2021 TV coverage

[giasf]

Have SL put forward any clear plan to televise non-SKY games for 2021 in the event that crowds are not allowed in - as seems likely for at least the start of the season?

I am not a season ticket holder at my club and was very disappointed that there was no facility via Our League to buy virtual tickets to watch matches last season. There really needs to be some investment to enable this is SKY are not going to be showing all matches in the round.

[ATLANTISMAN]

7 minutes ago, giasf said:

Have SL put forward any clear plan to televise non-SKY games for 2021 in the event that crowds are not allowed in - as seems likely for at least the start of the season?

I am not a season ticket holder at my club and was very disappointed that there was no facility via Our League to buy virtual tickets to watch matches last season. There really needs to be some investment to enable this is SKY are not going to be showing all matches in the round.

I am sure plans are well advanced:)

 

P 

[Dave T]

18 minutes ago, giasf said:

Have SL put forward any clear plan to televise non-SKY games for 2021 in the event that crowds are not allowed in - as seems likely for at least the start of the season?

I am not a season ticket holder at my club and was very disappointed that there was no facility via Our League to buy virtual tickets to watch matches last season. There really needs to be some investment to enable this is SKY are not going to be showing all matches in the round.

This is potentially a tough one to resolve.

My understanding is that OurLeague will show non-televised games and can be watched by season ticket holders in case entry is not allowed. If this is extended to any pay per view offering, it does start to conflict with Sky's contract and basically gets rid of exclusivity. 

I think there are a couple of options here. Firstly, and the best one is for Sky to show every game again, and I think that is what we should be looking for at the start of the year. Alternatively, if our broadcast coverage is less than Sky would broadcast, we should see about them showing the coverage on skysports.com where lesser quality coverage is more acceptable (they did this in the first year of the Super 8s).

The situation last year where we staged some games behind closed doors only on OurLeague for members - meaning that a standard RL fan could not just watch this game, either on TV or by buying a ticket and going - was not good enough. 

[M j M]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

This is potentially a tough one to resolve.

My understanding is that OurLeague will show non-televised games and can be watched by season ticket holders in case entry is not allowed. If this is extended to any pay per view offering, it does start to conflict with Sky's contract and basically gets rid of exclusivity. 

Yes this will require a bit of buy in from Sky - does anyone know if other leagues have had agreement from broadcasters to go around their exclusivity like this? 

I guess Sky will already have had to ok the streaming to season ticket holders.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, M j M said:

Yes this will require a bit of buy in from Sky - does anyone know if other leagues have had agreement from broadcasters to go around their exclusivity like this? 

I guess Sky will already have had to ok the streaming to season ticket holders.

Looking at the RU Prem, BT are showing every game during lockdown, with some on their app (season ticket holders get free access to these games). 

This is probably similar to my solution that instead of OurLeague hosting this, it is done by Skysports.com which still makes it a benefit to their subscribers. 

Obviously football went with the PPV model which was abandoned after a few games. But the EFL are showing games online that are not on Sky Sports. 

TBH, I think it is poor that we have paid money back to Sky when they are showing more games - you'd have thought that we would have negotiated rights to non-TV games as part of that.

[whatmichaelsays]

10 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Looking at the RU Prem, BT are showing every game during lockdown, with some on their app (season ticket holders get free access to these games). 

This is probably similar to my solution that instead of OurLeague hosting this, it is done by Skysports.com which still makes it a benefit to their subscribers. 

Obviously football went with the PPV model which was abandoned after a few games. But the EFL are showing games online that are not on Sky Sports. 

TBH, I think it is poor that we have paid money back to Sky when they are showing more games - you'd have thought that we would have negotiated rights to non-TV games as part of that.

I'd agree that using Sky's platform would be the ideal way to go. It's established infrastructure and has an audience mass. 

Our League is a perfectly fine app for free content, but we saw last year that fans struggled getting links to work and had buffering issues. Does the RFL have the capacity to scale-up the sort of server, security and customer service infrastructure that a PPV model would require?

[Ramon Rojo]

I simply cannot see spectators being allowed into grounds during 2021, not the way the Government are managing the crisis & definitely not regards the way idiotic sections of our population are performing.

With Football and Cricket being continually disrupted by clubs & players breaching Covid rules there'll be plenty of opportunities for Sky to cover every Super League game again. However, seeing the way in which poorly managed clubs such as Wakefield have been carrying on recently it seems certain Rugby League will also endure Covid related postponements during the season. One has to hope potential fixture backlogs don't cripple the scheduled rounds of fixtures because of this.

Quite frankly the fact Sky will show so many games live is a massive boost for the watching public marooned at home (unless you're one of the many Covid Deniers doing as you please).

Hopefully we might get an opportunity to go along to a ground and watch a game live sometime mid 2022

(Compliance willing that is ).

 

[M j M]

It's a Super League problem really - the RFL have done not an ok job with the app even with the teething issues and it's to their credit that they let SL use it for their games when it wasn't really designed for that.

Hopefully if its use is needed again next season SLE will stump up some cash to make improvements rather than, as usual, leaving the difficult bits of administering the sport to the RFL.

[Toby Chopra]

I imagine we'll also see some double headers again on Sky from the same stadium like we did last year. 

