A Championship broadcast deal for the 2024 season is edging closer to completion, the Managing Director of RL Commercial Rhodri Jones has revealed.
Premier Sports/Viaplay has held the broadcasting rights for the second tier in recent years but with Viaplay withdrawing from the UK market at the end of 2023, there had been concerns about the Championship’s future.
However, Viaplay has since returned back to Premier Sports, reigniting hopes that a deal could be potentially completed for this year’s campaign.
Now Jones has revealed that there is one firm runner in the mix for that exposure.
“Hopefully in the next couple of weeks that will be sorted,” Jones told League Express.
“The Championship doesn’t start until mid-March so we have got a bit longer than needing to do it in the next ten days.
“We are hopeful to get a deal over the line. There is interest and we have probably got one strong conversation ongoing and then we have alternatives as well that are in house that could provide an option for us.”
Meanwhile, a deal for Super League free-to-air is likely to be signed, sealed and delivered before the end of January with Jones hinting that games will hopefully be covered for the opening rounds of the 2024 season.
“The Super League broadcast deal will likely be concluded in the next ten days or so. We have got positive conversations going on and we are just starting to get comfortable with what that starts to look like,” Jones continued.
“We are not far away from the launch and the aspiration is that there will be free-to-air games in the first few weeks so we have to move that forward pretty quickly to enable the production teams to get planning.
“So hopefully the deal won’t be too long away.”
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