Sky Sports halves offer for TV rights

[langpark]

23 minutes ago, Damien said:

In Australia it is very much a sellers market when it comes to RL. It has ways to fight back against TV companies and has ways it can counter poor treatment. It certainly doesn't have all its eggs in one basket. RL in the UK doesn't. If no one else wants RL other than Sky,  which has evidently been the case for as long as I can remember, who also demand exclusivity then its a pretty hard position to be in.

Ok, I understand what you're saying.  But surely this was the perfect time to make a change to that arrangement.  If Sky have said, we want to half the amount we are paying you, THAT would have been the perfect time to force them to compromise on their exclusivity demand.  I realise I may be over-simplifying, I just hope every effort was made and that we didn't just surrender without a fight.

[Tommygilf]

I think I've put this point every time the "Sky will offer us less" point comes up but here goes.

We have to balance the lack of visibility of being behind a paywall with the monetary value of Sky investment. If that doesn't add up then we need to either look elsewhere or at least diversify our viewerbase.

A good scenario we emerge from this with is that Super League has 3 games a week televised on Sky, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, (+1 extra if Catalans are at home) with Sky getting first pick of the games as the main broadcaster. At least 1 game a week on an FTA broadcaster on say Sunday afternoon and the rest on OuRLeague or another platform. 

[Damien]

13 minutes ago, langpark said:

Ok, I understand what you're saying.  But surely this was the perfect time to make a change to that arrangement.  If Sky have said, we want to half the amount we are paying you, THAT would have been the perfect time to force them to compromise on their exclusivity demand.  I realise I may be over-simplifying, I just hope every effort was made and that we didn't just surrender without a fight.

If Sky don't pay enough for that exclusivity and there is no premium attached then it gets to the point where we need to say no to Sky and look elsewhere. Whether the game can afford to do that is another matter.

[GeordieSaint]

59 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Absolutely, spot on. Its the same thing trotted out again and again.

We’ve had it on this thread... strengthen the heartlands/North. Been trying that for 125yrs. 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, GeordieSaint said:

We’ve had it on this thread... strengthen the heartlands/North. Been trying that for 125yrs. 

I know, its funny when it masquerades around some sort of intelligent argument but ultimately collapses back to this.

 

[sweaty craiq]

57 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I know, its funny when it masquerades around some sort of intelligent argument but ultimately collapses back to this.

 

16m people live in the North - 14m have probably had no contact with RL or RU. Huge expansion potential in a population bigger than Queensland and NSW combined.

We dont fail because of lack of expansion, we fail because we are incapable of collecting low hanging fruit to grow our profile and value, and after this failure we expect the new area to flourish.

Expansion is staring us in the face in the North, London and France - lets focus on those areas and see where we go if income is slashed.

I would even suggest we get into bed with the soccer giants in order to achieve the above eg Newcastle Thunder with NUFC, Leigh with Man U, etc

[iffleyox]

13 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

16m people live in the North - 14m have probably had no contact with RL or RU. Huge expansion potential in a population bigger than Queensland and NSW combined.

We dont fail because of lack of expansion, we fail because we are incapable of collecting low hanging fruit to grow our profile and value, and after this failure we expect the new area to flourish.

Expansion is staring us in the face in the North, London and France - lets focus on those areas and see where we go if income is slashed.

I would even suggest we get into bed with the soccer giants in order to achieve the above eg Newcastle Thunder with NUFC, Leigh with Man U, etc

Is it staring us in the face, or have we missed the boat? 

I just keep coming back to, strange as it may seem, maybe people just don't want to watch it and the competition for other things to do with their time is immense - more probably than at any time in history. I love it, you love it, but I also find it difficult to believe that there're 14 million people sitting there just waiting to fall in love with it.

I mean, there're some, sure. And we probably need to do more to get them on board, but I don't think it's the whole answer. 

I could see a link-up between Thunder and NUFC if they weren't owned by Falcons' owner. He's got a vested interest in those two clubs combining to maximum advantage before the football club I'd have thought. 

But in a Leigh and MUFC alliance, what's in it for MUFC?

[GUBRATS]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

In Australia it is very much a sellers market when it comes to RL. It has ways to fight back against TV companies and has ways it can counter poor treatment. It certainly doesn't have all its eggs in one basket. RL in the UK doesn't. If no one else wants RL other than Sky,  which has evidently been the case for as long as I can remember, who also demand exclusivity then its a pretty hard position to be in.

Exactly , so who does Mr Elstone have to bargain with ? 

[The Rocket]

1 hour ago, redjonn said:

don't disagree but wouldn't it be better looking at the non injury substitutions allowed and being able to put players on, then off and then on again... once substituted it should be you can't go back on, plus limit the number of substitutions... Isn't it the later parts of the game in which the play used to open up more...

