Quote ="Starbug"The last 3 that spring to mind are , leigh - Salford 2001 , Toulouse in 2004 , HKR-Warrington in 2005 , but if they dont cover any potential matches , they never will actually show one
So you admit , the coverage is worthless
I wasn't comparing it to anything
No it isn't if the clubs are losing income from spectators unable to attend midweek , and Championship sponsors tend not to be the type of companies that would benifit from national TV coverage
have you ever heard the term ' Flogging a dead horse ' ? , well TV coverage of the Championships is a dead horse , time to let it go and move on , it serves no purpose , it was bad enough being on SKY , it's only purpose there was to bring in the Co oP sponsorship , which was poor , on Premier Sports it will only be worse'"
From the off, I admit don't know the details of the contract with Premier Sports. I can't find anything on the internet stating what the details are (only a quick google search admittedly), only news reports stating that Premier Sports will be televising it. If you have any links, I would be genuinely interested to have a look. Also, I confess to being a St Helens fan, so I realise that fans of Championship clubs will approach this subject differently.
Personally, I enjoyed the coverage on Sky, and whilst the standard of rugby wasn't as good as Super League, some of the games were more enjoyable than the Super League games on the following days. To that extent, as a rugby league fan, having coverage of this level of competition was, and will continue to be, a good thing.
Had SKY not broadcast the games, and therefore Co-Op wouldn't have come in to sponsor the leagues, who would have? Were there other companies waiting in the wings to sponsor the championship? Would a deal with another company be any better financially? I suspect not. Was the Northern rail sponsorship based on television coverage too, especially the final? Genuine questions - not meaning to argue or dismiss your points.
Playing mid-week isn't ideal, but it isn't exclusive to Championship clubs - Super League clubs will have to play some games on Monday evenings this year, and the chances are that attendances will suffer. However, the TV audience will probably be very good, as there will be no competition from any other sport at that time. It's the same with Championship clubs - Sky couldn't broadcast on Fridays or Saturdays (SL coverage), so it's left with Sundays (when most of the league plays, so potentially much fewer viewers, and double header football), Mondays, or Thursdays - I suspect Thursdays were chosen as there was a gap in the schedules.
Out of curiousity - are there any figures that show what effect being on TV had on attendances?
, but not on SKY 
