BBC Sport website

[gingerjon]

21 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

That's not really the point, and I think it's fair to take issue with these "what about women's football/cricket?" remarks because they are often name with an implication that these sports don't deserve the coverage they get, or that such coverage comes at the expense of RL. 

I pretty much agree with all of this but I want to repeat *again* we have our own women's sport. It's called rugby league. If it really was as simple as some folk seem to think to get coverage of women's sport because snowflakes and political correctness then something more than the "not even halfassed" approach that the game has to the women's competitions would actually be a not bad idea.

But we can't even do that.

[graveyard johnny]

rugby league seems to have been removed from the main yellow choice headings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on the bbc sport website or is it my lapop?

[JohnM]

Its wishful thinking on your part. Its still there.

[gingerjon]

26 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

rugby league seems to have been removed from the main yellow choice headings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on the bbc sport website or is it my lapop?

Oh, this one again.

Go back to bbc.co.uk or stop visiting from a foreign country or VPN and, lo, there it will be.

We do this at least once every three months.

[Eddie]

48 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

In comparison to say rugby league’s viewing figures?

Yes

[Gerrumonside ref]

Just now, Eddie said:

Yes

They are there for you to find on the internet Eddie unless you dispute them of course.

[Pie tries]

On 04/09/2021 at 20:49, clogdance said:

Catalans win the Super League 'league leaders shield' in the most incredible finish to a game I have ever seen. So the BBC have 11 other sports stories (obviously including women's cricket + football) above it on their sports home page. #southernwinkers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Agree. It what we are up against.

Do your bit - complain (I hope RFL media guys do too)

[Eddie]

17 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

They are there for you to find on the internet Eddie unless you dispute them of course.

I was asking for quantification of what he meant. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

In comparison to say rugby league’s viewing figures?

I think he’s answered you then in his last post.

[Johnoco]

2 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I think the BBC saw a positive trend in the growing popularity of women’s football and it’s coverage reflects that.

As for Rugby Union - which competitions are you referring to?

If Super League was shown live on the BBC then you would see more coverage on their website.

As it is we get a lot of coverage as a sport on the BBC given the current attendances and the fact we are exclusively live on a big commercial rival.

Other sports like cricket and RU were 'exclusively live on a big commercial rival'. It didn't stop the BBC discussing them at length and giving them lots of coverage.  

 I am well aware of RLs own shortcomings and am not afraid to criticise where deserved. But the people who make the decisions about what to push or not are human too and they have their own preferences. And RL has never been one of the favoured BBC sports - that's the reality. Which is why it needs to work harder than it does. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I was asking for quantification of what he meant. 

I think he’s covered that in his last post on the subject.

[Johnoco]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

I pretty much agree with all of this but I want to repeat *again* we have our own women's sport. It's called rugby league. If it really was as simple as some folk seem to think to get coverage of women's sport because snowflakes and political correctness then something more than the "not even halfassed" approach that the game has to the women's competitions would actually be a not bad idea.

But we can't even do that.

At the same time, Women's RL teams cannot just piggyback onto a world famous club like Man U or City, Chelsea or Arsenal. So the work is that much harder than the open door that they push at.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Just now, Johnoco said:

Other sports like cricket and RU were 'exclusively live on a big commercial rival'. It didn't stop the BBC discussing them at length and giving them lots of coverage.  

 I am well aware of RLs own shortcomings and am not afraid to criticise where deserved. But the people who make the decisions about what to push or not are human too and they have their own preferences. And RL has never been one of the favoured BBC sports - that's the reality. Which is why it needs to work harder than it does. 

The BBC are going to cover cricket and rugby union because both are popular.

The BBC still covers Super League, but obviously it would cover it more if it had live Super League content.

Honestly this talk of it not being favoured or people in dark corners denying it is conspiracy nonsense.

[Johnoco]

Just now, Gerrumonside ref said:

The BBC are going to cover cricket and rugby union because both are popular.

The BBC still covers Super League, but obviously it would cover it more if it had live Super League content.

Honestly this talk of it not being favoured or people in dark corners denying it is conspiracy nonsense.