Personally I hate the fact that you can bring a bloke on for 20 mins, rest him for 20, bring him on again, etc etc.. it keeps the game more about the coaching like NFL then about the players on the pitch/selected for the 80mins.

I know its slightly off topic but is a factor in the whole game approach...

I think you have bought up this suggestion before and it caught my eye then. In its own way it is quite radical and it does bring back memories of the days when teams were out on their feet at the end of games. It is amusing because sometimes commentators talk about players and teams being exhausted at the end of games, but I can remember in bygone eras at the end of some games when blokes could hardly get off the deck and doing a hit up was a struggle. The forwards in particular were absolutely knackered. Would that be a problem for modern audiences, I`m not sure.

I wouldn`t write it off at all but as I said it is quite radical.

 

[Tommygilf]

26 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

16m people live in the North - 14m have probably had no contact with RL or RU. Huge expansion potential in a population bigger than Queensland and NSW combined.

We dont fail because of lack of expansion, we fail because we are incapable of collecting low hanging fruit to grow our profile and value, and after this failure we expect the new area to flourish.

Expansion is staring us in the face in the North, London and France - lets focus on those areas and see where we go if income is slashed.

I would even suggest we get into bed with the soccer giants in order to achieve the above eg Newcastle Thunder with NUFC, Leigh with Man U, etc

Absolutely, but no one wants to be called Manchester or have a new Manchester teams in the League, Liverpool is too much effort, York "has never worked" and Sheffield gets the same anti-expansion abuse London, Catalans and latterly Toronto have got.

I'm not saying that to be obtuse, I'm sure it annoys you as much as it does me.

[The Future is League]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

Absolutely, but no one wants to be called Manchester or have a new Manchester teams in the League, Liverpool is too much effort, York "has never worked" and Sheffield gets the same anti-expansion abuse London, Catalans and latterly Toronto have got.

I'm not saying that to be obtuse, I'm sure it annoys you as much as it does me.

And there is the problem for the game.

If we had teams called Liverpool Mariners and Manchester Rangers for example in the pyramid system alongside London at least it would show that we wasn't just game made up of former pit towns

[iffleyox]

10 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

So why didn’t the game try something during the era of Grandstand and Eddie Waring? When most people in the country knew of ‘aHull-Kingston-aRovers’ and an early bath? It didn’t due to the exact same short sighted vision that exists today. 
 

As iifleyox alludes, it might not be that people in the north aren’t aware of RL, it might be that they don’t like it.

In fairness, I wasn't saying they actively don't like it - I was suggesting that they don't care either way. It's not 'I hate rugby league'  so much as 'I'm not interested, any more than I am in model railways, amateur dramatics or crown green bowls'

[Tommygilf]

7 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

And there is the problem for the game.

If we had teams called Liverpool Mariners and Manchester Rangers for example in the pyramid system alongside London at least it would show that we wasn't just game made up of former pit towns

Ironically one of the things that helped Toronto in the lower divisions was having places like Oxford, London Skolars, Coventry etc that they had heard of (and therefore wrongly assumed were half decent) gave the Wolfpack an amount of legitimacy over other comparable NA only rugby competitions

[iffleyox]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Ironically one of the things that helped Toronto in the lower divisions was having places like Oxford, London Skolars, Coventry etc that they had heard of (and therefore wrongly assumed were half decent) gave the Wolfpack an amount of legitimacy other comparable NA only rugby competitions

Meanwhile Oxford had legitimacy locally *because* they were playing 'proper' RL teams from northern pit towns.

Funny old game.

 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, iffleyox said:

Meanwhile Oxford had legitimacy locally *because* they were playing 'proper' RL teams from northern pit towns.

Funny old game.

Exactly, I was just thinking that too as I was typing. Its not a one way street but can be mutually beneficial for totally different reasons.

[redjonn]

40 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

I think you have bought up this suggestion before and it caught my eye then. In its own way it is quite radical and it does bring back memories of the days when teams were out on their feet at the end of games. It is amusing because sometimes commentators talk about players and teams being exhausted at the end of games, but I can remember in bygone eras at the end of some games when blokes could hardly get off the deck and doing a hit up was a struggle. The forwards in particular were absolutely knackered. Would that be a problem for modern audiences, I`m not sure.

I wouldn`t write it off at all but as I said it is quite radical.

 

yep. I mentioned the point in our last interchange... 

[redjonn]

20 minutes ago, iffleyox said:

In fairness, I wasn't saying they actively don't like it - I was suggesting that they don't care either way. It's not 'I hate rugby league'  so much as 'I'm not interested, any more than I am in model railways, amateur dramatics or crown green bowls'

irrespective I do think you make a fair point in your other comment regards the numbers of millions living up North so to speak.

