Championship TV deal getting closer

[RigbyLuger]

1 hour ago, Scubby said:

I enjoy championship games but I am not subbing £9.99 for premier sports, I've not even bought a £4.95 on Our League game yet. It's not about the cost, I just have so much sport available to me it passes me by. I have Sky, Watch NRL plus stuff on the internet and terrestrial. A Watch NRL model for non Sky games, shows and Championship games would be great but it needs to be done properly not ad hoc like Our League are doing. I would pay an annual subscription for that.

It's why I'm not as up on the NRL. There's only so much time to spend watching. Some may have more, and that's fine, but not every RL fan watches every game, or even wants to.

[Scubby]

5 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

It's why I'm not as up on the NRL. There's only so much time to spend watching. Some may have more, and that's fine, but not every RL fan watches every game, or even wants to.

I don't disagree with that. However, it has to be more accessible if people do want to watch it - either in one place or FTA. I had actually forgotten that Premier Sports still existed. If they can get coverage on freesports and bag some cash then it will be a result for Championship clubs.

[RP London]

13 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

It's why I'm not as up on the NRL. There's only so much time to spend watching. Some may have more, and that's fine, but not every RL fan watches every game, or even wants to.

totally agree that we don't have time to watch them all but I would also quite like to chose the one I watch when I do have time rather than having to watch the one that the channel deem is the one I should want to watch.. developing Ourleague in this way would give me that option and that is worth a bit more to me. As mentioned you can then also put some out to other platforms but you are in control of that a bit more. 

[Scubby]

27 minutes ago, Chris Taylor said:

Does anybody have any of the historical figures for Premier Sports when the Championship was on around 06/07?

I don't see the Championship or League 1 getting much money at all. Maybe £1m at the most. I know the clubs will most certainly miss the money from TV revenue (who wouldn't), but I'd love to know if any terrestrial channel would be interested in showing it. 

I think the game would be better having a highlights packing on ITV on an Monday evening, like Rugby League Raw (but not that raw)

Clubs are caught between money and strategy at the moment and that is understandable. Terrestrial TV is not hitting the demographic for the game to survive as appealing as it sounds and there is no money in it.

Our League has promise but it doesn't look like any sort of meaningful investment is planned to help it grow. With England coverage, SL, Championship, Women's, Show/Features it should have the potential for subs worldwide paying monthly or annually in 2-3 years. It's perfect for ex-pats and other RL nations. Sadly, the app looks like the game - promising but messy and done on the cheap.

[JonM]

1 hour ago, Scubby said:

Thing is Jon, I would pay for a whole game effort. But I really can't be arsed grazing around YouTube, Twitch, Premier Sports, Sky, Facebook etc.

I'm not sure who at the RFL is responsible for OurLeague, but I think they've done a very good job so far on what is presumably a limited budget, in an organisation not always known for its forward thinking. It does look like the goal is to get to something like what you've outlined. It's only a couple of years ago that we had lots of people on here struggling to actually watch games online, and others (like me) commenting that they'd be happy to pay for it. I suspect we're reaching the point where it starts to make money rather than being a cost. Some kind of hook-up with the NRL app would seem to be worth investigating. It's a bit chicken and egg though - would be a brave decision to forego a Sky SL contract and distribute & monetise the content ourselves. 

I do think there is some value to putting some content on other apps from time to time - any game you watch on Twitch or Facebook you can guarantee there's going to be comments from people who haven't seen the game before and who are interested by what they're seeing.

[RP London]

13 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Clubs are caught between money and strategy at the moment and that is understandable. Terrestrial TV is not hitting the demographic for the game to survive as appealing as it sounds and there is no money in it.

Our League has promise but it doesn't look like any sort of meaningful investment is planned to help it grow. With England coverage, SL, Championship, Women's, Show/Features it should have the potential for subs worldwide paying monthly or annually in 2-3 years. It's perfect for ex-pats and other RL nations. Sadly, the app looks like the game - promising but messy and done on the cheap.

Add to all that the fact that people want choice. With the advent of Sky and all the other channels that have grown people are getting to watch more things (be it quality or quasi reality tv rubbish).. by signing up to the rights being given to a broadcaster you take away an element of choice to the viewer. While this can have its benefits the rights holder normally has to pay a good sum to have that control. Even that model is changing, britbox, netflix etc show that people want to watch whatever they like whenever they like without those in power deciding when they will put the show back on (as they all did with videos etc too but now we can offer more and more and more live programming). 

