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Just now, scotchy1 said:

for those 38. Im talking about the other 30 (minus play-offs) that also happened. 

Other big games didn't have their scheduling created to make sure those 30 games were particularly attractive to broadcasters. Because of that those games would likely not have been screened by Sky whereas the Saints v Wigan ones have. 

This idea that they have all be screened up to now and it is some kind of watershed that this isn't holds a lot less weight when we remember that at the very least 30 regular season games (certainly more, as I said the first game of this season was scheduled as a stand alone game to open the season) have been scheduled deliberately to be on sky. If we hadn't made this deliberate effort it would be almost certain that Sky wouldn't have shown them all and this would be looked at like every other game in SL and wouldn't have people reading massively more in to it than it really shows. 

Or perhaps Sky selected them deliberately for long enough (I mean at some point in the 24 years you've got to imagine the discussion was had that it was basically convention/gentlemens agreement) that we assumed they were always going to be on TV on a friday night. 

I'm as shocked as anyone they've dropped it. 

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4 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

for those 38. Im talking about the other 30 (minus play-offs) that also happened. 

Other big games didn't have their scheduling created to make sure those 30 games were particularly attractive to broadcasters. Because of that those games would likely not have been screened by Sky whereas the Saints v Wigan ones have. 

This idea that they have all be screened up to now and it is some kind of watershed that this isn't holds a lot less weight when we remember that at the very least 30 regular season games (certainly more, as I said the first game of this season was scheduled as a stand alone game to open the season) have been scheduled deliberately to be on sky. If we hadn't made this deliberate effort it would be almost certain that Sky wouldn't have shown them all and this would be looked at like every other game in SL and wouldn't have people reading massively more in to it than it really shows. 

Is the Good Friday Saints v Wigan game a Sky invention?

Genuine question. 

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For me their is no point in comparing scheduling of Man U and Liverpool or now Man City & Man U... as generally their is a high level of interest in those games because the teams have a fan base that goes across the country and internationally... that includes lots of fans of other teams outside premier league that support one of the bigger teams (traditionally Utd, Liverpool but now includes City and few others - success being the factor for youngsters in particular). The viewing figures would traditional be far bigger than run of the mill premier fixtures.

The Wigan v Saints fixture whilst of a similar " playing" status within RL interested parties will not be a hugely different viewing size audience than other SL games- as some have already mentioned.  Plus certainly doesn't help sell any extra sky sports subscriptions. 

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21 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Is the Good Friday Saints v Wigan game a Sky invention?

Genuine question. 

May not be a Sky invention but it pretty much replicated the 'traditional' Boxing Day clash of the sports winter era.

The humbles ran a piece about it on their website earlier this year

https://www.wiganwarriors.com/news/2019-04-18-a-fierce-rivalry

- Adepto Successu Per Tributum Fuga -

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16 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Im not sure what you mean?

It used to be the traditional boxing day fixture that was moved to Good Friday when we moved to summer. Who knows whose idea it was, id guess it was just a continuation of that. 

I honestly don't think Sky have that level of involvement in the planning of fixtures. What would we do if one of them were relegated? 

We played derby matches on Good Friday in the old “winter” season. They didn’t have to move the Boxing Day game to Good Friday because there were games played already on that day.

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51 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Is the Good Friday Saints v Wigan game a Sky invention?

Genuine question. 

No, and it predates summer rugby. 

For instance, in the 1962-63 season, Wigan lost to Saints at Central Park on Good Friday before a crowd of almost 41,000, their second defeat in this derby fixture that season.  The Knowsley Road clash had eventually been played at 5pm on Tuesday, 26th March, with 21,000 in attendance.  It had been due to be played on Boxing Day, but that match became the first of eleven, consecutive matches to fall victim to the great freeze that winter.

The consequence of the extreme weather was that from Thursday, 7th March, until Wednesday, 29th May, Wigan played 23 competitive, first team fixtures - about one very four days, if my mental arithmetic is correct!