It's one way we can make things up to them if we have to delay and/or reduce the number of rounds. 

[Dave T]

21 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

I imagine we'll also see some double headers again on Sky from the same stadium like we did last year. 

It's one way we can make things up to them if we have to delay and/or reduce the number of rounds. 

I think this will be the case. I also think we should adapt it a bit this year in having games split across two grounds over two days. I think we should be splitting games across the West and East of the Pennines to try and reduce the travel requirements. I don't think we are being too responsible staging a Hull derby at St Helens for example which I think we did last year. 

If we want to stage games in blocks, two venues over two days should be fine, as Sky would normally move their equipment to the two venues anyway. 

Or something like one venue used for Thurs/Fri and then another venue used for three games across the Saturday/Sunday period to allow for flexible scheduling to fit in for Sky Sports.

[RS50]

On the subject of TV coverage, can anyone tell me who, if anyone, is televising the World Cup? Thanks

[Jack Russell]

10 minutes ago, RS50 said:

On the subject of TV coverage, can anyone tell me who, if anyone, is televising the World Cup?

The BBC have said they are showing every minute of every game live, of all three tournaments. Aswell as bbc1 and 2,  you would assume red button and online would play a big part.

[thebrewxi]

6 minutes ago, Jack Russell said:

The BBC have said they are showing every minute of every game live, of all three tournaments. Aswell as bbc1 and 2,  you would assume red button and online would play a big part.

Really? I find that unlikely. I didn't realise they were planning that; Premier Sport picked up all the ones the BBC didn't show last time

[LeeF]

Just now, thebrewxi said:

Really? I find that unlikely. I didn't realise they were planning that; Premier Sport picked up all the ones the BBC didn't show last time

As unlikely as you may think that is definitely what will happen

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, LeeF said:

As unlikely as you may think that is definitely what will happen

"A total of 61 games shown live on BBC One or BBC Two, with highlights shows in the evening and coverage across BBC Sport online and BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/54623157

[thebrewxi]

" 61 games shown live on BBC One or BBC Two"

Bloody hell! Fair play BBC, that's all the men's, women's and wheelchair's  games is it? All live on BBC1 or BBC2 terrestrial?

[DI Keith Fowler]

2 minutes ago, thebrewxi said:

" 61 games shown live on BBC One or BBC Two"

Bloody hell! Fair play BBC, that's all the men's, women's and wheelchair's  games is it? All live on BBC1 or BBC2 terrestrial?

Yeah 61 would be every game I think. If that's true, and it looks to be, it's very, very impressive. It's not like these games are on at odd times they're all good slots. 

[thebrewxi]

10 minutes ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

Yeah 61 would be every game I think. If that's true, and it looks to be, it's very, very impressive. It's not like these games are on at odd times they're all good slots. 

Let's see if it is, and there is no U-turn

Remember now what they said "61 games shown live on BBC One or BBC Two" !

 

I'm only being cynical and hinting this my not happen as I can't believe on Sunday 7th November BBC2 is going to hand over it's entire afternoon schedule of say 5 hours of Tonga V Cook Islands and Lebanon V Jamaica.

Clearly I will be watching whatever channel/stream it is on and I truly hope it is BBC1 or 2.

 

[Jack Russell]

For all the knockers of the bbc, that a massive commitment from them.

[thebrewxi]

I've just realsied, on Sat 13th November there are 4 games on, starting at midday and ending about 9 o'clock! With the games likely to feature both the Men and Women's teams for both England and PNG! 

Sounds a great day! My family are going to be really p***ed off with this

[Man of Kent]

18 minutes ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

Yeah 61 would be every game I think. If that's true, and it looks to be, it's very, very impressive. It's not like these games are on at odd times they're all good slots. 

 

15 minutes ago, thebrewxi said:

Let's see if it is, and there is no U-turn

Remember now what they said "61 games shown live on BBC One or BBC Two" !

 

I'm only being cynical and hinting this my not happen as I can't believe on Sunday 7th November BBC2 is going to hand over it's entire afternoon schedule of say 5 hours of Tonga V Cook Islands and Lebanon V Jamaica.

Clearly I will be watching whatever channel/stream it is on and I truly hope it is BBC1 or 2.

 

I share your cynicism. The original press release said 16!

[DI Keith Fowler]

2 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

 

I share your cynicism. The original press release said 16!

Just had a look, says at least 16 of the mens on BBC 1 or 2, nothing about Women's or wheelchair. I don't know if somethings changed or the writer of the new article got carried away!

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

Just had a look, says at least 16 of the mens on BBC 1 or 2, nothing about Women's or wheelchair. I don't know if somethings changed or the writer of the new article got carried away!

""Every minute of every game is live on the BBC domestically ..."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53487776

[DI Keith Fowler]

Just now, gingerjon said:

""Every minute of every game is live on the BBC domestically ..."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53487776

That could mean red button though couldn't it?

[gingerjon]

Just now, DI Keith Fowler said:

That could mean red button though couldn't it?

Absolutely it could but it's still a commitment to show every game - and in the context of an article covering all three tournaments.

I'd be very surprised if all games from all tournaments were on terrestrial but they are clearly making a commitment to covering everything - so we won't need to be bothering with Premier Sports or similar.