NRL coming back to Sky Sports

[Damien]

11 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

We shouldn't overstate the importance of this deal. The only viewing figures I ever found for an NRL Sky game was 33,000 for a Grand Final one year.

For me then the bigger issue is the cost to current fans.

They could do what I do though, pay £6 a month to watch the RL channels on my phone and cast it to the TV. Almost no difference to standard definition.

Well that's still substantially higher than the only figures I've ever seen for Premier Sports which have only been in the low to mid teens region at best.

Also if you currently subscribe to Sky anyway, which a lot of Rugby League fans do to watch matches, then being on Sky represents a saving of the tenner a month Premier Sports costs

[Dave T]

13 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

We shouldn't overstate the importance of this deal. The only viewing figures I ever found for an NRL Sky game was 33,000 for a Grand Final one year.

For me then the bigger issue is the cost to current fans.

They could do what I do though, pay £6 a month to watch the RL channels on my phone and cast it to the TV. Almost no difference to standard definition.

That doesnt mean that 33k were the best figures though. 

I agree with the point though - it is a niche sport like many overseas leagues in any sport to be fair. If people in the UK want to watch RL it is easier and often more fulfilling to follow the gane over here where they can relate to the teams and even watch them once or twice.

Even as an RL fan I can live without the NRL even though I pay each month for it.

[PeterTunks]

I occasionally watch football on Fox Sports USA and they promote NRL pretty aggressively as "the biggest and best rugby competition on the planet". No mention of it being RL, just "rugby", and they make it look really good to be fair. The Murdochs won't complete their SKY takeover until summer (if it's allowed), but they already hold nearly 40% of SKY, so it makes sense to bring the NRL into the Murdoch fold as far as the UK is concerned. Now the NRL have their app/pass, they don't need the blanket coverage PS provided. I expect SKY's NRL coverage will be similar to their NFL coverage; pretty good, but hardcore fans will want the app too

SKY/Fox positioning itself as "the home of rugby" (if only to hack off BT, NBC etc.) could be good for SL

[Dave T]

Sky at times have very little sport to show. Hopefully that means they will show a decent amount.

[tuutaisrambo]

Sky have very little on in the morning and loads of channels so I can see them showing most if not all games. Also if the sky website is expanded to show more nrl news and highlights on top of super league it will be a huge improvement on what we have now with premier sports.

[JM2010]

Sky Sports news might also give some coverage 

[Mister Ting]

48 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Sky Sports news might also give some coverage 

Now there's a waste of a channel.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Mister Ting said:

Now there's a waste of a channel.

really? I think it's a great background channel.

[Damien]

13 minutes ago, Dave T said:

really? I think it's a great background channel.

Yeah so do I and more importantly a lot of casual sports fans watch it or have it on in the background. Any extra Rugby League that is mentioned on this,  from the NRL being on Sky,  reaches a far wider audience than anything that can be got from Premier. When RL gets so little coverage and pr anyway anything extra makes a difference. 

[Dave T]

10 minutes ago, Damien said:

Yeah so do I and more importantly a lot of casual sports fans watch it or have it on in the background. Any extra Rugby League that is mentioned on this,  from the NRL being on Sky,  reaches a far wider audience than anything that can be got from Premier. When RL gets so little coverage and pr anyway anything extra makes a difference. 

it is also a channel that is on in a lot of pubs when no live sport is on.

Was surprised when I looked at Barb to see that the peaks are higher than Sky News. That is for things like Soccer Saturday, but still.

[Dr Tim Whatley]

11 hours ago, tuutaisrambo said:

Sky have very little on in the morning and loads of channels so I can see them showing most if not all games. Also if the sky website is expanded to show more nrl news and highlights on top of super league it will be a huge improvement on what we have now with premier sports.

More so from 2019 when they won't have any ATP Tennis. That is a massive morning filler for them, particularly when there are events in Asia.

[Dr Tim Whatley]

1 hour ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

More so from 2019 when they won't have any ATP Tennis. That is a massive morning filler for them, particularly when there are events in Asia.

Oh and no England overseas Tests any more either. So Friday mornings where (say) a Test in India would be leading their coverage, NRL would be a key focus.