 

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15 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

But we had to move the boxing day games no?

Im not arguing that saints v wigan isn't a massive game in RL or that its not one of the most attractive games to broadcasters, it definitely is. Im just saying that it isn't on such a different level to every other game that it had to be shown every time and it not being shown this time is some kind of watershed moment for the game. We got to this point because we built the game up and put it in a position to be attractive. That this specific one isn't, isn't a reflection really on anything. 

In every other season Sky have been covering super league its been bigger than KR v Leeds.

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28 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

As I said at the beginning, there are a lot of things that go in to the considerations of which game to show, you are creating a correlation between this concept of the 'size' of a game and skys decision to show it which isn't a true reflection of the situation. If it were then Sky's 2 games per week would be just the Leeds and Wigan games. 

They would never show, for instance Salford v Hudds. 

Iirc they have to show each team a certain number of times. Hence why Hudds are very rarely shown on TV at home. 

Also lets be real sky is joked about as being a Leeds/Wigan/Saints season ticket anyway on most fan pages at some point. Excluding Catalans games it'd be hard to find a SL weekend that didn't include at least one of those clubs.

Also I'll reiterate, as an RL fan, had my team (Leeds) not happened to be playing on the same night, I love watching saints v wigan as it always provides the kind of primeval, visceral hits alongside the top class skill too

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3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Whats interesting from a Sky/SL TV rights negotiation is the thought process behind this.

Is it "we don't want loop fixtures, neither do the clubs as they struggle to sell tickets". In that case Loop fixtures will have to go - they've diminished one of the biggest games in the League.

Or is it "Leeds are a big draw on TV and KR travel well and its a 4 pointer so its probably a better game to show" in which case we face the dilemma of SL being more interesting with p/r but also everything that comes with that. Including of course the risk of a big TV draw team like "Leeds" being relegated.

Who does want loop fixtures?

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1 minute ago, Gooleboy said:

Who does want loop fixtures?

 

1 minute ago, deluded pom? said:

The chairmen.

Agreed. Carter at wakey said they cannot survive off less than 13 home games a season or something.

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4 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Its usually one of the best quality and most intense games of the season. As an RL fan I enjoy watching that. As Leeds v HKR is on the same night I'll be going to headingley to watch that however and would have been regardless of whether it was on TV or not. 

The interest in the Leeds v HKR is not one of HKR possibly going down.  I am afraid for those fans, of HKR, the wider public do not care. It's a shame but there it is.

No; in the modern, Jeremy Kyle, world the "pulling wings of flies" interest is that of Leeds. The other way to look at it is the rubbernecking at an accdent.  There is a long word in German, that I cannot spell, that covers it... SKY will be expecting it's viewers to be drawn to the morbid fascination of Leeds possibly being relegated.

This may be not fair to Leeds, but it's matters not a jot to viewers if either Wigan or Saints win their game... Saints will finish top anyway and Wigan are only trying to climb out of mid table. 

(BTW. despite Wire busting a gut to big up their game this week, it's all the other matches that actually offer real meaning)

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what a massive opportunity for the Our League app viewing figures would be through the roof and would probably break the app.

Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time(roger waters)

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This is a bonkers decision. Wigan v Saints is the biggest game the sport offers outside the major finals, in terms of crowd numbers and viewing figures. Rivalled only by Leeds v Bradford when both were in their pomp. The idea that we should drop it, when Saints in particular are playing some of the best rugby SL has seen in years, and Wigan are starting to put some wins together, for a match between two poor quality basement-dwelling sides is ridiculous. People don't watch sport to see who comes last. They watch it to see who wins.

When I think about how many dreary Humberside derbies we've sat through where one side (usually Hull) is much further up the table than the other (usually KR), the idea of dropping the biggest fixture seems even more bizarre.

