yeah its not as if the RFL last time found tv money to fund 2 new SL teams and raise the grant to the existing team by 250,000 per club

excellent analysis

any increase in tv revenue should go to developing the championships and below, begin the step towards two pro divisions

Sky do not like to share so I can't see them allowing the RFL to give them two games a weekend and a subscriber channel two games per weekend and ESPN would hardly want to cover the weekly rounds and lose out on the playoffs, but Sky wouldn't release that coverage without a massive cheque from ESPN.

Do any of you really think this kind of a deal is in the RFL's hands? They know Sky have the biggest purse, they know the audience figures will only get bigger if they stay on Sky, they also know that Sky are not likely to up their coverage of the sport or pump money in to the production of it's shows because the viewing figures do not warrant it, but this still changes nothing, the RFL cannot move from Sky it would be suicide.

Sky's production of it's shows is poor compared to say The Footy Show. I know the money going into the production of football coverage is much much higher (look at Andy Grays wage!!!) but just the way the presenters conduct themselves on camera, the technology they use, not just the touch screen stuff but compared to the RL's graphics we are a million miles away and this I think needs addressing in this new bid. We should also push for Video Refs at all games, if we insist on having them in the game at all then it needs to be a level playing field. You do not need a big screen at all games like in Aus but they should have enough cameras at the ground to make vital decisions, if no angle can be found then a ref's call should be made.

Fingers crossed the bid is increased but Lewis will not fool anyone with his idol threats, all he will do is get the backs up of those at the BBC who already couldn't give two stuffs about the sport.

Another thread filled by moaning RL 'fans'. Only in RL could we turn a news story about possible increases in money and coverage, into a negative whinge. It's absolutely predictable and pathetic. People moaning on this thread should be ashamed.

SL needs to get on FTA Tv with at least one game a week if it is ever to grow bigger. 2 games on Sky plus one on FTA with same FTA channel showing a round up league programme on a Weds night is the way to go. Sky are not paying enough to have exclusive rights to on eof the top 3 sports in the country imo. The CC is ok but SL is now the pinnacle of the domestic game and needs to be seen by the unclean masses.

SL will never be on FTA and it's unrealistic to expect that. No domestic sport is currently shown on FTA as far as I know.

To be honest anyone that believes everything that is in the press and comes out of the mouth of Richard Lewis should be ashamed of themselves!!!

ESPN is free if you take the Virgin service as opposed to Sky direct.

And people here need to remember that the BBC is looking to save a LOT of money - I'd imagine that they wouldn't be overwhelmed with grief at having to lose us. I also seem to remember that last time round they were the only terrestrial bidder with ITV not even bothering and C4 offering £0, a polite way of saying 'get lost' (C5 couldn't bid as they didn't have a big enough terrestrial footprint at the time).

Not sure why everyone keeps banging on about Channel 4. They wont pay for sport. They even get paid to show the gee gee's.

For Super League we are looking at Sky and ESPN. This might even go as a joint bid in the end.

For the challenge Cup I think it will be Five and ITV as well as BBC who are looking into this. I guess it would fit into ITV nice and easy. ITV 4 will show the live round games then the final on ITV1.

Hopefully they may even bid to show the SuperLeague highlights.

ITV won't go for the Challenge Cup in a million years. It would not make commercial sense. I think it is Channel 4 who are interested in the Challenge Cup.

Super League will go to Sky or ESPN. No more than 3 live games a week. Championship will stay at 1 game max I would have thought.

Why would it make sense for C4 and not for ITV?

ITV, to justify a big investment, would have to put SL on prime time. Like it or not, fat warblers dancing on ice in front of Simon Cowell is a bigger draw for them. They could put us on another time slot, but they can't justify a big spend for a time when audiences are lower.

C4 doesn't have the audience to "lose" - very few of their programmes are a big draw, especially in prime time.

I'm still trying the grasp the concept of a minority sport (NFL) getting NATIONAL coverage on the beeb and a NATIONAL sport (RL) getting minority coverage on the beeb.

Perhaps someone can explain it logically to me.

Its a bit like the Challenge Cup being shown on BBC. Just without the prime time Saturday Afternoon slot or the 2 games a round leading up to the final.

Because the Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the WORLD the Challenge cup is watched by Greyhound racing pigeon keepers? (as the BBC like to think, they compared it to Hurling last year didn't they?)

I think the BBC get the NFL coverage unbelievably cheaply or free.

The super bowl is not the most watched sporting event in the world.

Of course it would they can show games across two channels. Or even just ITV4 for the round matches. This can be shown on Weekend evenings.

Channel 4 are not interested in Sport unless the RFL is willing to pay them to show it.

How does the "digital switch-over" affect the protected events system after 2012? In theory, could the Challenge Cup be shifted over to BBC Three or ITV2 when the UK is fully digital?

I think that would be the essence of it.

More likely to be

Lewis: Hello ESPN who would you like to by the rights to SL
ESPN: Hello Mr Lewis, thanks for your call, but we spoke to that very expensive, highly talented young man from IMG that you pay to sell those rights, if its all the same, it would make more sense for us to speak to him
Lewis: Yeah I know but for some reason our fans are mostly made up of idiots who will take any excuse to talk the game down and complain, if i dont get involved there will be a lot of disappointed critics.

Bloody miserable bugger , you always have to spoil things dont you ?

i wonder if some of the people on here bagging lewis mercilessly secretly dont want a good TV deal because it will show them up massively as the biased people they are

Channel 4 paid a lot of money to get the test cricket rights from the bbc about 10 years ago and did a great job modernising the coverage and put money into marketing the game and into the grass roots of the sport.

No idea wether they'd be interested in doing the same for the challenge cup/part of a super league package but i think something like this would be great for the game.