He has a responsibility to package and market the product as best he can. If that means focusing on the most marketable aspects of it and disregarding those that aren't attractive, that is his remit.

Now we can debate whether Leeds-Hull or Wigan-St Helens is an argument between "jepoardy" vs "quality" (although let's not pretent that Wigan have been amazing to watch for much of the year), but it's about having the best TV product possible. It's one of the reasons why Sky doesn't pitch its cameras up at the John Smiths very often - because the impression that the venue gives (empty seats and the constant echo of a cow bell) isn't exactly one that draws audiences in and sells the game as a 'must see' event.

So those that want to see it can see it. For the neutral seeing these two play each other 4 or 5 times a season gets monotonous.

I'm not sure Hetherington will agree with you regarding journeymen although i'm sure Lam will happily talk about journey men if you want to talk about his star halfback signing from London.

Speaking as a neutral I'd much rather watch Wigan/St Helens anytime ahead of two utter rubbish teams like Leeds and HKR.

majority of thursday night games, including tomorrow nights game were picked before the season begun, nobody has a crystal ball to see how the likes of leeds/wigan were going to be doing this weekend!

saints v wigan dont have a divine right to be shown! irrc the last meeting wasnt that entertaining anyway!

get over it

Lam would have been better putting his old boots back on
.

Although it is at least the 6th game in a row that Leeds have been on TV. and one of those games was Leeds Vs Hull KR, which was one of the worst games I've seen in ages. At least if Saints batter Wigan there will be one decent team on display, with a bit of decent rugby. Add into that that Saints Vs Wigan nearly always produces a good game no matter where both sides are in the table. I get its a relegation battle, but its going to be hard to justify this decision if its as bad as the last time these two teams met. Time will tell.

But its not rocket science for SKY to plan the first 20 league games, then go into a concurrent scheduling phase as the league table takes shape as regards to who is battling for the top 5 play off and who is battling in the bottom 4 to avoid relegation.

It's Sky's game, hence we have to play on a Thursday and Friday night (and sometimes a Monday too). They pick and choose, and as far as I'm aware, there's a minimum number of times they have to show each team. Other than that, they do what they want.

Nothing wrong with giving it a rest and means it should be a sellout in the ground.

What SL needs to be doing is banning games taking place while a SKY game is on. That would disrupt my club, but it would be for the greater good as viewing figures would increase and in turn the SKY deal. Clubs used to like playing Fridays for the corporate sales but im not convinced that is as big as a factor in the austere 10's as it was the 90s and 00s.

It is at Leeds but probably not as much at other clubs.

Ground availability/Sky demands/club preferences make planning the SL fixture list very complicated.

Thats not correct. The first half of the season is picked before the season starts. the rest, including tomorrow, are picked a few weeks in advance based on how the season is playing out.

Isn't the rule that Sky have to give a minumum of 28 days notice, up until the last few weeks of the season?

cant Wigan play Thursday? or Leeds?
the fact is given the table Leeds v rovers is a must. hull v London is a damn stupid choice.

Something like that, if i remember rightly. If, like number 6 says, this was decided before the season started, everyone would have complained then. Instead they complained a few weeks ago (probably 27 days ago

) when sky announced they would be televising Leeds Vs Hull KR over Saints Vs Wigan.

Wakey/Cas would be a good choice.



Have London had any televised home games? Can’t recall.

Hull kr about 3 weeks ago and Cas second week of the season.

For a Widnes (?) Fan you always seem to have a lot to say on how crap other teams are.

I'm sure the highlights will be easy to find.

Great game this tonight, much better than getting the derby on tv

Good choice by Sky