IMHO this demand will grow over time to also encompass live sport, people will want the option to watch who they want and the match they want and not be dictated to by those companies. We can be at the forefront of this move with the championship, womens, league one etc perhaps then super league to follow which brings in foreign subscriptions. 

its all a great big "might" becuase they do need to spend a bit to make this happen.  

[Scubby]

Just now, RP London said:

Add to all that the fact that people want choice. With the advent of Sky and all the other channels that have grown people are getting to watch more things (be it quality or quasi reality tv rubbish).. by signing up to the rights being given to a broadcaster you take away an element of choice to the viewer. While this can have its benefits the rights holder normally has to pay a good sum to have that control. Even that model is changing, britbox, netflix etc show that people want to watch whatever they like whenever they like without those in power deciding when they will put the show back on (as they all did with videos etc too but now we can offer more and more and more live programming). 

IMHO this demand will grow over time to also encompass live sport, people will want the option to watch who they want and the match they want and not be dictated to by those companies. We can be at the forefront of this move with the championship, womens, league one etc perhaps then super league to follow which brings in foreign subscriptions. 

its all a great big "might" becuase they do need to spend a bit to make this happen.  

Exactly, we get caught up in what people might watch or pay for now against what the model will be in 5 years time. What will 18-35s want to pay for in 2025? They won't want landlines or sky boxes etc. Only problem is the game is so skint it is living hand to mouth so cannot build a model to take us into the new world. They have to grab any money they can beit from Sky or Premier Sports. I wouldn't have said this 5 years ago but the 2 major RL countries in the world need to be working as one global brand. We cannot afford not to.

[Yakstorm]

1 hour ago, Chris Taylor said:

Does anybody have any of the historical figures for Premier Sports when the Championship was on around 06/07?

I'm not sure about 2006/07 but based upon the RFL Annual Reports for 2011 & 2012, it looks to be around 150K per year (give or take as exact figures for what BBC paid for Challenge Cup & Internationals are not available)

Now arguably it may have been more, I'm not sure whether the RFL paid any of the Premier fee straight to Championship clubs as the figures they quote is simply what they kept as revenue.

Considering that Premier took on all the costs for broadcasting, the overall deal would have been worth more.

[JonM]

A pricing comparison - I've been to two ice hockey games in the last 10 years. Just had an email offering streaming of the 4 semi-final games, plus the 3 game final series, for £49. Individual games are £13 (same as the regular season price). No TV contract for British ice hockey (although Premier/Freesports have NHL, Russian & Swedish leagues) so the only way to watch any domestic game at the moment is by paying for streaming. That's a good bit higher than OurLeague. I suspect the total number of fans of Championship RL is probably higher than Elite League Ice hockey in a normal season.

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Scubby said:

Exactly, Our League have actually done the hard work to get it to this point. They now need a V2 that is a complete viewer experience platform. If they can negotiate odd SL games going on there with permission from Sky (plus full replays) you might be onto something. The whole games needs to pull together on this.

If you think what would be a worthwhile package to encourage decent numbers paying a tenner a month (it really can't be much more than people pay for Netflix, Prime or Disney+ - that is the value of quality online TV) - then a handful of Championship games each weekend, plus Challenge Cup, plus maybe one SL game per month, plus the podcast style stuff they are doing - that may be a decent package.

[Smudger06]

1 hour ago, Yakstorm said:

I'm not sure about 2006/07 but based upon the RFL Annual Reports for 2011 & 2012, it looks to be around 150K per year (give or take as exact figures for what BBC paid for Challenge Cup & Internationals are not available)

Now arguably it may have been more, I'm not sure whether the RFL paid any of the Premier fee straight to Championship clubs as the figures they quote is simply what they kept as revenue.

Considering that Premier took on all the costs for broadcasting, the overall deal would have been worth more.

I think part of the deal with Premier was also that Clubs could sign up Premier subscribers and get a payment for each sub directly. 

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

If you think what would be a worthwhile package to encourage decent numbers paying a tenner a month (it really can't be much more than people pay for Netflix, Prime or Disney+ - that is the value of quality online TV) - then a handful of Championship games each weekend, plus Challenge Cup, plus maybe one SL game per month, plus the podcast style stuff they are doing - that may be a decent package.

Yes, and I think the intent is important too. Honestly, Our League stuck at it when it was #### and have done the hard work. That MVP has proven it can get sign ups and stream matches in decent quality to 1000s of viewers. The ambition has to be to take it to the next level. I have given it the swerve this year because of my early experiences but they are ironing things out it sounds.