[manu266]

17 hours ago, PeterTunks said:

I occasionally watch football on Fox Sports USA and they promote NRL pretty aggressively as "the biggest and best rugby competition on the planet". No mention of it being RL, just "rugby", and they make it look really good to be fair. The Murdochs won't complete their SKY takeover until summer (if it's allowed), but they already hold nearly 40% of SKY, so it makes sense to bring the NRL into the Murdoch fold as far as the UK is concerned. Now the NRL have their app/pass, they don't need the blanket coverage PS provided. I expect SKY's NRL coverage will be similar to their NFL coverage; pretty good, but hardcore fans will want the app too

SKY/Fox positioning itself as "the home of rugby" (if only to hack off BT, NBC etc.) could be good for SL

Fox Sports USA did a decent job to promote the RLWC as well. I've heard that FS USA subscribers will get free access to Fox Sport Australia Watch NRL service, so logically Sky UK subscribers could expect the same...

[tuutaisrambo]

18 hours ago, PeterTunks said:

I occasionally watch football on Fox Sports USA and they promote NRL pretty aggressively as "the biggest and best rugby competition on the planet". No mention of it being RL, just "rugby", and they make it look really good to be fair. The Murdochs won't complete their SKY takeover until summer (if it's allowed), but they already hold nearly 40% of SKY, so it makes sense to bring the NRL into the Murdoch fold as far as the UK is concerned. Now the NRL have their app/pass, they don't need the blanket coverage PS provided. I expect SKY's NRL coverage will be similar to their NFL coverage; pretty good, but hardcore fans will want the app too

SKY/Fox positioning itself as "the home of rugby" (if only to hack off BT, NBC etc.) could be good for SL

To be fair sky show pretty much every live NFL game they can........on sundays they all kick off at 6 or 9pm so they can only show one each of those games live anyway.........they also broadcast Redzone which is basically the best bits of all the other games live.

Only NFL is slow enough that you can watch all the games at once and not miss anything important 

As others have said the staggered KO times in the NRL and early morning KOs will probably allow SKY to show every game live.

Last time i checked they were showing second tier union games from SA, NZ and England.......surely top flight NRL will bring in larger viewing numbers than that rubbish.

[thepimp007]

On 11/25/2017 at 5:17 PM, DeadShotKeen said:

Oh no! Premier show every game and it's really good value at £12 a month. There's no way that Sky will offer the same coverage and it's more expensive. I don't care for Super League post-licensing so don't have Sky and I'm not going to take it out just for the odd NRL game or a highlights package. This is thus a hammer blow for me (and for the growth of the sport in this country I would say). Really worrying stuff - hope it's not true but I guess that's hope against hope. 

Hammer blow for the growth of sport in our country not televising matches from another country? The bigger blow is not showing championship rugby not what the Aussies are doing

[Dave T]

4 hours ago, thepimp007 said:

Hammer blow for the growth of sport in our country not televising matches from another country? The bigger blow is not showing championship rugby not what the Aussies are doing

DSK makes the mistake that of thinking everybody wants what he wants, whereas he is the outlier. Being an outlier isnt a criticism by the way, but you cant let it cloud your judgement.

The audience for the NRL will be modest but it would be a very nice addition to Skys RL coverage and would give RL a bigger presence overall and hopefully confirm skys commitment to the sport.

As you point out, there is more interest in the uk in the championship, which used to get higher viewing figures - although the time slots are not like for like.

If Sky showed SL, Championship, TWP and NRL, plus some internationals, they could probably do that for relatively modest costs and could rightly start to push a Rugby channel.

[Copa]

7 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If Sky showed SL, Championship, TWP and NRL, plus some internationals, they could probably do that for relatively modest costs and could rightly start to push a Rugby channel.

They could also pick up the NSW and Queensland Cup very cheaply if they wanted more rugby filler.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

9 hours ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

Oh and no England overseas Tests any more either. So Friday mornings where (say) a Test in India would be leading their coverage, NRL would be a key focus.

Point of Order - BT sport have the rights to Australian Cricket for 5 years from 2016. SKY have the rest.

Mind you as SKY has a dedicated Cricket channel. It should have no impact on the NRL which as some have pointed out on the forum would be cheap filler content for SKY sports action and SKY sports mix. - And NIL cost for existing SKY subscribers  - Win-win as they say...

