RUGBY LEAGUE fans have responded in a ‘positive’ manner to Super League’s new streaming service, RL Commercial’s Managing Director, Rhodri Jones, has revealed.
For the first time ever, every Super League fixture will be broadcast on TV or stream with Super League + – the sport’s new streaming service – providing that feature for fans alongside Sky.
So just how well has the streaming service been received?
“It’s been good, there’s been a really positive start. There was always the element of would it work for us? In terms of operationally, there is a lot to consider,” Jones told The League Express podcast.
“Sky have been fantastic through that and so have IMG as we are using Endeavour streaming which is part of the IMG group.
“The support from Sky has always been there, they have just not shouted about it and they’ve made an effort to do that this year.
“And then there is a simple change – there is the change in voices and faces on TV and suddenly everything seems different.
“The quality of Sky has always been there but they have done a really good job of telling people about it this year. The first few weeks, they and the BBC have been excellent.”
The three-year broadcast deal with the BBC has seen the terrestrial giant take over from Channel 4 – and Jones has labelled it a “huge opportunity” for rugby league.
“We were in a good place last year with Channel 4. Having the BBC adds another couple of hundred thousand viewers on top of that.
“The next three years, the game will be as noticeable and will have its biggest possible audience it ever has done.
“It is a huge opportunity. That was always the message from our perspective during the off-season that this will be the most viewed competition it ever has been.
“How we capitalise on that will be key.”
At present, some Super League fixtures clash in terms of kick-off times, so could there be staggered kick-off scheduling the future?
“That’s an interesting one and I think that might be Super League 2.0 in terms of scheduling.
“The challenges we have, half the league don’t own their own stadia so we are always under the pressure of what the other code or round ball sport are doing – take Huddersfield as an example.
“We don’t have a clean home and away ability because stadiums aren’t available so that makes it hard anyway.
“Then to split the round into six segments is also a challenge by virtue of whoever plays on Sunday can’t play Thursday the following week.
“I don’t think having each game standing alone is beyond the realms of possibility but I think week one was a really good example. We had three games on Friday.
“If you look at the first Friday night, cumulatively, it was a really strong performance across the three games but there is a hierarchy of how the games performed.
“If you separated those games out, how would that work? We had Salford and Castleford on Sunday on its own, likewise with Huddersfield and Saints with two games on Friday. We had a bigger audience cumulatively in round two than in round one.
“If we split it across six segments, how would our audience look? We would see a higher cumulative audience because it gives people more chance to watch rugby league – it’s just the devil in the detail that we will look at.”
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