League has to look at investing its way forward. When I found out RL Cares was being done properly I chipped in. If an Our League platform was taken to the next level (serious next level) I would part with £100+ per year to support the game as much as anything else. Also, knowing that the really valuable unique content was in one place and delivering a quality experience. Until you do the latter you cannot expand to ex-pat and overseas subscriptions.

 

[RP London]

13 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Yes, and I think the intent is important too. Honestly, Our League stuck at it when it was #### and have done the hard work. That MVP has proven it can get sign ups and stream matches in decent quality to 1000s of viewers. The ambition has to be to take it to the next level. I have given it the swerve this year because of my early experiences but they are ironing things out it sounds.

League has to look at investing its way forward. When I found out RL Cares was being done properly I chipped in. If an Our League platform was taken to the next level (serious next level) I would part with £100+ per year to support the game as much as anything else. Also, knowing that the really valuable unique content was in one place and delivering a quality experience. Until you do the latter you cannot expand to ex-pat and overseas subscriptions.

 

it becomes a "go to" then as well.. 

at the moment if i have a spare 30 minutes before bed etc I'll have a quick look at what i have stored on netflix, or I player etc it can become the thing you go "i'll just see what they have put on"/"i'll have a look at some archive stuff" just to kill some time (30 minute shows are great for this sort of thing).. and if they can crack that type of thing people will do it.

[Smudger06]

I think we are all agreed Our League is one of the keys to the future. 

[Smudger06]

Don't need Sky or Virgin or anything, can get Premier Player, you have to buy all 4 Channels though at £10.99 pm so we best become La Liga fans as well haha 

[RP London]

5 minutes ago, Smudger06 said:

Don't need Sky or Virgin or anything, can get Premier Player, you have to buy all 4 Channels though at £10.99 pm so we best become La Liga fans as well haha 

And thats the thing.. i'd pay £10 for just RL content rather than to get Premier Player as daft as that sounds!

[Smudger06]

6 minutes ago, RP London said:

And thats the thing.. i'd pay £10 for just RL content rather than to get Premier Player as daft as that sounds!

Don't mind a bit of Nascar but not massive on Serie A or La Liga.....

[RigbyLuger]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

A pricing comparison - I've been to two ice hockey games in the last 10 years. Just had an email offering streaming of the 4 semi-final games, plus the 3 game final series, for £49. Individual games are £13 (same as the regular season price). No TV contract for British ice hockey (although Premier/Freesports have NHL, Russian & Swedish leagues) so the only way to watch any domestic game at the moment is by paying for streaming. That's a good bit higher than OurLeague. I suspect the total number of fans of Championship RL is probably higher than Elite League Ice hockey in a normal season.

Average of 3043 per game in the EIHL, with far less media coverage than we have.

https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/article/748-attendances-up-over-2019-20-season

[RP London]

10 minutes ago, Smudger06 said:

Don't mind a bit of Nascar but not massive on Serie A or La Liga.....

dont get me wrong.. i'm a general sports fan so i would watch all sorts (though i've not been into my football for quite a while) so if i had it i would no doubt watch stuff i wouldnt normally... but take away the opportunity and i wouldn't miss it (and my wife would probably be a bit happier! [or maybe not])

[Harry Stottle]

17 hours ago, Padge said:

18/6d

 

Owd Bhugger

[JonM]

30 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

Average of 3043 per game in the EIHL, with far less media coverage than we have.

https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/article/748-attendances-up-over-2019-20-season

Yep, 10 teams with an average crowd of 3043 for Elite League Ice Hockey, versus 14 clubs with an average crowd of 2489 for the Championship. So the Championship is slightly higher, although there's all kinds of other factors to take into account when comparing total number of fans. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

There was mutterings on here of a Sky 'Rugby' channel. Sky have SL, NRL and buts if union. Why not stick second tier league/Union best weekend fixtures on top? 

[Spidey]

39 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

There was mutterings on here of a Sky 'Rugby' channel. Sky have SL, NRL and buts if union. Why not stick second tier league/Union best weekend fixtures on top? 

Sky won’t pay for or show Championship RL

[RP London]

44 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

There was mutterings on here of a Sky 'Rugby' channel. Sky have SL, NRL and buts if union. Why not stick second tier league/Union best weekend fixtures on top? 

thats the best mistype for ages  

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 minutes ago, RP London said:

thats the best mistype for ages  

They certainly have big butts