Just got to hope they get a half decent commentator /presentation team, that don't deal in clichés. I'm sick to death of the "bottoms" on Sky.

Quote ="easyWire"Friday the fixtures are announced I think.'" https://leagueunlimited.com/news/36750- ... -fixtures/

Quote ="easyWire"Friday the fixtures are announced I think.'" https://leagueunlimited.com/news/36750- ... -fixtures/

Agreed. Let's also hope the camera crew know the action is on the pitch and not the face of the coach sat in the stand.........

I hope this is done well by channel 4, it's brilliant to have a Saturday afternoon match on free to air and hopefully the other 9 games will be good lineups as well. I really hope they get good viewing figures and increase demand to watch televised rugby league.

Whatever happened to that Jon Champion guy often did the BBC matches before Dave Woods. He also did the football I think. He was very good, and also seemed to have great knowledge of RL.

I was only thinking the same, myself. He was good.
Clive Tyldesley wasn't too bad, either. Although, if I had a tenner each time he namedropped a famous RL person he'd spoken to that week, I'd be a rich man.

Seems a good idea more games on TV,hope this does not encourage people to stay at home to watch matches rather than go through the turnstyles ,just a thought.

I don't think so. In fact, I think the opposite is true.

More eyes on the game on TV = more fans = more people wanting to go to matches.

Heard Hemmings and Steve coming out of retirement

. No only joking but it’s great to have a new tv partner just got to hope they get it right and as someone said let’s not turn into a flat cap viewing mess.

We could start by making the game more attractive and entertaining like it was about 10 years ago and previous to that. Hopefully the people who run the game will realise 80 minutes of five drives and a kick doesn’t draw in new supporters.

Was interesting to hear Powell talk about how no scrums (which is obviously going) and 6 again (which is staying) negatively affected the game in his view as it meant teams were much more likely to play centrally trying to generate a quick ruck and the 6 again, rather than playing with a bit of width to make breaks on the edges.

We are too quick sometimes to introduce rule changes / adaptations rather than use a set of rules that have made the game what it is.

Very true. In my view the game was better with

1. Substitutes instead of "interchanges"
2. Semblance of a scrum to leave room for scrum plays and space for the backs.
3. A bit more aggression / physical confrontation.

Hull v saints in on channel 4 the following Saturday that's should be a good game too. Hull usually start well that's a big potential upset on the cards, although I expect saints to win really. Another good fixture for Channel 4 to have.

We have Cas at home on the thurdsday for our second match and that's on sky.

A big guffaw from the rugby gods pitching us against Cas for the first home game. Could be a cracker.

Sponsors will be queuing up for deals if CH4 go beyond 2022. A great move, even if we were paying CH4 to do it!
I’ve been very dissatisfied at varying degrees with sky sports RL production over the last decade.I cancelled my subscription this year.

The live streaming is important to get money into the game from folk who logistically (and for other reasons) cannot make it to alive game. I hope that viewers that live well outside the M62 corridor, will watch Chanel 4's coverage, like what they see and will then watch it streamed live. Lets hope that new terrestrial viewers are aware that this service will be available, and it will be of a decent quality.

Great news to get more money in to the sport, more viewers and potential fans, and best of all even more games for us to watch through the year

Does clash with the early Premier League saturday matches though

So was looking to see who is fronting this and not found anything as yet. But what I have found is C4 have actually put it out to tender to private production companies, no idea who that may be.

I wrote to C4 to congratulate them on this deal.
Got a good reply which wss along the lines of 'we're looking forward to it and hope the viewing figures match the interest we've had so far'.

The ball is in RL fans court.

Difficult one this, clubs need fans in the stadium but the TV need viewers sat at home, my suggestion is go to the game and leave the TV on for the game, double bubble.

Alternatively, take your telly and a very very long extension cable to the game.

Good stuff.

I would say that the ball is in the RFL / Super League's court to deliver entertainment and sporting contest that drives attendance and viewing figures for C4.

Hopefully. Channel 4 has the numbers to increase there coverage going forward.
Even if you split the coverage with sky.
Sky take a Thursday and Friday night game. Channel 4 takes a Saturday tea time and Sunday tea time game.
Just a shame that football will take so much more priority than the great game we have. Where we could have a Saturday dinner time and Sunday dinner time game to have every game broadcast over the weekend.

We only need 6 slots a week. It would be absolutely fantastic to have all superleague games shown live.

Alternatively. Even if Channel 4 take 25% of the coverage. Make a deal for the 2nd tier to have some coverage.

Although my ideal scenario would be a 3/4 tier league system and coverage shown throughout the 3 leagues to evenly distribute the money across the board to bring some more money and health into the whole game.

Does anyone know yet the value of this contract?

It would be interesting to see now much they are paying, compared with Sky, pro rata per game.