Put the Grand Final on Channel 4?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Yawnion has their final on ITV today 

Time we did the same?

[Tommygilf]

Simulcast must surely be looked at, but then again we do have the Cup final on the beeb too. 

On a broader point, with the next Sky deal the balance has to be struck between finances and exposure. That includes on Sky too with more Main Event slots rather than just arena/action. 

[Sports Prophet]

I wonder if the RFL could pitch out Thursday night footy to the highest bidder. Could Channel 4 show footy every Thursday night with the next contract and would the weekly exposure to that slot bring a few more through the gates for a time slot that traditionally struggles to bring them in?

Would be great if C4 could get on board to show 2 matches a week. Thursday nights and Saturday afternoon. Give Fridays and Sundays to Sky. It really would be great if there were only ever one match played at any one time, to spread the footy over the whole weekend. SL would be much better for it.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Sports Prophet

[Futtocks]

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, C4 decide to bid for more*.

A RL match, even with minimal "pre and post" is over 2 hours of TV. That's a big chunk for Channel 4 to schedule, especially as their weekday evenings seem to be where their main money-spinning shows sit.

However, they have subsidiary channels. Would RL fans accept Thursday night SL on 4Extra or More4? Would regularity build the audience more than main channel exposure?

*every Thursday/Saturday would be a LOT more.

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yawnion has their final on ITV today 

Time we did the same?

I suggested this a few years ago and it got poo-poo’d as it would upset our Sky overlords too much (apparently).

Its not just Union that have successfully done this it’s been done by the NFL for many years in many countries.

Definitely should happen in my view.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

57 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, C4 decide to bid for more*.

A RL match, even with minimal "pre and post" is over 2 hours of TV. That's a big chunk for Channel 4 to schedule, especially as their weekday evenings seem to be where their main money-spinning shows sit.

However, they have subsidiary channels. Would RL fans accept Thursday night SL on 4Extra or More4? Would regularity build the audience more than main channel exposure?

*every Thursday/Saturday would be a LOT more.

They have just shown 3 hours of Gallagher Prem final on iTV...would be easy enough to do.more 

[crashmon]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

I wonder if the RFL could pitch out Thursday night footy to the highest bidder. Could Channel 4 show footy every Thursday night with the next contract and would the weekly exposure to that slot bring a few more through the gates for a time slot that traditionally struggles to bring them in?

Would be great if C4 could get on board to show 2 matches a week. Thursday nights and Saturday afternoon. Give Fridays and Sundays to Sky. It really would be great if there were only ever one match played at any one time, to spread the footy over the whole weekend. SL would be much better for it.

We are much much much smaller than union when it comes to tv interest.....

I'd be amazed if we get any other bidders than sky when it comes up.

[Sports Prophet]

Just now, crashmon said:

We are much much much smaller than union when it comes to tv interest.....

I'd be amazed if we get any other bidders than sky when it comes up.

What, not even Channel 4? Aren’t they still covering SL this year?

[crashmon]

C4 will bid for something similar to what they show now. But I doubt that they have money to bid any more for RL rights above repeating what they have currently

Edited May 27, 2023 by crashmon

[Sports Prophet]

1 minute ago, crashmon said:

C4 will bid for something similar to what they show now. But I doubt that they have money to bid any more for RL rights above repeating what they have currently

Interesting. I would fancy extending their coverage offer to one weekly fixture for little more than the same price.

[crashmon]

don't get me wrong, if C4 can get more games for same money then I would expect them to do this.  But I don't think they will increase what they pay for showing RL much.  C4 don't have a large wad of money to spend

[sam4731]

3 minutes ago, crashmon said:

don't get me wrong, if C4 can get more games for same money then I would expect them to do this.  But I don't think they will increase what they pay for showing RL much.  C4 don't have a large wad of money to spend

Surely it depends on what sort of viewership it's brought in. Showing advertisers big numbers equals big money to spend on SL.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

They have just shown 3 hours of Gallagher Prem final on iTV...would be easy enough to do.more 

That's one game. I was responding to the notion that C4 might try to bid for a weekly SL match or even more.

