Televised games next season - has it been sorted yet?

[Gerrumonside ref]

14 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

Yes - about time, but why isn’t is £10,000,000 a year.

No - what the hell do they do all day. Thought they were experts?

Thought I’d summarise the next 10 pages for you before they happen. Don’t mention it.

IMG all the forumites, living life in peace…ooohooooo

You may say I’m a dreamer…

 

[corvusxiii]

I'm thinking that this deal, if it happens, will be the  first time RL league matches have appeared live on the BBC. Or has it happened before? Back in the day? 

[The Rocket]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

IMG all the forumites, living life in peace…ooohooooo

You may say I’m a dreamer…

 

but you`re not the only one.

[Futtocks]

45 minutes ago, corvusxiii said:

I'm thinking that this deal, if it happens, will be the  first time RL league matches have appeared live on the BBC. Or has it happened before? Back in the day? 

The sainted Sir David Attenborough, back when he ran BBC2, created the Floodlit Trophy. The odd (to modern eyes) arrangement being that the BBC would show only the second half of each fixture.

But that was a tournament, not a regular league fixture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC2_Floodlit_Trophy

Edited January 10 by Futtocks

[The Rocket]

6 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

These are very exciting developments. I wonder why we are selling 12/27 Saturdays? Or, alternatively, why are the BBC - like C4 last year - not doing this every round?

Also noticed that we seem to have built in a Sunday 1500 fixture most weeks - will that be another property for someone to pick up?

Do you think maybe that is all Sky were prepared to relinquish, realising some FTA coverage is bait to attracting more subscribers, namely those FTA viewers who have decided on seeing the FTA stuff, they want to see more. 

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, The Rocket said:

Do you think maybe that is all Sky were prepared to relinquish, realising some FTA coverage is bait to attracting more subscribers, namely those FTA viewers who have decided on seeing the FTA stuff, they want to see more. 

Sky aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, that's for sure. They've moved away from the exclusive coverage approach to sport over the last 10 years.

Just like when they show free matches on YouTube, it's the gateway drug.

[lemmy xaan]

7 hours ago, corvusxiii said:

I'm thinking that this deal, if it happens, will be the  first time RL league matches have appeared live on the BBC. Or has it happened before? Back in the day? 

I can remember certain league matches being shown (1970s?), such as the Leeds v Cas Boxing Day game when they'd get 18,000 range crowds. Leeds was a popular fall-back for games as they had the undersoil heating and I can recall going to freezing cold league games at Headingley that were on Grandstand. The infamous Leeds v Halifax match with the dog on the pitch (K9) was also, I feel, a league game (possibly the lowest point of morale ever reached in our game). I think it was in the 80s-90s when they decided to only screen cup, JP/Regal and internationals. 

If true, this will be the best ever television season for RL. We forget or are too young to remember how awful RL was once treated. All games (bar CC final) were 2nd half only, the commentary was incomprehensible, no summarisers, no other channel broadcasters, and there was absolutely no context discussion. Relatively speaking, we have it incredibly good at the mo.

[Dunbar]

1 hour ago, lemmy xaan said:

If true, this will be the best ever television season for RL. We forget or are too young to remember how awful RL was once treated. All games (bar CC final) were 2nd half only, the commentary was incomprehensible, no summarisers, no other channel broadcasters, and there was absolutely no context discussion. Relatively speaking, we have it incredibly good at the mo.

Absolutely spot on.  We may have a good moan about who is the worst Sky pundit but as a Rugby League fan, the amount and choice of games to watch is fantastic.

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, lemmy xaan said:

If true, this will be the best ever television season for RL. We forget or are too young to remember how awful RL was once treated. All games (bar CC final) were 2nd half only, the commentary was incomprehensible, no summarisers, no other channel broadcasters, and there was absolutely no context discussion. Relatively speaking, we have it incredibly good at the mo.

I have a memory of a Challenge Cup around 1996 going to extra time - which they cut away from to broadcast the football scores.

[White Chevron on Blue]

It would be great if the BBC could put the Super League Show in the same time slot at 5.30 on Saturday evenings on the weeks when there isn't a live match being shown. It would help to hook in viewers in a habit forming way.

 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

Absolutely spot on.  We may have a good moan about who is the worst Sky pundit but as a Rugby League fan, the amount and choice of games to watch is fantastic.

 

54 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I have a memory of a Challenge Cup around 1996 going to extra time - which they cut away from to broadcast the football scores.

Over the years, we have all had loads of discussions about a) showing every game live and b) showing games on BBC/Channel4/ITV etc. 

I don't think we should understate how much progress we have made here. Clearly we have real challenges around the £££'s value that we are receiving, and I think there are complex reasons for that, but it does rather feel like we are starting to make the best of this changing environment. 

Deals are often sold as being revolutionary, but I genuinely think we may be at that point here. 

[gingerjon]

13 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

Over the years, we have all had loads of discussions about a) showing every game live and b) showing games on BBC/Channel4/ITV etc. 

I don't think we should understate how much progress we have made here. Clearly we have real challenges around the £££'s value that we are receiving, and I think there are complex reasons for that, but it does rather feel like we are starting to make the best of this changing environment. 

Deals are often sold as being revolutionary, but I genuinely think we may be at that point here. 

This means we will have 15-20 live matches on mainstream BBC through the season. That absolutely should be game changing in terms of reach and visibility.

[fighting irish]

21 minutes ago, White Chevron on Blue said:

It would be great if the BBC could put the Super League Show in the same time slot at 5.30 on Saturday evenings on the weeks when there isn't a live match being shown. It would help to hook in viewers in a habit forming way.