No it's not conspiracy, it's blatantly obvious -I only deal in reality. Throwing a scrap like the SL show (broadcast at 3am or something) does not alter that. 

We've discussed this on here numerous times over the years. We don't think there are men in a lab somewhere trying to remove RL but we know it's not one of the favoured sports. Maybe that's warranted? I don't know but I do know it's true.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Just now, Johnoco said:

No it's not conspiracy, it's blatantly obvious -I only deal in reality. Throwing a scrap like the SL show (broadcast at 3am or something) does not alter that. 

We've discussed this on here numerous times over the years. We don't think there are men in a lab somewhere trying to remove RL but we know it's not one of the favoured sports. Maybe that's warranted? I don't know but I do know it's true.

How is it blatantly obvious that Rugby League is not favoured by the BBC?

They promote and broadcast the Internationals, Challenge Cup matches, Super League highlights, live Super League radio broadcasts etc

They cover news stories on all formats especially the BBC website.

That doesn’t sound like an organisation that has it in for rugby league does it?

[graveyard johnny]

14 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

How is it blatantly obvious that Rugby League is not favoured by the BBC?

They promote and broadcast the Internationals, Challenge Cup matches, Super League highlights, live Super League radio broadcasts etc

They cover news stories on all formats especially the BBC website.

That doesn’t sound like an organisation that has it in for rugby league does it?

it does on these forums!

[Johnoco]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

How is it blatantly obvious that Rugby League is not favoured by the BBC?

They promote and broadcast the Internationals, Challenge Cup matches, Super League highlights, live Super League radio broadcasts etc

They cover news stories on all formats especially the BBC website.

That doesn’t sound like an organisation that has it in for rugby league does it?

You aren't reading what I am am writing. I don't think the BBC 'has it in for RL' at all...I never even hinted at that and what they do cover is usually pretty good. OK? No conspiracy.

But they won't go out of their way to push it beyond their basic obligations. You can acknowledge this without being part of some conspiracy theory sect. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Just now, Johnoco said:

You aren't reading what I am am writing. I don't think the BBC 'has it in for RL' at all...I never even hinted at that and what they do cover is usually pretty good. OK? No conspiracy.

But they won't go out of their way to push it beyond their basic obligations. You can acknowledge this without being part of some conspiracy theory sect. 

Give me an example of where they are failing?

[whatmichaelsays]

31 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

You aren't reading what I am am writing. I don't think the BBC 'has it in for RL' at all...I never even hinted at that and what they do cover is usually pretty good. OK? No conspiracy.

But they won't go out of their way to push it beyond their basic obligations. You can acknowledge this without being part of some conspiracy theory sect. 

Because the sport isn't giving them reason to. 

If RL content had amazing traffic and click through stats, they'd cover it. If they had an audience clamouring for that content, they'd cover it. 

Without that, RL has to make it easy for them to write about RL. 

How many players were made available for interview to BBC departments before, during and after the event? How much video content was sent to the BBC? How many quotes, stories and subplots were provided to them? Did Ken Davy go in front of the cameras to talk about what a great weekend it was, or was he in the bar sulking that a French team winning the LLS is not the Brexit he voted for? 

All this stuff is what other sports are getting right. You can't blame the BBC if RL won't do the basics.

[Eddie]

10 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

Because the sport isn't giving them reason to. 

If RL content had amazing traffic and click through stats, they'd cover it. If they had an audience clamouring for that content, they'd cover it. 

Without that, RL has to make it easy for them to write about RL. 

How many players were made available for interview to BBC departments before, during and after the event? How much video content was sent to the BBC? How many quotes, stories and subplots were provided to them? Did Ken Davy go in front of the cameras to talk about what a great weekend it was, or was he in the bar sulking that a French team winning the LLS is not the Brexit he voted for? 

All this stuff is what other sports are getting right. You can't blame the BBC if RL won't do the basics.

How many people are eagerly clicking on a preview of a women’s football game? I know that sport is being picked on on this thread but it has taken over the bbc sports pages as if it’s on an equal footing to the men’s game, yet I have literally never heard anyone mention it in conversation even once, and I don’t believe there is as much public interest as the bbc would have you think. RL has a lot more fans than women’s football or women’s cricket, and more than some of the other men’s sports that they report on such as ice hockey. 

