The service is great for people whose needs it suits. If you want to watch other sports as well then keep your Sky subscription. If you have no interest in other sides, then you can buy a one off pass for your teams games. If you’re a casual tv viewer and don’t want to watch football, cricket etc then it’s happy days. It’s £129 for 9 months of live rugby league if you do want to subscribe and £99 if you’re a season ticket holder (but enjoy watching other teams games as well).

It doesn’t make it a bad service just because it isn’t perfect for every single persons needs. In terms of my own, it’ll only really come of any use for the odd one off Wigan game I can’t make and as and when I need it I’ll be happy it’s there to use.

Finally sitting down and giving it a bash on my smart tv through the internet browser, this is the same way that i always used Watch NRL also with no issues.

Immediately i noticed on the first highlight video i tried watching (Wigan vs Hull KR rd 1) that the video was quite choppy and was genuinely starting to mess with my eyes even in the short highlights package. So i went on and tried a couple of others (Hull FC vs Cas / Saints vs Huds) and noticed these did not have the same issues, everything is running smooth.

I then notice that these 2 games where not on tv, so were using a lower quality static camera to film the games. I then put on another game that i knew was on tv Wire vs Leeds) and again it was choppy and hard to watch.

I am now wondering if the website is struggling to playback the higher quality footage of the tv games compared to the lower quality single angle games?

I understand this is literally day 1 and hopefully it is something that will be fixed by round 1, because if this is how it plays them games it would be unwatchable.

I also don't want to come across like i am just bagging this for the sake of it, i actually think this is a very positive step forward for the sport and something that should have happened sooner. I just feel it is important to also point out it's current flaws and any decisions you may feel are incorrect / seem counter productive.

Not sure there is enough distinctive value in the new streaming service. I assumed when this was first reported that Sky would screen two fixtures leaving four games to be exclusively streamed. This would mean Sky subscribers (such as myself) would consider signing up to streaming as well and then you potentially have something that can bring in substantial revenue. As it is Sky showing everything means it will only appeal to a very limited audience i.e. RL followers who don't have Sky and maybe a small group of international subscribers.

You’d imagine there are plenty of RL fans or RL watchers who don’t have Sky given the cost of it. When a game is on BBC/C4 it can have an audience multiple times higher than Sky games, so there are people watching games on there who aren’t watching them on Sky. Now a great number of them might just have happened to flick it on and won’t pay for this service but some will.

The match passes could be the big money spinner for the game IMO. When Wigan go to Hull for example and it’s not on Sky, we might take 500/600 fans with us but that leaves thousands of regular fans who might want to watch it and plenty of casual viewers as well. That soon mounts up, especially when the same scenario is played out across the league each weekend. I’d be more than happy to pay £6.99 to watch it if I wasn’t going. It won’t suit everyone but it will be ideal for enough people to make it work really well.

I'm similar to what sergeantpepper said on here. I have a ST so that's all the home games covered and I usually go to at least the Lancashire aways. We are also on Sky quite a bit so there are even more games there for me to watch and to be honest I wouldn't really be interested in say a Hudds v Salford game for example.

The bigger games not involving Saints (Wigan v Warrington/Catalan etc) will probably be on Sky anyway so as they say on Dragons Den "I'm out"

Maybe I underestimate the number of people who follow RL but don't have Sky. But I've never known an RL fan who doesn't have it nor have I known anyone who has Sky Sports purely for the rugby league. For me its a shame that both platforms don't have their own exclusive content - that for me would have a far greater chance of success.

I know a good few, especially the older generation who might be on more of a budget. My old man would never pay for Sky because he has absolutely no interest in any other sports but he’d go for this. Same with a couple of mates and their parents. There’s a huge difference between £129 a year and the cost of having Sky sports, which as part of a package might cost £1,000 or so.

It won’t be for everyone but it looks a positive step to me.

What I found, watching the NRL was, although in theory I could log in to watchNRL on the internet bit of my smart TV, in practice, it kept falling over, and was generally unsatisfactory. I went with the low-tech, if clumsy, solution of playing it on my laptop, with a HDMI cable connecting it to the TV, so the TV is just 'mirroring'. I found this much more satisfactory. I put it down to pea-sized 'brains' in a smart TV compared to a laptop.

I watch WatchNRL on my TV by Airplay via my phone. Never have any issues, no wires or cables needed.

Sure, Stu. But if you watch 'via your phone', surely you are mirroring?

I've always used Chromecast to send watchNRL to my TV, never had any problems

Yeah but the point I was making was the ease of if all, no cables needed, no quality issues, literally pressing a button on my phone that is at the side of me.

Guessing there's no app yet available on Smart TV? I know there is for iOS/Android but no idea if there's a TV version. Im guessing it would be better quality to watch through the app than the web browser of a smart tv, but no idea if that's going to be possible!

This is how I watch WatchNRL and Our League. I'm assuming I'll be able stream individual games the same way.

I have an LG smart tv and couldn't find it on the app store, early days yet though so would be nice if that turned up at some point.

I think i am going to try next what moto says they do and play off a laptop connected to my tv via hdmi.

I would guess so. The other reason Airplay works better for me is that I have my TV in a media wall so to keep taking it out to connect HDMI leads in the back/side would be a real pain. Airplay works perfectly

My point was, I reckon even a modern mobile phone, let alone a laptop, probably has a much better processor etc than a smart TV. I could set up to cast from my phone as Stu does if I could be d, but my laptop sits conveniently near the TV, and connecting with a cable is simple and reliable. Whereas using the actual internet on my TV direct (as opposed to casting) is, in my experience, less reliable.

After round 15 Sky Sports will only show two games and the additional 4 will move onto a new Sky streaming app…

I know - no info yet on whether there will be an additional charge for Sky customers.

I read it that as Superleague Plus is totally seperate to Sky Sports Subscription so I imagine it will be full price on top of your Sky Sub

So what does this mean for Wigan TV do they still get uploaded after the game or is it going to be live?

Frustrating to see the Cas KO time has changed.

Had the day planned to sync in with the Fury fight later on and that's thrown it out.

I wonder if this will be a regular occurrence with more games being shown on TV?

Exactly the same here. I was hoping to get away from Cas for 5ish and probably head back to find somewhere to watch it in either Manchester or Wigan. I should still get back in time for it but will need to make sure I know where I'm heading in advance and that they're showing it. I live in Atherton and walked the full length of the main street when Joshua, Wilder, Parker, and co were fighting just before Christmas and out of the 15 bars or so, literally none had it on.

I know it isn't close, but it looks like Georgia Browns in Hindley will be showing it. They showed the AJ fight anyway.

Should be a good day of sport, just a shame it doesn't slot together as well as it did prior to the KO change.

Thanks for the heads up. I've not been in for years and I'd seen it had been done up, so might give that a try.