 

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1 hour ago, Roy Haggerty said:

This is a bonkers decision. Wigan v Saints is the biggest game the sport offers outside the major finals, in terms of crowd numbers and viewing figures. Rivalled only by Leeds v Bradford when both were in their pomp. The idea that we should drop it, when Saints in particular are playing some of the best rugby SL has seen in years, and Wigan are starting to put some wins together, for a match between two poor quality basement-dwelling sides is ridiculous. People don't watch sport to see who comes last. They watch it to see who wins.

When I think about how many dreary Humberside derbies we've sat through where one side (usually Hull) is much further up the table than the other (usually KR), the idea of dropping the biggest fixture seems even more bizarre.

 

Maybe just maybe outside of rl circles,  Saints v Wigan isn't the big draw for casuals sports fans as some rl fans seem to think it is.  Some fans of the big clubs are going to struggle with this idea.

if this is the biggest game for rl fans and sky ain’t bothered then it might be time to start worrying about the next deal they’ll be offering?

leeds Wigan saints etc.. just small towns in the north to the non rl fan and to grow the game and keep sky interested they need to be more associated with rl. 

if these clubs are loosing there influence with tv maybe the superleague will have to start looking at what benefits the whole game and not what’s just in the best interest of the “big” clubs.

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7 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Half the commentary team have played in this game. I'm pretty sure they understand at sky how big this is every time its played. Sky pick marquee fixtures regardless hence them picking saints v leeds last weekend rather than the other games that were almost all closer games table wise.

Its like the Premier League fixture between Liverpool and Man U not being shown. Sky have had this game, and almost certainly expected this game to be shown, for the past 24 years! 

The only difference is the loop fixture nature of this fixture as far as I can see. Reverse side of this is if there was no relegation no way would Leeds v Hull KR be shown instead. 

I can think of 3 Liverpool v MU Premier League games that haven't been televised by Sky - the first two PL seasons and one in 2004. A few Merseyside Derbies too.

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27 minutes ago, Richard de la Riviere said:

I can think of 3 Liverpool v MU Premier League games that haven't been televised by Sky - the first two PL seasons and one in 2004. A few Merseyside Derbies too.

Wow 1992 and 93 oh my god, what was super league doing then? Showing Wigan v Saints?

The Merseyside derbys are almost always on sky or BT these days. (I say "almost" always as I may be wrong about the game at Goodison in the 2014 season but you get my point).

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2 hours ago, Roy Haggerty said:

This is a bonkers decision. Wigan v Saints is the biggest game the sport offers outside the major finals, in terms of crowd numbers and viewing figures. Rivalled only by Leeds v Bradford when both were in their pomp. The idea that we should drop it, when Saints in particular are playing some of the best rugby SL has seen in years, and Wigan are starting to put some wins together, for a match between two poor quality basement-dwelling sides is ridiculous. People don't watch sport to see who comes last. They watch it to see who wins.

When I think about how many dreary Humberside derbies we've sat through where one side (usually Hull) is much further up the table than the other (usually KR), the idea of dropping the biggest fixture seems even more bizarre.

 

But it is essentially a ' dead rubber ' even with the games left , Saints aren't being caught , Wigan could make 4th but are unlikely to be dragged into the relegation fight now 

Leeds-Rovers on the other hand is now a very big game , London obviously haven't read the script , naughty lads they are , so now it's game on 

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10 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

But it is essentially a ' dead rubber ' even with the games left , Saints aren't being caught , Wigan could make 4th but are unlikely to be dragged into the relegation fight now 

Leeds-Rovers on the other hand is now a very big game , London obviously haven't read the script , naughty lads they are , so now it's game on 

Hence why I think it says more about both loop fixtures and relegation than anything else.

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10 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Well I mean it says it all there really. Saints home game against Wigan will be the first non televised SL derby ever - whoever said loop fixtures were a great idea.

Instead Sky have gone with the much more crucial for the season clash of Leeds v KR at Headingley. The Thursday night game is Hull v London too. Clearly the relegation battle is more interesting! Either that or Leeds are such a huge draw Sky wants as many of their games on as possible before we potentially go down???

 

You could always get off your sofa and go to Saints, buy a ticket and watch it live marra.

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