[thepimp007]

15 hours ago, Dave T said:

DSK makes the mistake that of thinking everybody wants what he wants, whereas he is the outlier. Being an outlier isnt a criticism by the way, but you cant let it cloud your judgement.

The audience for the NRL will be modest but it would be a very nice addition to Skys RL coverage and would give RL a bigger presence overall and hopefully confirm skys commitment to the sport.

As you point out, there is more interest in the uk in the championship, which used to get higher viewing figures - although the time slots are not like for like.

If Sky showed SL, Championship, TWP and NRL, plus some internationals, they could probably do that for relatively modest costs and could rightly start to push a Rugby channel.

Agree totally,  we have a fantastic product (admittedly not as good as i'd say 99-2008) with a far more open game than down under. I love watching NRL but can also understand why some people find it boring.

We need more exposure under Super League. I used to love going to the local on a Thursday to watch the championship games and it gave us early chances to see players like Hardaker before going into SL

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Out of curiosity, has anyone actually heard or read anything about this other than the initial speculation from Steve Mascord, or is this just the usual forum burbling?

[Graham]

As far as i know the facts are :

The NRL have announced that the FOX League Channel will become available to the UK via streaming at watchnrl.com (and presumably an app in time). This subscription service will offer every NRL Match Live with all Fox League programming 24 hours a day including shows like Matty Johns and NRL 360. Price details are yet unknown but an AFL equivalent airing the "Fox Footy" channel costs £22 for a month pass or down to equivalent £10.41 a month if pay for 12 months in one £125 lump sum.

As for a TV deal on top of this, time will tell.

 

 

[DeadShotKeen]

On 11/29/2017 at 7:42 PM, Dave T said:

DSK makes the mistake that of thinking everybody wants what he wants, whereas he is the outlier. Being an outlier isnt a criticism by the way, but you cant let it cloud your judgement.

The audience for the NRL will be modest but it would be a very nice addition to Skys RL coverage and would give RL a bigger presence overall and hopefully confirm skys commitment to the sport.

As you point out, there is more interest in the uk in the championship, which used to get higher viewing figures - although the time slots are not like for like.

If Sky showed SL, Championship, TWP and NRL, plus some internationals, they could probably do that for relatively modest costs and could rightly start to push a Rugby channel.

I'm aware that not many people watch NRL in this country (didn't I already say that in this thread?) - I just don't see how burying it amongst higher profile sports in the TV schedules acts as progress.

What you should be concerned about is that whether we watch SL, NRL or both we are all as RL fans outliers in our own country. I have proposed my long-term solution to this - the modernisation of SL by way of franchising and expansion and then the effective merger of SL and NRL into a world league, which would muscle in on Sky's elite coverage slots. What is yours? 

[Blind side johnny]

On 11/25/2017 at 1:46 PM, Damien said:

Excellent news in my opinion as it brings the game to a much wider audience. For all the plus points of Premier Sports it is small time and preaching to the converted. 

But for those of us who don't present subscribe to Sky Sports how much will it cost? I suspect that this will NOT be good news for many - Premier provided blanket coverage for £12pm; will Sky be as reasonable?

[Damien]

9 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

But for those of us who don't present subscribe to Sky Sports how much will it cost? I suspect that this will NOT be good news for many - Premier provided blanket coverage for £12pm; will Sky be as reasonable?

Probably not but the NRL app may be. Who knows? And of course for many this is great news as they don't have to fork out extra for Premier. 

At the end of the day I think the majority of fans want Rugby League to grow. For me a big part of that is generating as much revenue as possible and reaching as wide an audience as possible. I presume this will generate more money for the NRL and it will certainly reach a wider audience. This is great news. Fans of Premier Sports don't have a device right for every match to be shown for perpetually 

[Blind side johnny]

On 11/26/2017 at 12:13 AM, DoubleD said:

All those moaning about it being on Sky and not wanting to pay for it, should bear in mind that we would not have as successful professional SL competition without their money and by snubbing them it won’t help at renewal time if viewing figures are poor

Being unable or unwilling to afford Sky's prices is quite different from "snubbing" I believe.