SKY SPORTS will broadcast all the Super League matches in the early rounds of this season’s competition on their array of sports channels.
No game will be hidden behind a red button or will be streamed on any website.
That is great news for Rugby League fans, who will now be able to watch their team on Sky even if they don’t go to the game.
The problem is that on the first week of action, three matches will be played at exactly the same time.
On the first Friday of the season Sky will broadcast the clash between Leeds and Salford on both Main Event and Arena, while at the same time it will screen Leigh v Huddersfield on Sky Sports Mix and St Helens v London Broncos on Sky Sports Action.
In one sense it’s great to see so much coverage, and Sky should be congratulated for giving those matches such a degree of prominence.
But it also emphasises that no games should clash in that way.
The six matches over the weekend should surely be scheduled so that they can all be watched by anyone wanting to see all six games live.
As it is, the audience for each game will be cut to the bone rather than being consolidated.
Surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult to schedule one game for Thursday, one for Friday, perhaps three for Saturday (kicking off at, say, 1.00pm, 3.30pm and 6.00pm) and one on Sunday.
That would have maximised the audience, which is surely what we should be trying to do, but clubs appear to be getting in the way.
