To me the streaming idea is cost prohibitive plus why would sky give up the rights to the sport at time they desperately need something to show

Sky are losing £millions as most people have temporarily suspended their sky sports subscriptions. As soon as live sport is available those subscriptions will automatically start again. They could also stream the other matches (other than the two or three contracted ones) on a pay as you view. Say they charge between £10 - £15 per game. That's a lot cheaper than actually attending, especially if you're a family.
Maybe they could find some way of giving the home season ticket holders free view for their games?

How are sky giving up the rights? They could still show their normal 2 or 3 games a week whilst the clubs charge fans to watch games via a stream?

Edit: basically what Rogues said.

because sky have the right to show all the games so they would be giving up the rights if they allowed any club to show them, they could do it but could ask for millions back

They don't show all the games though, do they? They could still pick the games they want to show and the clubs stream the rest which sky can show highlights of. Which is exactly what they do now.

no they dont they chose the games they want to and they have paid for the right to be the only people to do so, clubs could show the games 24 hours after sky as thats what wigan do and must be the legal time frame, sky havent paid 100's millions of pounds just to let other people do it for free

If allowing clubs to show their own (non-sky) home games means that sky will actually have a game to show and clubs won't go bust I'm sure a compromise could be made.
Clubs could agree to advertise sky as part of their streams.
Obviously sky are in a better position financially than SL to get through this, but they're also desperate for live sport to resume so people will resume their sky sports subscriptions, so whenever we resume both sides will have to take a hit and make concessions or the pro game in this hemisphere will not survive.

The clubs become a rival to sky (no matter how small it is) the instant they start to strike out on their own.

And if for instance a streamed game is say at the top end of your range it have to be sky like quality because thats a serious chunk of change when most won't have a great deal of money to throw about.

Sky have paid serious money for the sport and have done untill is it June? so all talk of streaming is a little premature isn't it?

The season is as long as it is is because the majority of clubs require at least 14 home games to generate enough revenue to survive. If games are going to be played without a crowd (which they likely will be until the end of season at least then either clubs ask fans to give them the ticket money anyway, or they find an alternative, or be given freedom by sky to explore other options like streaming their home games, or sky or another messiah pulls a wad of cash out of thin air to help keep the game alive.

A lot of people have STs as a family group and are charged per ST. If the ST money was refunded, and games were streamed, I doubt they'd all individually pay a subscription to watch the same TV set in their house.

French PM has announced no games even behind closed doors until September. That throws a huge spanner in the works for RL with Catalans and Toulouse.

Same goes for Canada too, but i assume they'll just remain in the UK for the rest of the year.
Catalans may have to relocate, but if not then they should be exempt from relegation at least (assuming there even is any)

I agree, with Toronto already here anyway it shouldn't prevent them playing games should the season manage to resume. The two French clubs will either have to relocate to somewhere in the UK in time for any resumption or if that isn't possible should maintain their places in SL and the Championship for 2021.

I should think this makes the need for the RFL, SLE and the clubs to find out whether or not we as a sport can resume at any point this year even more urgent as the French clubs will obviously have a lot to sort out if they were to relocate here for any period.

Sorry but you can’t pretend that Catalan aren’t in the comp when the comp has already started,it makes a mockery of the sport,even given the times we live in that’s a step too far.

I agree.

Aye, let’s just ask Catalan to relocate to the uk for months on end, leaving their families back in France?

They seem to be already considering doing so. [urlhttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/28/catalans-move-england-beat-french-ban-super-league-retarts[/url


Should they not be able to compete in the event of a restart due to being stuck in France then it is just a matter of expunging any results of games involving them that already took place from the season records. Same as if one team folded mid-season.

It’s a tough ask and I get that but realistically if the alternative is them not having a job as a rugby league player, their families could well be in a far worse position than not seeing them for a few months. It’s impossible to tell the logistics of it all but maybe they could come and go every so often for a couple of days (once a month maybe).

All ifs and buts and maybes at the moment. One thing is for sure, people from all over the game are going to have to make sacrifices if we want to get some behind closed doors rugby league on this year.

Nothing stopping the Cats players going back to France between matches over here as long as the borders are open. Just play their home matches at whatever SL ground is closest to the most convenient airport.

Correct, but some seem to think that watching games is more important than a situation where people are dying from a world wide virus which is affecting not only people's health but also the economies of the world and could lead to a recession like the nineteen thirties.

Some need to get their priorities in order!

If Spain lift the embargo could Catalan not play their home games in the Barcelona/Catalonia region?

I agree. I want sport, and RL especially to come back tomorrow but when you balance it up against what’s going on in the world there’s no contest. Honestly for me the season should be scrapped and we go again in 2021. Perhaps run the CC later on in the year rather than the league, I’m near certain Wembley would be a sell out for the final regardless of who got there. I know I’d 100% go if I could get it off work.

Goes without saying that that depends on the situation at the time and if it’s not safe, it doesn’t happen.

I agree

I would go for a 2021 start, some of the suggestions for the premier league to restart including using a neutral ground will be challenged by those teams in peril of losing their status. A lot depends on SKY and what their demands are for RL. I also think there will be no relegation if the SL is played with teams not playing at their home grounds.

I think if we do have any form of season resumption before 2021 then it will have to be a round robin league format to give a guaranteed number of games for all clubs taking part. The problem with running the cup only is that although a final with a crowd able to attend (and that may not be possible this year at all) may get a good attendance the most games any club would get is 4 (and only two would get that many) as we are already at the last 16 stage. Most teams will get fewer as the competition progresses and they get knocked out and Huddersfield along with many non SL clubs would get no more games as they are already knocked out of the cup.

True and that’s something I didn’t think of to be honest.