I know the game is dependent on sky money but this really isnt any different then other sports and competitions. The NRL clubs are all heavily dependent on TV money.

Look at the football league clubs when ITV digital collapsed. Clubs were under serious threat of going under.

Cricket relies massively on TV money. The English cricket clubs would be going under if they didn't have the huge TV money that get from sky.

That's the way of the world now. Sport organisations need TV money more then anything.

Nobody is saying that we don't. However, we are now in an environment where broadcasters are becoming more and more discerning about what sports they pay for, and how much they pay for them. This week we have seen BT Sport drop UFC and NBA, they have already dropped Serie A, whilst Sky has dropped La Liga in recent months, all citing the cost of those rights as the reason.

All of the sports you mention have worked hard to ensure that their 'product' is delivering value for broadcasters. Cricket has invested massively in limited overs and T20 cricket (arguably at the expense of the Test team) because that's what appeals to TV audiences. The PL is carving out more and more slots in its calendar for TV (Friday night football, additional Satuday slots, etc).

If Super League wants more from it's TV contract in this environment, it needs to start offering more. At the moment, we offer a sub-standard competition, where the best players flock to the other side of the world, an audience that is hard to sell to advertisers, and we have clubs actively diluting our own TV audience by playing at the same time as our TV games. Gee, why wouldn't Sky pay more for that?

The flip side of your argument (as far as Sky are concerned) is that we now have Thursday, Friday and Saturday games compared to the one night offering that was there at the outset plus, magic etc.

You probably know the TV audience figures for the 3 nights, compared to the days when there was only one.

The other aspect about RL fans is that @we@ are difficult to sell to. However, taking the stereotypical view of your "average" RL fan, Gambling, drinking, sporting, dating etc should be obvious targets for where to pick up advertising revenues plus, the usual pay day lenders etc
Btw, I apologise in advance for the above, which is not meant to cause offence, merely to demonstrate that there should be plenty of companies in these categories that may wish to advertise to RL fans.
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You're right, there are plenty of companies that would like to tap into that market. The problem is that they can generate a much better return on investment by advertising in areas other than TV or sports sponsorship.

The audience you describe there is attractive to certain companies, but that audience's spending power is naturally limited. Forgive the y marketing terms, but those companies look for a "lifetime value" in their new customers, and that sort of audience usually comes at the bottom end of the scale. That means that there is a much bigger drive to reduce advertising costs to that group and focus on more acquisition-focused media, such as digital. A payday lender or an online dating site can reach our demographic for less than £50 per thousand with the right creative in the right place.

One of the reasons RL (and sport in general) is so attractive to bookmakers and casino brands is because they are largely excluded from those cheaper forms of advertising. Bookmaking advertising, for example, is highly restricted on Google and is so heavily controlled on Facebook that it may as well be banned.

Again, at the risk of going too deeply into this, there's an iceberg up ahead called Sky AdSmart. It's rolling out en-mass next year and it will help Sky to much better understand how valuable certain audiences and pieces of content are to certain advertisers. I don't think it's going to be a good thing for RL.

Quins stayed
Saracens came back
London Irish return next season
Wasps went north

RL has nothing in SL. Why would the papers care for RL when 6-7 million in London plus the millions in the south don't have representation.

Ive said for a couple of years now, the RFL should be getting into Amazons ribs now in anticipation for the 2021 deal. Sports steaming is the future, Sky will attempt to combat it, as will BT Sports et all but will fail.

Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter will take over in the coming years.

What RU and cricket do much better than RL is the selling of their event games- whether it's the Six Nations, 20-20, Test Matches or Saracens at Wembley Stadium etc.

Each of these generates a huge income and interest, whilst their domestic weekly games plod on by in a not too dissimilar manner to RL.

Meanwhile RL struggles to sell out CC Semi Finals, Magic Weekend, Big Bash and IRL matches.