 

Great idea.

[JonM]

3 hours ago, lemmy xaan said:

I can remember certain league matches being shown (1970s?), such as the Leeds v Cas Boxing Day game when they'd get 18,000 range crowds. Leeds was a popular fall-back for games as they had the undersoil heating and I can recall going to freezing cold league games at Headingley that were on Grandstand. The infamous Leeds v Halifax match with the dog on the pitch (K9) was also, I feel, a league game (possibly the lowest point of morale ever reached in our game). I think it was in the 80s-90s when they decided to only screen cup, JP/Regal and int

I think this probably will be the first time the BBC has shown live league as opposed to cup fixtures. Obviously in the 1970s when we had Floodlit Trophy, John Player and Challenge Cup games on tv, that covered many weeks of the season.

The Leeds vs Halifax game where K9 came on the pitch was the first round of the Challenge Cup 1977/78. I can't find any instances of the BBC showing league fixtures, or indeed games on Boxing day in the 1970s or 1980s, although regional ITV did once or twice later on.

[Spidey]

40 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

This means we will have 15-20 live matches on mainstream BBC through the season. That absolutely should be game changing in terms of reach and visibility.

Now up to the clubs to to make the most of this reach and visability

[sam4731]

21 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Now up to the clubs to to make the most of this reach and visability

It's a shame because a lot of sponsorship deals would have been sorted before all of this is confirmed. A match on BBC is worth at least triple in sponsorship than one on Sky.

[lemmy xaan]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I think this probably will be the first time the BBC has shown live league as opposed to cup fixtures. Obviously in the 1970s when we had Floodlit Trophy, John Player and Challenge Cup games on tv, that covered many weeks of the season.

The Leeds vs Halifax game where K9 came on the pitch was the first round of the Challenge Cup 1977/78. I can't find any instances of the BBC showing league fixtures, or indeed games on Boxing day in the 1970s or 1980s, although regional ITV did once or twice later on.

At least this one was. But agree, not many.

[RigbyLuger]

1 hour ago, White Chevron on Blue said:

It would be great if the BBC could put the Super League Show in the same time slot at 5.30 on Saturday evenings on the weeks when there isn't a live match being shown. It would help to hook in viewers in a habit forming way.

 

Why they've hidden the first broadcast away in the north only, when the Women's Football Show, covering the English top division, is shown across the UK, is a question they've never given an answer to.

 

It also needs to be a lot better. It comes across as a cheap afterthought 

Edited January 10 by RigbyLuger

[meast]

21 hours ago, dkw said:

Huddersfield should look at this as an opportunity, market the ###### out of it, get sponsorship in, make it a special day.

Would you please forward any suggestions or ideas on what we can do that hasn't been done already to the club as nothing we do seems to work

[meast]

20 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I may have misunderstood the cut and pasted article, but if they are covering Wigan Penrith, then that would be the game on 24th Feb (rather than the Giants one). Which would be fantastic. Hope that makes sense. 

The St Helens game is Sky I believe?

[HawkMan]

15 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

Why they've hidden the first broadcast away in the north only, when the Women's Football Show, covering the English top division, is shown across the UK, is a question they've never given an answer to.

 

 

Rightly or wrongly the answer is obvious. Women's Super League has teams from London ie Arsenal Spurs etc, West Country ie Bristol City,  South ie Brighton, North ie Manchester and Liverpool,  and RL top tier doesn't. Question is, is The BBC confident of getting good viewing figures " darn souf" for RL, obviously not.

Edited January 10 by HawkMan

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I think this probably will be the first time the BBC has shown live league as opposed to cup fixtures. Obviously in the 1970s when we had Floodlit Trophy, John Player and Challenge Cup games on tv, that covered many weeks of the season.

 

I think what probably used to happen is that the BBC liaised with the RFL and the RU so that the major RL weekends (Internationals, Challenge Cup, John Player Trophy) didn't clash with the major RU internationals - generally, Grandstand showed one or other of the sports each Saturday afternoon. So most of the season there was a "big game" from one of the 2 codes to show.

But Grandstand definitely used to show league games on plenty of occasions. The Boxing Day game was a staple in the 1970s, I know because we used to visit my uncle every Boxing Day and he was not only a RL fan but had one of them there newfangled colour TVs, we didn't have one at home and used to be transfixed - the game always seemed to be Leeds (who even then had undersoil heating), often against Wakefield or Cas from memory.

But there were definitely some other league games shown - here's an example from September 1974

Edited January 10 by The Phantom Horseman

[JonM]

Interesting about the Boxing Day games. I obviously didn't do a very good job of searching the tv schedules! I guess I would always have been at an actual game on Boxing day.

So, first live BBC coverage of league fixtures in ~50 years then.

[thirteenthman]

1979 was probably the last Boxing Day league match shown on BBC1 (Leeds v Hunslet). 1980 saw a new deal signed with the BBC which was no longer exclusive, so any matches the BBC didn't show could be offered to ITV. This also saw the end of the Floodlit Trophy. 

[RigbyLuger]

1 hour ago, HawkMan said:

Rightly or wrongly the answer is obvious. Women's Super League has teams from London ie Arsenal Spurs etc, West Country ie Bristol City,  South ie Brighton, North ie Manchester and Liverpool,  and RL top tier doesn't. Question is, is The BBC confident of getting good viewing figures " darn souf" for RL, obviously not.

I get that across England, but no WSL teams are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but the show still gets shown there on first broadcast. Just an odd anomaly.