THE proposed TV deal to broadcast Championship matches on Premier Sports and screen every match on Premier’s streaming channel now seems to be dead in the water, after RFL directors apparently declined to agree the deal following the vote against it by a majority of the clubs.
The clubs and the RFL would have preferred an arrangement for one game per week to be broadcast, but Premier weren’t prepared to agree to that.
The deal will, however, be left on the table by Premier in case the clubs change their collective minds, although I find it hard to imagine them doing that.
Meanwhile the League One clash between Oldham and Rochdale was shown on The Sportsman website on Sunday and gained a decent audience.
It does seem strange to not have any broadcast outlet for Championship matches.
International frustration
AT the end of June England will play France in Toulouse.
At least that is what we all believe, but it seems that the game can’t be finalised until the RFL receives further details from the French Federation.
I’m not exactly sure what those details are, but I hope they will hurry in providing them, so that at last we can have the international weekend confirmed.
Only in Rugby League could we be just three months out from a major international event and still not have had the game confirmed.
And the same goes for the Test series against Samoa in October and November. Is it on or off? We urgently need to know.
The RFL tell me that we should know for sure by the time the next meeting of International Rugby League takes place in Singapore in two weeks’ time.
