Do you honestly believe it will make that much difference? For example when Scotland are playing do you think spectators who don't normally watch league who may think 'ooh I quite fancy seeing how scotland get on' after finding out it's not available to watch without paying a subscription, will suddenly decide to attend the match?

Sky will always be interested in super league. Its a good product for them!

Last years 4 Nations showed that they are not interested in the smaller international games though.

I wonder if BT vision showed any interest or was premier the only option after BBC got the big games package.

Personally im really happy. If any non RL fans were going to watch a match to see what its like it would be England they would want to watch. England on BBC rest on premier sports.

Premier sports btw i see as great value. £9.99 a month all the NRL, SoO and world cup.

Cant knock it as a RL fan.

I'm sure BT were in the run-in. It was rumoured at one point they were favourires for the rights.

Having all the England games live on Free to Air was the absolute key in any deal for RLWC 2013.

The rest is just window dressing.

If folk want to watch the minor nations then they'll do so, whether it's on Sky, BBC or Premier. No channel is going to pick up massive viewer numbers for Scotland v Tonga or France v Samoa, hence no bidder is likely to have offered a sizeable amount of money for the rights to them.

My understanding is the television rights were sold to IMG. IMG then set up cameras, sound, edit, graphics, big screen for video referee etc.

IMG then sell all the images to BBC and Premier Sports, and you'll see a tiny watermark in the top or bottom corner of the screen like in the 2008 World Cup, and many other major sporting events like the Premier League, Rugby World Cup, Olympics, Cricket World Cup etc.



Yes. I do wonder how much of an impact this will have on the Sky-Rugby League relationship. However until recent years Sky always had international rights included in their Super League deal. The latest domestic broadcast deal was Super League rights only, so in the past Sky were essentially getting international tournaments for free.

Now that has gone, Sky want value for money. They can't be seen to be throwing money at the so-called minor games like USA v Cook Islands and Ireland v Fiji, when in terms of ratings, which affects advertising, they will get a very small figure (because even RL supporters are skeptical about the international game and won't watch it!)

From my understanding of reading the trade press and seeing journalist's Tweets on social media, Sky were never offered a big game in the tournament. It was all given to the BBC.

Yes, its important England get as much exposure on free-to-air TV as possible, but this deal negates a lot of what the RLWC2013 organisers and the RFL wanted - to generate nationwide interest in the tournament for the future of the game all over the country. How? By alienating new and current fans alike from watching the majority of matches. BBC are only showing six of the 28 matches, remember! The rest is only on Premier Sports.

In my opinion Wales, Scotland and Ireland will be feeling very hard done to. They have tried to build up their involvement in the tournament, and for the future of the game in those countries. Many new people taking an interest in whats on their doorstep may turn up on the day in Neath, Cardiff or Bristol, but if they like what they see and want more, as someone above me says, are they going to shell out £10.99 a month for a fixed term to watch the rest of the tournament? No. Which makes it more likely new fans going to those games will see our World Cup as a one time thing and never go or get involved in the sport again.

A solution? BBC and Sky could have shared key matches, like they did in the Four Nations at Wembley two years ago, and give each broadcaster one exclusive England game v either Ireland or Fiji. BBC then get first pick of the quarter finals and semi finals, with both sharing the final like in 2000.

That would have given Sky an incentive to broadcast the remainder of the matches that the BBC weren't interested in, therefore making the entire tournament more accessible in pubs, and to those millions that already subscribe to Sky Sports packages.

If money coming in from the broadcast deal wasn't a big factor, then reducing the price so both BBC and Sky could share games should have been considered.

However on the other side of the coin, and I realise I may be turning back on myself here, if the TV deal was sold onto IMG for them to negotiate with broadcasters, then IMG would have only sold it on for profit and the highest bidder whatever the cost to the good of the game overall.

The RFL sold the job of organising TV rights to IMG Sports Media and so the outcome had nothing to do with the RFL. Sky pulled out of negotiations, which says something about Sky's commitment to our sport at present.

I think the outcome is fine, but then I have access to Premier Sports so I would say that! What is pleasing though is that there will be a rugby league match on the BBC every Saturday for six weeks, and the BBC has first refusal on 13 other games so there could be more. The only disappointment is that the BBC is not showing the whole of the semi final double header at Wembley but of course that might change, depending upon which teams are in the semis.

I suspect that Sky weren't interested in coverage of the RLWC or future Four Nations tournaments. The reason for their lack of interest is the damage it does to the credibility of their SL product... particularly when all our SL players get shown up and the national side is embarrassed again and again on the international stage. After the disastrous out-of-their-depth performances of all our SL players in the RLWC in 2008, it became very difficult for Eddie and Stevo to justify or pretend that their precious SL product was fantastic. I believe Sky's complete lack of interest in covering the NRL these days is for the same reasons. They don't want their SL product shown up for what it is... comparatively speaking of course.

Well you would be wrong.

Yawn

Premier Sports would of picked this up dirt cheap!!

It's good that all the England games will be on the BBC, a broadcaster everyone has access to. Hopefully the highlights shows will be done well and will get broadcast nationally. The only problem with Premier Sports showing the rest for the existing RL fans is that the only way you can have even the option of seeing it is with a Sky subscription but there are a few months for that to be remedied if that is what Premier Sports want.

Except for a few notable exceptions like Wales v Italy and Samoa v Tonga the rest of the games are likely to be one sided, poor spectacles in the main so as far as catching the interest of casual viewers and potential new fans is concerned the tournament won't miss out too much IMO.

Fantastic news,the national team playing live to a national audiance not hidden away on sky

As someone pointed out it means for weeks our sport gets proper exposure to the nation

Seems like a blast from the past and modelled on the 1995 world cup which was a huge success,33k on at wigan for england v fiji an attendance they can only dream about now adays

The beeb showed the main matches and the old sattilite channel pre sky showed the other matches which meant fans actually want along to watch as very few had access to the channel

Like someone said no eddie and stevo that as to be worth 100million alone without listening to them prattle on and on and on

Will Wales' games be shown on BBC Wales?

Are they selling the online rights separately?

£80 for a years subscription looking better by the week.

Its a good job that the we're only trusted with plastic knives and forks or i'd be slitting my own throat with the total negativity.

You know, I feel like some people are just trying to wind up the RL Meltdown guy on twitter by posting messages this long!

Two words for you - Ray French!

good news about the bbc coverage, as long as inverdale isn't the anchor - he's a very similar word

mark chapman may be involved as well as the names already mentioned

So as a Virgin customer I can't watch the tournament. Great.

[url=https://twitter.com/PremierSportsTV/status/321994639395663873all of a sudden we are "back in negotiations" with @virginmedia, amazing what a bit a fan pressure can do...keep it up![/url

I saw that on twitter, too Wheels.

That's a good sign for the Virgin customers.

Im sure they were. Remember when the soccer season finishes we are the go to game on a Monday night on their premier channel.

Inverdale might be ok if someone explains to him what a try is and why the ball isnt in the crowd.