugby?

Why indeed. I agree that is where the national interest should be in the international game. Does RL not have it's own World Cup and one with a longer history than the other code as well?

With all due respect to the RL World Cup, compared to the RU World Cup it is a minnow next to a shark. The RU World Cup is probably the second biggest single sport international event on the planet behind its football counterpart.

But perhaps less than a couple of Pride and Predudice drama where costs are apparently counted in the 10s of millions!!!

Listen, I know the RU world cup is a bigger event and I watch it, but they have to be careful because we are talking about two games reasonably similar in nature and choosing one over the other! We had 100 years of that sort of rubbish go on and not sure I like the government appearing to do something similar. I would be happy for them to say RL internationals when played in the UK and restricted based on the home nations (if we are serious about RL in Scotland and Wales and Ireland) and the RL world cup final and games including the home nations. We don't have that many games and don't think that is too much to ask do you!

BTW. You are very wrong about the RU world cup. The two biggest sporting events on the planet are the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics, which are 4 yearly events. The worlds biggest annual event (by miles) is the Tour-de-France. This coupled with European and other areas soccer championships, Winter Olympics (just cos we are rubbish at it), Wimbledon and the other Tennis grand-slams and US sport such as Super-bowl, World Series and NHL the RU will be nowhere near the top ten or possible 20 events! Which means RL is way, way, way down the list!

Bigger than the Olympics?

Sorry, and how could I forget F1 and Moto GP etc!

Last time I looked that featured slightly more than a single sport.

Thank you tvoc. Nice to see someone picked up on the distinction I went to great trouble to make.

No it isn't.

Olympics.

You'll never know how close I came to making the same mistake Serge made though.

Ye gods, even the legal professionals who are trained to split hairs are missing it. I must stop being so cryptic.