I have two very mixed emotions about Premier Sports’ coverage of the Championship this season.
On the one hand, I’m delighted to be able to watch Championship Rugby League again, given that most games are played on Sundays when I’m committed to being in the office.
And it’s great to see both the quality of Premier’s production values and the quality of the games the channel is covering.
Why on earth did we allow Sky to have the rights to the Championship for so many years while refusing to broadcast matches?
On the other hand, I’ve always regarded Mondays as my one day of the week when I don’t focus on Rugby League.
So to suddenly find that there are compelling matches to watch on Premier Sports on a Monday evening has interfered with the attention I give to some of the other things in my life.
Having said that, however, I’m delighted with the success that Premier is enjoying, drawing audiences in excess of what they originally might have anticipated and attracting so many new subscribers that they achieved their three-month target of new subscriptions in their first two weeks of operation.
Tonight we will see two teams making their debuts on Premier, when Dewsbury host Widnes, and next week we’ll see Leigh hosting Widnes in the fourth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup.
That should be a hell of a game that will, I’m sure, attract another big Monday night audience.
As we head into the next round of the Challenge Cup, there are still three unbeaten sides in the Championship, with Barrow being the surprise package, helped by the fact that their game at Bradford was postponed on Sunday.
It’s good to see that not all the rugby that is worth watching is found in the Super League.
And not all the stars of the game are found in Super League either.
Who will forget Joey Leilua’s debut for Featherstone against Leigh or Nene Macdonald’s performances for Leigh against both Featherstone and Bradford?
The only slight disappointment was the size of the attendance at Leigh last Monday, which, at 2,746, was well down on the 4,180 who saw the last game between these two sides at the Leigh Sports Village in June 2019.
Inevitably fewer Bulls fans would have travelled on a Monday night in February than on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer, which tends to emphasise the point that it would be sensible to schedule derby matches, of which there are many in the Championship, for Monday evenings.
The major concern in the Championship is the struggle that London Broncos are experiencing to come to terms with their transition from being a full-time club to being a part-time one.
With four defeats so far, it will be extremely disappointing if the Broncos, who are experiencing better crowds at the new home they share with Wimbledon AFC than they were at the Ealing Trailfinders, are relegated to League 1 at the end of the season, particularly when there will be big games in London this year, with the Challenge Cup Final due to be played at Tottenham in May and a World Cup semi-final due to be played at Arsenal in November.
And when we reflect on London Skolars’ exit from the Challenge Cup at the hands of Hunslet Club Parkside, we must recognise that the game in the capital needs some sort of stimulus if it is to come anywhere near to achieving its potential.
If we are to break the impression that many people have that we are a sport limited to the M62 corridor, then we must find ways for clubs outside that footprint to achieve at the same level as the leading clubs within it at all levels of the game.
It is notable that the Broncos are the only Championship club that won’t feature in Premier Sports’ coverage this year. That may be a perfectly understandable decision, given that travelling north on a Monday would be difficult for a part-time club. But at some point, we must change the perception that clubs outside the heartland are mere add-ons.
Otherwise, we’ll always have to watch our sport hitting a glass ceiling.
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