Having recently watched an airing *FaceAche* of Radio Yorkshire RL now to be known as 'Proper Sport' a conversation was started by Phil Caplan.

In a nutshell, Caplan *spelling* ? stated that as part of an onging review into SL finances & financing, it was discovered by those charged with the task that the current 'TV deal' between Bein Sports & Catalans Dragons brings no financial reward to the sport, specifically SL.
Furthermore P.C claimed that a 'New Deal' *2 Years* has just been signed with Bein & that the RFL will not declare it's value as 'it has no value' (notice this is not a quote), or words to such effect.

Feel free to discuss.

Bluddy fRoggies .The sooner we are out of Europe the beter.

It will bring value to Catalans surely. So it’s bringing value to 1/12th of SL whilst not reducing value elsewhere.

Can’t see how it could be viewed as a negative.

Also brings value to Sky as they get a free feed of the Catalans game, gives value to the supporters as they are getting 14 or so more televised games a year. Whether the value of the Bein Sports deal can be quantified in to the amount Sky are willing to pay for exclusive SL rights is difficult.

Every team in SL gets a game on TV to market themselves and the sport as a whole, plus Catalans who will obviously get a lot of new fans that way. Does that not come into it?

I'd have thought that being able to tell prospective sponsors that their brand would receive television exposure across a large European broadcaster would be a good selling point for clubs.

But of course, this is rugby league, so we need to treat it with the same level of suspicion that we treat the horseless cart, the electric lightbulb and food with funny sounding names.

The 11 weeks of telecast of Catalans home games by Sky -- using the BEiN feed -- has financial value to Sky, and may well justify the payout of 1/12 of Sky money to Catalans just on its own.

Note that the initiator of this thread is a flatcapper from lowly Leigh.

I enjoy the Catalans home games. It's a nice little extra every other weekend. Also, how else are they to market themselves in the South of France? Sky Sports won't be showing in French homes. The deal is to market themselves in their home territory, and we get a little freebie off the back of it. It's a non-story.

Absolutely correct, although with the 3/4 Super 8 fixtures it’s 14 or 15 extra games sky are able to show, without any broadcasting costs, as they take the feed from bein. If these games were taken away, and Catalans replaced by Leigh, this would reduce the amount sky would be willing to pay for the Super League broadcasting rights.

Why don't you pop along and have a word with him seeing as you're almost neighbours!!

You could say that John Flatcap Dozey of Chorley, or you could say that Phil Caplan of Leeds is the 'real initiator' as it was he brought it to public attention & I merely offer it up as a topic of discussion !

I agree that it is difficult to quantify the value of the Catalans/Sky/Bein triumvirate deal, however, what I believe Caplan to be putting forward was that there was no direct monetary value to Super League or RL per se, morever that the only beneficiaries were the 3 mentioned.
There was also the question *though cloaked* of why the RFL were not willing to divulge this information, the suggestion being that the RFL are still not an open & transparent organisation, which we all know is true.

Wouldn't it be so much better if the RFL came out at the outset of such deals & say something like ... 'we're going to allow this TV deal or that because it has a wider benefit to the game but there is no monetary payment for it' ? At least this way there is a level of honesty & we don't end up with another 'Private TV Deal' like the one at Toronto being questioned ? The RFL really don't help themselves to be respected where everything appears to be smoke & mirrors.

Jean is obviously a Wigan Warriors fan, his IP address is in Chorley, and he can't type Leigh Centurions without 'having a dig'. Bless him.....

Jean is a well known old Orrell RU fan very bitter about their demise when Whelan got involved

To be fair to Jean, I often see a lad in a Catalans jacket wandering around Preston, with a Mediterranean appearance. Living in Chorley doesn't mean you're from Chorley.

So now people can stop using the TV deal as an excuse to exempt Catalans from relegation, and that annoying, cringeworthy cliche "for the good of the game?".

Ah but, in the modern world of TV companies paying big money for broadcasting rights, they get to call the shots and IF RL has promised that there will be a French club in the comp, it makes things a little awkward in said French club gets relegated or, in the case on Paris, goes pop.
Remember, Catalan replaced the failed Paris club.
Sky call the shots and the puppets (or you could say muppets) at Red Hall, just nod their heads.

If Catalan, by arranging their own deal, dont receive a share of the Sky contract monies, their inclusion would allow the other clubs to receive a larger share or, for 1/12th to be distributed elsewhere.

Therefore, they are bringing something to the game and allowing fans to have a weekend in the sun at least once a year (unless you happen to be playing there mid Feb

).

But SKY apparently are getting the rights for free. The only ones who would get any sort of value would be Catalans. Therefore, only Catalans would stand to lose any sort of financial benefits and not the sport as a whole as some people on here believe. It's like the Stobart deal; free sponsorship for more exposure.

Also, say Catalans do get relegated, Sky don't have to lose out if they started showing Championship games.

It all depends on what the terms of the deal are that was negotiated.
Also, even if Sky get the coverage for free, but dont have the pain and expense of sending crew over there, sending cameras and crew elsewhere, if Catalan were relegated, would be an additional cost for them.
Of course, Catalan would lose out massively if they were relegated, unless they could persuade "Bien Sports" to still pay them to show their games, but, that would seem unlikely.

Nothing like the stobbart deal, which seemed to do far more for stobbart than RL.

Interestingly there was a young lad on Dragons Den touting his business for "Stobbart Style" advertising, he'd have "painted up" Stobbarts trailers for a fraction of the supposed cost involved in their sponsorship. Although, IIRC, the value of the Stobbart deal was all estimates and guesstimates.

I'd still rather have Catalan in SL than not.

Catalans will never be relegated. Whether fans from leigh or wakefield choose to believe it or not, the vision the RFL and Sky have for RL in this country includes Catalans.

If the worst does come to the worst, they could "do a huddersfield" where you take over a club, sorry, "merge" with a club and sack all their players just to avoid relegation

Regards

King James

They'd do better sacking their own players and keeping the ones they inherit.

Depends who they merge with I suppose!

Regards

King James

I thought the flatcappers were predominantly Fev fans?

It does?

It's not a private deal. Sky passed on the rights to Premier Sports.We don't have a say because we all signed up to Sky or took the £300k sweetner. If all the Championship clubs invested £300k each in a new broadcaster they would be reaping the benefits ten fold now.

Classic case as per the norm, of waiting for the mountain to come to Muhammad.There has to come a point where we stop blaming others for our own sins.