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.

But he'll be even better if he's not in the country.

Fantastic news on the BBC coverage...but unless Premier Sports have offered a massive amount, then I think cutting SKY out could be a mistake.

When SKY don't have the rights to an event or a sport, they usually completely ignore it, and this means you miss valuable exposure to non-RL fans on SKY News and SKY Sports news. F1 for example didn't exist if you watched SKY a few years ago, until they won the rights and now it's offered extensive coverage and promotion.

According to reports, nobody cut Sky out. They withdrew from negotiations. So their interest wasn't there in the first place.

Other forums on other sports have discussed Sky having to make cut backs to pay for the new football deal. Whether that's true or not, speedway has had cuts, the Premier League Snooker has gone and other little bits will go too.

If they walked away from Super League, I'd be worried, but nothing suggests they will. They need a summer long event that isn't cricket, and we fit the bill.

If all this was true, why do broadcasters pay the earth to watch the England soccer team get repeatedly mauled in every world cup they enter? At least we managed to win our last world cup more recently than England soccer.

IMO Sky just want us on the cheap. In previous deals with them the internationals have come packaged with Superleague. That is now not the case and they simply aren't prepared to give us what our game is worth. They may regret their obstinacy should the BBC and Premier Sports make a killing in viewing figures.

Personally I don't care that Sky backed out. The most important broadcaster in all of this is the BBC because they offer access to our game to everyone. I've lost count of the rugby league supporters I have heard about and met who first came to the game by watching the Challenge Cup final. That is just one match. Imagine what impact six good rugby league matches could have!

I think people worrying about Sky Sports news not covering the world cup are being a little pessimistic – it’s our world cup and the one time of the year that we ‘should’ get some decent media coverage

The single and most important part of this deal is that the high profile England games are on free to air tv. I have passionate dislike for the BBC and think SKY have been great for our game but given a choice I would have the England games and semi’s/final on the BBC rather than all the games live on SKY. The world cup is a massive opportunity to showcase the sport (even better if England are successful) and to take most advantage of that opportunity it has to reach as many people as possible and that means the BBC

(plus I have just signed up to Premier Sports for the NRL so I’m all right, but that’s just a happy coincidence!!)