[HawkMan]

This old chestnut about TGG and the beeb. Now roughly I believe the UK has a 60m population,  50 in England,  5 Scotland, 3.5 Wales and 1.5 Northern Ireland.  So let's stick to England, now let's ask how many RL fans are there in England? I'll be generous,  so generous you can call me Mr Generous,  and say 500,000, that's really generous but so be it. 

Thats 1% of 50m, now just counting sports budget,  not overall budget,  do the BBC spend more or less than 1% on RL? What live sports do they have now? Tennis, Athletics,  Snooker and RL are the biggies. No live football except for FA Cup outside of major tournaments,  lots of radio coverage of course. Mustn't forget The Open of course,  but that's just highlights now. So I would say that the BBC spends more than 1% of it's sports budget on RL in a situation where at best 1% are fans, and is therefore blameless regarding any problems RL may have,  QED.

BTW it is a tight call who has more fans, RL or Women's football,  die hard fans probably RL but casual fans probably Women's football as Men footy fans will give it a watch if that's the only football going. I was in a pub at weekend and it was on.

Edited September 6, 2021 by HawkMan

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

Because the sport isn't giving them reason to. 

If RL content had amazing traffic and click through stats, they'd cover it. If they had an audience clamouring for that content, they'd cover it. 

Without that, RL has to make it easy for them to write about RL. 

How many players were made available for interview to BBC departments before, during and after the event? How much video content was sent to the BBC? How many quotes, stories and subplots were provided to them? Did Ken Davy go in front of the cameras to talk about what a great weekend it was, or was he in the bar sulking that a French team winning the LLS is not the Brexit he voted for? 

All this stuff is what other sports are getting right. You can't blame the BBC if RL won't do the basics.

I doubt anyone voting for Brexit didn’t want Catalans to win the LLS because they’re French, that’s just childish. 

[Eddie]

1 minute ago, HawkMan said:

This old chestnut about TGG and the beeb. Now roughly I believe the UK has a 60m population,  50 in England,  5 Scotland, 3.5 Wales and 1.5 Northern Ireland.  So let's stick to England, now let's ask how many RL fans are there in England? I'll be generous,  so generous you can call me Mr Generous,  and say 500,000, that's really generous but so be it. 

Thats 1% of 50m, now just counting sports budget,  not overall budget,  do the BBC spend more or less than 1% on RL? What live sports do they have now? Tennis, Athletics,  Snooker and RL are the biggies. No live football except for FA Cup outside of major tournaments,  lots of radio coverage of course. Mustn't forget The Open of course,  but that's just highlights now. So I would say that the BBC spends more than 1% of it's sports budget on RL in a situation where at best 1% are fans, and is therefore blameless regarding any problems RL may have,  QED.

 

Not a great analogy because your sun assumes that 100% of the population are sports fans and watch sport on tv. It’s probably less than 50%. 

[HawkMan]

12 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Not a great analogy because your sun assumes that 100% of the population are sports fans and watch sport on tv. It’s probably less than 50%. 

So, 500,000 of 25m is 2%. Does the beeb spend 2% of it's sports budget on RL? Yes ....probably. 

Not forgetting the generosity of my initial number of RL fans figure.

Edited September 6, 2021 by HawkMan

[whatmichaelsays]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

How many people are eagerly clicking on a preview of a women’s football game? I know that sport is being picked on on this thread but it has taken over the bbc sports pages as if it’s on an equal footing to the men’s game, yet I have literally never heard anyone mention it in conversation even once, and I don’t believe there is as much public interest as the bbc would have you think. RL has a lot more fans than women’s football or women’s cricket, and more than some of the other men’s sports that they report on such as ice hockey. 

I don't know how many people are clicking on women's football content on the BBC site. I suspect the BBC do have stats and those stats must show that women's football content pays its way. 

But even if, for the sake of argument, we assume that WSL content doesn't perform as well as RL, then the disparity in coverage is down to one of two things. Either the WSL is benefitting from some sort of "woke" agenda that women's RL doesn't, or the WSL is earning that coverage by making it easy for the BBC to write about it. 

I know which one I think it is.