1. BBC get England Away IIRC......ITV get England at Home, so 2 one year, 3 the next in terms of England games.
2. It is, but the BBC are in no way interested in or mandated to show a domestic sport league competition and neither would they want the cost of 100+ outside broadcast set ups etc.....
3. BBC have got 9 million for England Union games. It is popular and therefore they perceive it gives them value for money
4. Yep......without a doubt many RL fans do find Union as dull as dishwater and the commentators as dim as dog turds, but alas, the GENERAL PUBLIC still tune in in their millions to watch it.

ITV got involved in the 6 Nations a few years back, matching the BBC's money. They did this to head off a bid from SKY sports to take the 6 nations........ If RL is the wonderful product that you think it is, how come the people responsible for the 2 largest FTA stations in the country aren't beating a path to Red Hall?

We are on SKY and the best we can hope for in a few years is that BT show some interest and maybe drive the price up. The real deal is the RFL and the clubs getting into a situation where they can offer live games to online subscribers and enough of them to interest advertisers and sponsors.....

Like many others i watch with the sound turned off.

The problem is either sky or nothung. I've not seen a queue of tv companies waitingvto outbid them

Totally agree, I think a team of Brian Carney and Barrie could make a good commentary, in terms of the classic commentary duo Carney to do the job of a play by play commentary with Barrie to chip in with something a bit less polished or a criticism/praise of a player in the way Neville or Carra does for the Prem on SKY

Also recon either of the touchline reporters could do a better job as the main commentator than Eddie Hemmings

And for goodness sake get rid of Stuart Cummings, the others in the studio MUST know the rules!

Joe Arundel. Arun-del. Not A-run-del.

Hemmings is a dog of a "journalist". A proper hack.

Agree with most of what everyone is saying - the sky production is very lazy and stale. Wells and Carney are decent in the roles they play, the rest need sacking off.
Eddie is as flat as a fart nowadays. The Ryan Hall try is a great example, he just talked through it and tried to raise his tone as he crossed the line, but it was too little, too late. He tried to sound excited, but you can tell it's forced - it's like he's bored of it.
I've mentioned Dan Ginnane previously, he commentates for Triple M radio in Aus, he's a fantastic caller. He calls the moves, and knows when to rise for the big moments- he makes the games sound enthralling. I'd love him over here. Vossy is another who makes the game sound fun and exciting - his love for the game shines through, I just don't get that with Eddie.

I do agree,but who can make these changes? because it really does need changing,quickly.

Last night's highlights for me were Terry O'Fekkwit commenting on Wakefield's performance and Angela Powers congratulating Jimmy Keinhorst on his double. Kind of difficult imagining the football gang missing a hat-trick amongst a side's haul of four scores.

Should be even better fare on offer tonight once their attention starts to wander as temperatures drop while Wakey and Salford slug it out.

Watching the re-run last night, I'm sure that Brian Carney also insisted that we need to "sort out the video ref issue", seemingly refering to an incident that was never actually referred to the video referee.

Just mute your telly and listen to radio yorkshire for Thursday games, Mark Wilson and Gary Schofield make a good partnership.

I used to get wound up by the muppets but I find it all hilarious now, for instance during last weeks wire-leeds match we got five minutes of "running in barry mcdermotts teeth" whilst the play went on.

During last nights match we had a statement about Leeds being undercooked where they said Leeds get up for the big City matches like Warrington last week .

Tony Rae is INFINITELY better than Terry O'Connor.

Agreed, much better commentary this morning. Although Phil Clarke should not be allowed to commentate on Wigan games.

Yep, spot on.

He was worse than ever today

Phil Clarke shouldn’t be allowed to commentate on any games!

I thought Tony Rea was excellent, enthusiastic and moved away from the usual phrases and expressions that the other continually trot out.

O'Connor is dreadful and was only hired as part of a redundant double act. I don't actually mind McDermott when he talks about the game and tries to give some insight into the mindset or gameplan of a forward. Half-backs and 9s run games and run teams so why Sky think that the best minds they will get to comment on the game is from 2 former prop forwards, a former loose-forward with an agenda to talk up certain players and an average winger (I think Wells has run his race now, hasn't offered anything new for a long time).

If you watch any NRL coverage you will find Johns, Fittler, Lewis, Sterling, Buderus, Kimmorley, Lockyer, Anasta, who offer much better insight into the game.

"put the cleaners through them" (O'Connor, 201icon_cool.gif

How pathetic was Angela in the build up?! Now Proe and O'Connor!

That useless waste of space powers saying missing goals doesn’t lose you matches? to Gaz O'Brien who missed all three conversions that would have errr won the match

I can't comprehend how Angela Powers got the gig.
She's awful.

The baby changing rooms gig on Boots and All obviously for those daft enough to bring babies to games or daft enough to have a baby full stop.

O'Connor's grunted out "you/you're" 92 times in the first 37 minutes. Just get rid!

Every kick inside the 40 is a 40-20 attempt according to Hemmings.

O’Connor is utter garbage at commentary.

Agreed