Channel 4 Head of Sport Pete Andrews has declared himself delighted with the launch of his Super League coverage on Saturday afternoon, when Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves became the first two clubs in the history of Super League to feature in live free-to-air coverage on television.
Andrews was the man tasked with organising the broadcaster’s coverage of the event and he secured Australian comedian Adam Hills, a noted Rugby League enthusiast and a player for the Warrington PDRL team, to front the broadcast, which went without any obvious glitches.
And the size of the audience has made Andrews optimistic about the future of Channel 4’s coverage of the competition.
“We are really pleased with the audience,” said Andrews.
“The peak audience was 735,000 towards the end of the match.
“The average audience for the match was 630,000 and for the whole show 530,000.
“These are really promising figures and we are very pleased.
“As for the programme, it was a solid start but we want to keep building and improving, so there are lots to work on for next week.
“We are really pleased with Adam and the team and the audience feedback has been really positive. We really feel welcome in the Rugby League family.
“We really enjoyed our first Super League match and we are excited to go again next week. We will be working hard to get better and better as the season continues.
“Congratulations also to Sky, who started the season with some great coverage.”
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