I am not sure clubs/the sport have made a real effort to broaden the sports demographics.  

I just think people expect more facility wise. Leeds for me is a good example of significantly improving facilities aimed at the hospitality - of which the older facilities were far better than any other SL. Now they are light years ahead. 

Leeds corporate/hospitality revenue is far beyond other SL clubs. Plus they organise trips to other type of events for those hospitality customers which enhances the social engagement and interaction that that demographic enjoy. e.g. Wimbledon, Ascot, Albert Hall, etc etc.

They target that demographic with more monies to spend.

That's just one example but their are other demographics to be targeted some of which is done, e,g, families, students, 18-25 year olds... or whatever. Just basic marketing of putting packages and activities that target those specific groups.

  

 

[Tommygilf]

5 minutes ago, redjonn said:

irrespective I do think you make a fair point in your other comment regards the numbers of millions living up North so to speak.

I am not sure clubs/the sport have made a real effort to broaden the sports demographics.  

I just think people expect more facility wise. Leeds for me is a good example of significantly improving facilities aimed at the hospitality - of which the older facilities were far better than any other SL. Now they are light years ahead. 

Leeds corporate/hospitality revenue is far beyond other SL clubs. Plus they organise trips to other type of events for those hospitality customers which enhances the social engagement and interaction that that demographic enjoy. e.g. Wimbledon, Ascot, Albert Hall, etc etc.

They target that demographic with more monies to spend.

That's just one example but their are other demographics to be targeted some of which is done, e,g, families, students, 18-25 year olds... or whatever. Just basic marketing of putting packages and activities that target those specific groups.

 

I'm very hopeful that ontop of the above, Leeds use the World Cup to break into new/underserved markets within the city of Leeds in terms of the general admission tickets

[redjonn]

8 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I'm very hopeful that ontop of the above, Leeds use the World Cup to break into new/underserved markets within the city of Leeds in terms of the general admission tickets

yep, would hope so.   

With the bars, restaurants and such around Headingly I would have thought packaging things together with some of those enterprises. As well as having those join in with the world cup focus promotions and "dressing up" the places in world cup focused decoration.  

 

[Scotchy1]

16 minutes ago, redjonn said:

yep, would hope so.   

With the bars, restaurants and such around Headingly I would have thought packaging things together with some of those enterprises. As well as having those join in with the world cup focus promotions and "dressing up" the places in world cup focused decoration.  

 

One thing that the world cup needs to do, and Leeds are particularly well placed to do, is to have the world cup as a cultural celebration as well as a sporting one. 

The Jamaica games should be a repeat of carnival, dancers, food, drink, music everything.

[Eddie]

Has anyone confirmed that Sky have actually offered this 50% deal, or has someone made it up? 

[Eddie]

40 minutes ago, redjonn said:

irrespective I do think you make a fair point in your other comment regards the numbers of millions living up North so to speak.

I am not sure clubs/the sport have made a real effort to broaden the sports demographics.  

I just think people expect more facility wise. Leeds for me is a good example of significantly improving facilities aimed at the hospitality - of which the older facilities were far better than any other SL. Now they are light years ahead. 

Leeds corporate/hospitality revenue is far beyond other SL clubs. Plus they organise trips to other type of events for those hospitality customers which enhances the social engagement and interaction that that demographic enjoy. e.g. Wimbledon, Ascot, Albert Hall, etc etc.

They target that demographic with more monies to spend.

That's just one example but their are other demographics to be targeted some of which is done, e,g, families, students, 18-25 year olds... or whatever. Just basic marketing of putting packages and activities that target those specific groups.

  

 

I’d have thought students would be a great option for clubs with a Uni in town. When I lived in Sheffield (albeit years ago) both football clubs did huge student discounts and a lot of people took advantage of it. I remember paying £2 to watch Norwich play at Bramall Lane one Sunday (we won 3-2 ). There’s no reason why the same can’t happen with the Rhinos, Bulls, Giants, Hull clubs etc, that is if they don’t already. 

[Big Picture]

1 hour ago, iffleyox said:

Meanwhile Oxford had legitimacy locally *because* they were playing 'proper' RL teams from northern pit towns.

Funny old game.

Which Brits perceived Oxford as legitimate for that reason other than the minority who already followed RL?

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Has anyone confirmed that Sky have actually offered this 50% deal, or has someone made it up? 

Referenced in this report (by Sky) https://news.sky.com/story/australians-approach-rugbys-super-league-about-stake-purchase-12156206

[Scotchy1]

4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Referenced in this report (by Sky) https://news.sky.com/story/australians-approach-rugbys-super-league-about-stake-purchase-12156206

This is about as much confirmation as we are ever going to get.

The last tv deal has been reported as many things, none of which seem to match. 

The SL accounts will tell us something but we are never going to get a full breakdown