[Impartial Observer]

2 hours ago, crashmon said:

don't get me wrong, if C4 can get more games for same money then I would expect them to do this.  But I don't think they will increase what they pay for showing RL much.  C4 don't have a large wad of money to spend

I didnt think they paid anything to show the games

[Chris22]

1 hour ago, Impartial Observer said:

I didnt think they paid anything to show the games

I've seen similar reported (decided not to embed the tweet so I don't get banned for posting a rather strong swear word on here!)

John Davidson on Twitter: "But they don’t pay anything for the rights you flaming galah" / Twitter

 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 hours ago, Futtocks said:

That's one game. I was responding to the notion that C4 might try to bid for a weekly SL match or even more.

I think they could and should 

[gingerjon]

13 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I suggested this a few years ago and it got poo-poo’d as it would upset our Sky overlords too much (apparently).

Its not just Union that have successfully done this it’s been done by the NFL for many years in many countries.

Definitely should happen in my view.

The reason the Gallagher Premiership final is on ITV is that the rights value of domestic RU plummeted and so the sweetener was increased FTA opportunities.

Good for them. A fine example.

Two out of the twelve teams in the top division have now gone bust and a third is on the way out.

Exposure is great. Right now, we need the cash.

[glossop saint]

We only have Thursday nights so that Sky have something to fill their schedule. And there's no way that C4 will sacrifice 2+ hours of prime time evening TV for RL. I don't think anyone would win (except a relatively small number of RL fans) from having that.

I could just about see a regular Saturday slot but I still think that is unlikely. Would be good to see though.

The most likely is the original post of a simulcast grand final. Sky and C4 have history of doing this with cricket and I think other sports. I'd like to see it as it really is a showpiece event and could excite neutrals and the uninitiated and bring in new fans. Hopefully it will happen but I'm not sure I've seen it suggested anywhere else. Having said that some of the clickbait media will read this, put it in an article which will then be read by the RFL who will say it is happening and then approach Sky and C4 to be told no and we'll look amateur again. 

[Tommygilf]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

The reason the Gallagher Premiership final is on ITV is that the rights value of domestic RU plummeted and so the sweetener was increased FTA opportunities.

Good for them. A fine example.

Two out of the twelve teams in the top division have now gone bust and a third is on the way out.

Exposure is great. Right now, we need the cash.

Our TV rights also collapsed by what, 40%, in terms of cash each year from Sky. 

We need more of a balance I think, though obviously we also have the Cup that can play a role.

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

The reason the Gallagher Premiership final is on ITV is that the rights value of domestic RU plummeted and so the sweetener was increased FTA opportunities.

Good for them. A fine example.

Two out of the twelve teams in the top division have now gone bust and a third is on the way out.

Exposure is great. Right now, we need the cash.

Haven’t Sky though been reducing the amount of cash they are giving us for our product?  

Their rationale for this undoubtedly being that they see us in decline in terms of popularity amongst people who like sport.

I strongly believe we could arrest that perception by getting the pinnacle of our season live and in front of as many people as possible instead of hiding it behind a paywall.

 

[Harry Stottle]

On 27/05/2023 at 17:11, Futtocks said:

However, they have subsidiary channels. Would RL fans accept Thursday night SL on 4Extra or More4? Would regularity build the audience more than main channel exposure?

Of course they would, but would that be only preaching to the already converted, the question should be "Would non RL fans, go looking in C4's peripheral channels schedule for RL"

We on these pages and other RL platforms and editorials because of the information we recieved was well aware of the programms that the main Channel 4 was offering at the beginning of their broadcasts, but I spoke to quite a few RL fans never mind newbies who did not know they had been screened on 4, I would guess that 4Extra or More4 would be even less popular.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Harry Stottle

[crashmon]

Basically there is less money in sport that their used to be.

Basically you have Football taking most of available money, then Inernational RU which is still a huge draw (32K for Barbarians vs World XV and shown on C5 anybody). Then Cricket following a long way behind in 3rd place.

We are a long way behind even Cricket, we don't have any international game to speak about.