They at least made light of it. Anyway it's Channel 4, it's probably encouraged.

I was going to post at half time that that half of coverage has done more for the game than SKY have in the last decade. I thought I'd wait for the closing credits to make a fully informed decision. I can only say that I bet Channel 4 wish they could have signed up for more than just the 10 games a season!

My only negative observation was that the technical recaps weren't particularly slick, and some of the graphics and montages looked a bit rushed/low-budget, but that's a very minor gripe, and more to do with me working in that area.

I'm pretty certain anyone tuning in for the first time will be back next week. Let's hope Hull and Saints can deliver a similarly entertaining game.

Game wise, it didn't feel like the first game of the season at all. It felt like a play-off game or the cup semi-final. Had the sort of Super League intensity that games had circa the early 2000s. Warrington had to be the favourites after Leeds went down to 12, but they made Warrington work for the full 80 and could easily have nicked it at the end.

Great stuff all round.

Now watching Cas lock lane v Rochdale on sportsman and that's pretty good too for a low budget coverage

A big thumbs up for their first SL game, helped by it being a fast, open and aggressive game. So, plenty going on.
The mix of pundits, pesenters and commentators was as good as we've had fo RL in many a year.

Amor was really good as summariser I thought. Came across really well adding his good up to date knowledge of the modern game in his input throughout. Keep him on! Commentary team worked well together i thought and didn’t try to spoil it by inane banter etc.
Enjoyed what c4 did on a first run out themselves. I’m sure they’ll get the tech stuff slicker the more they do and improve some of the transitions between Hills and the guests for the match analysis.
Liked the pre-game build up they did with the teams/player montages and the way they tried to bring the players into focus with the Leeds training and Aussie halfbacks thing etc.
Also liked the fact they talked about next weeks game at the end and did a short video montage thing again for that for Saints and Hull.
Felt they approached it well overall - as much for newer fans as us existing ones.
Liked the causal style Hills and Skelton brought to it and thought the guests all spoke about the game well.
Would have liked them to spend a bit more time on intro of the game lineups before the match - seemed to rush through that part a bit.

Promising start for them though and was just nice to see a league game with a decent crowd on free tv on a Saturday afternoon.

Good to have another option for viewing.

Excellent coverage. Really enjoyed it.
I just hope that the viewing figures were good enough to keeping Channel 4 interested in further deals.
A shame there was a union International on today which may have affected viewing figures slightly.

If there was a God, having a Union game on should increase viewing figures for "The Greatest Game".

Anyone watching this week's Out of your League podcast interview with Matt Peet would have spat their brew out. Lots of sh*ts and f*cks banded around by Wilkin and Flanagan

C4's delivery looks even better, when compared to the garbage thrown up by Sky this weekend!

Channel 4 showed less is more in terms of presenters, sky have 12 I think? Baz, tez, Bill Arthur, Brian Carney, Jon Wilkin, Jon Wells, Rod Studd, Ben proe, Jenna brooks, Stuart pryke, Phil Clarke and JJB. It felt like they couldn't even be bothered commentating on the Toulouse game tonight

Well done C4, very well put together, professional but also very enthusiastic.

An average of 531k watched the game, with a high of 750k for the closing stages

A 7% audience share, excellent figures

I wonder how that compares for sky games

Kyle Amor was so much better than pinky and perky.

The technical replays need work as they were very basic but overall the coverage was good.

I think sky games get around 150 to 200k

I wonder how many viewers they need to get excited and want to really invest in SL.
Compared to other sports, RL would be cheap for them to acquire ?

I enjoyed it, thought it was slick and had a great commentary. Helped massively by them also managing to pick the game of the weekend as well. Hopefully more will tune in.

I thought Adam Hills was a little bit awkward, but his enthusiasm shone through and it's a totally different style he needs to adapt to compared to his other presenting work. The good fortune to have such a cracking game and really healthy crowd for game 1 is fantastic. I would love to know if Ch4 are happy with the viewing figures. It's impossible to know what they aspiring for.

Was that his first go at that kind of thing?

Gotta be pretty daunting.

INOUT
I imagine decent numbers when you consider Chelsea only got 300,000 more viewers for a prime time football match on free TV

I read something yesterday from their head of sport who was really pleased with the viewing numbers. he also stated he wants to improve the coverage even further and get even bigger viewing numbers

From what I can see we would be about 10th in the weekly figures but numbers won't come out till next week.
I don't think Union get these numbers but hard to find that detail.

That's almost mind blowing.
Let's hope the same numbers (and more) tune in for the next game. Very good news for Channel 4 and for RL.
It's just a pity that after the game this Saturday, we have to wait a month for the one after that.

Does anyone know how to watch the Channel 4 games from Australia? Obviously VPN is a way, but any other ways? It's not on Kayo.

Quote ="SecondRowSaint"Does anyone know how to watch the Channel 4 games from Australia? Obviously VPN is a way, but any other ways? It's not on Kayo.'" Try this: https://www.channel4.com/now/C4 In the UK there is free access to all Channel 4 programmes, no idea if it works in Aus though ?

Quote ="SecondRowSaint"Does anyone know how to watch the Channel 4 games from Australia? Obviously VPN is a way, but any other ways? It's not on Kayo.'" Try this: https://www.channel4.com/now/C4 In the UK there is free access to all Channel 4 programmes, no idea if it works in Aus though ?