The RFL have announced today, at the ongoing Championship and League 1 launch, that Sky Sports will cover the Championship play-offs, as well as Toronto Wolfpack’s home and away matches ahead of the new campaign. In addition OuRLeague app will also be screening Championship and League 1 Women’s fixtures, which will be one per week.
The Sky deal with Toronto will see the Canadian outfit produce the games at their own expense, which was reached after discussions between the RFL and Sky during 2018, will also include distribution to Canada and around the world, as Rugby League seeks to expand its global footprint, with the full details of the contract set to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
“We have invested significantly in our broadcast for the last two seasons, culminating in our 2018 postseason games reaching 140 million homes in 19 countries worldwide.,” said Brian Noble MBE, Toronto Wolfpack Director of Rugby. “We are extremely grateful to both Sky Sports and the RFL for sharing our vision to grow our game globally in 2019, and thank both for their efforts building this opportunity.”
In addition to live coverage of the Wolfpack’s fixtures both home and away, Sky will also be showing games from the Betfred Championship play-offs, namely the newly reinstated Championship play-off final, which which still retain the name ‘Million Pound Game’ but will now feature the top two sides from the Championship as opposed any Super League sides like in previous editions, as part of the competition restructure.
“We saw with the reaction to Sky’s live coverage of the £1M Game between the Wolfpack and London Broncos in Toronto last autumn what a massive boost that was to the profile of the Betfred Championship,” added Mark Foster, who heads the RFL’s commercial department..
“This couldn’t have happened without the co-operation and support of Sky Sports and Toronto Wolfpack and we wish to thank both organisations for helping us to broadcast in the UK and around the world what will be a fantastic Championship as well as League One in 2019.”
In addition, at least one fixture per week will be shown through the RFL’s OuRLeague app in 2019, which will include the Betfred Championship, League One, Coral Challenge Cup, Coral Women’s Challenge Cup, 1895 Cup and Women’s Super League.