The arrival of Toronto and Toulouse into Super League in the one year would change rugby league's profile enormously, in a positive manner.
That is why we must all pray for Toronto and Toulouse's promotion. London's promotion would also help.

But they sell those well because they’ve put the time and effort into building them up and not just suddenly expecting them to sell out by putting an advert on their website.

They’ve put the games on in the same place at the same time (roughly) year after year and built continuity and made them days out.

We never know when England RL are playing or where it will be. The Magic Weekend is tragically under-promoted both inside the sport and outside. We should be saying it’s staying in Newcastle for the next 5 years and then offering Newcastle United season ticket holders half price tickets (along with getting their details). We should be taking an England RL game there to bolster our presence in the city and at any and all RL events the Newcastle RL team should be present and advertised and marketed to high heaven.
The Cup Final should be the same for London. Why haven’t we been marketing directly to Spurs fans whilst they’re at Wembley? Why aren’t London Broncos advertised at the Cup Final?

We have some good ideas and do some good things in RL but nothing is ever joined up or done with any confidence or continuity.

The ignorance of the London based sports fan was brought home to me a few years ago. There I was with my mates resplendent in our primrose and blue when one of the locals enquired as to whether we were there to support the Swedish football team. Argh.

The arrogance of a fan from a northern pit village is on display here....it could just have easily been Ukraine

Here's some arrogance from a northern mill town (old) boy, who says that Toronto will have a big wake-up call a week on Sunday when the next set of part-timers send them scuttling home without any points.

I realise that I could very easily come unstuck with that comment, but I'll just do what JC & co do and ignore the responses, and just say that Toulouse are due a big wake-up call the next weekend when Fax come calling...

Who wouldn't swap those 3 for Salford, Widnes & Hull KR ?

Well, the fans of those clubs for starters!
If someone goes down then it will be on merit, the same if someone goes up. The beauty of the Qualifiers 2018 is it really is too tough to call......but I'l stick my neck out and say if Widnes don;t win their first game, they won't win any!

Ignorance is term I used, not arrogance.

"Gutterfax/Call Me God" has a chronic problem with spelling common English words.

No doubt the huge streaming companies are going to get rights for PL + CL football sooner rather than later. Where does that leave Sky/BT? And more importantly - where does that leave RL?

Would Sky pump more money into the game? Try and make it grow into a much better product?
Would BT make a bid for RL to try + do the same?

Amazon already have a rights deal with the Premier League from next season, with two rounds of ten matches over bank holiday weekends and it has held rights for Thursday night NFL games and WTA tennis. Netflix doesn't seem overly interested in sport, instead building its business around original content.

Personally I wouldn't bet the farm on a big-money offer from Amazon just yet. They're clearly testing the water with sports rights and I suspect they are a pretty major loss-leader to drive subscriptions for Prime. If that is their aim, then what they need is mass appeal - not content that has limited regional appeal. The rights that they have bought also come with relatively low production costs - they have largely just been simulasting existing TV feeds, rather than doing their own OB and presenting.

Both Sky and BT have flogged as much kit as they can though association with various sports. I don't foresee much in the way of involvement in future bidding wars by either company.

Maybe Bazza, but in this instance he knew exactly what he was typing

you were arrogant thinking anyone south of the watford gap would even be able to find warrington on a map, let alone know they had a rugby league team......or even know what rugby league was for that matter.

Im sorry to correct you but the feeling I had was one of surprise not arrogance. Arrogance is what you exhibit when you think you know me more than I do.

The problem is. Rugby union is a far better spectacle. Ten years ago it wasn’t but it is now

Regards

King James

Thats probably is true of the international game with its slo-mo play backs filling in the boring parts for TV but at club level it's no great shakes. I also have this theory that if you fill a stadium such as Twickers then the atmosphere alone would make even a game of chess seem exciting.

1. You were arrogant thinking that anyone in the south should know who, what and which colours Warrington wear (USA spell checker has you down as Harrington)
2. Union still manage to polish their turd better than we do our diamond.....to slag them off is crass at best!