Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 12:53 pm  

Sky has 12.5 million UK subscribers, so I took a punt that if the weekly RL viewing figures were around 300,000 (peaking to 500,000) then subscribers who liked RL, and subscribed because of it, might be around that level too.

Whilst I understand that Sky will be interested in advertising revenue to boost their profits, I was illustrating that is might not be the only factor in their business decisions.

I would suggest that Premier Sports doesn't wholly rely upon their advertising revenue either, but is a subscription service, whose main driver is to increase subscription numbers not advertisers.

I'm guessing that nowadays that the explosion of commercial TV channels has driven TV advertising down to low levels, often on ITV there's no actual product advertisement, just promos for upcoming shows.

Might be worth noting that in 2013 Sky spent £265m on advertising themselves, in order to increase subscriber numbers, which was the largest spend on advertising in the UK.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:13 pm  

I think the NRL have it about right. The NRL channel showing everything, with FTA options aswell.

We simply don't have anywhere near the content to do it over here and couldnt really do it without massive co-operation between the NRL and SL/RFL and unfortunately the NRL are the only competition as inward looking and obsessed with naval gazing as the RFL are.

But imagine a Channel showing championship and L1 games and related programming throughout the week and games from around the world over the weekend pretty much a game every 3 or 4 hours making best used of the time difference.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 3:27 pm  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ights.html Maybe Woodsy needs to get on the phone to Jeff Bezos and explain where Wakefield is and outline the attractiveness of the derby games they have with Cas. Sod Sky

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ights.html Maybe Woodsy needs to get on the phone to Jeff Bezos and explain where Wakefield is and outline the attractiveness of the derby games they have with Cas. Sod Sky

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:35 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

I think the NRL have it about right. The NRL channel showing everything, with FTA options aswell.

We simply don't have anywhere near the content to do it over here and couldnt really do it without massive co-operation between the NRL and SL/RFL and unfortunately the NRL are the only competition as inward looking and obsessed with naval gazing as the RFL are.

But imagine a Channel showing championship and L1 games and related programming throughout the week and games from around the world over the weekend pretty much a game every 3 or 4 hours making best used of the time difference.

Now that would be good or if you can watch every game of your club on sky or other channel like a season pass that would be better so no matter were your team plays you can watch it live

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:54 pm  

Amount of viewers doesn't relate to advertising revenue. Sky make far more advertising revenue for union games than they do rugby league games

Regards

King James

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:15 pm  

Having Toronto, Montreal and New York all in Super League, with north American game attendances heading well over 10,000, perhaps even 20,000, and many of them middle class with more disposable income than the average British heartland club, is certainly going to increase rugby league's audience size and its demographic value on both sides of the Atlantic. The biggest new sponsors for the game are likely to be airlines, hotel booking services, and tour companies. If that happened then the RFL would have a case for a larger value TV contract.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:53 pm  

Lebron James wrote:

Amount of viewers doesn't relate to advertising revenue. Sky make far more advertising revenue for union games than they do rugby league games

Regards

King James

Prime example is WWE and WCW before it
it collapsed. Big numbers during the Monday night wars but still struggled with advertising revenues.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:03 pm  

Sounds great in theory having a rugby league subscription channel. People don't subscribe to sky sports just for rugby league though. Big risk if you are asking them to make a choice. I would suggest people would choose sky sports over RFL subscription.

Let me give you an example. Box nation is a subscription boxing channel which has failed miserably.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:42 pm  

Lebron James wrote:

Amount of viewers doesn't relate to advertising revenue. Sky make far more advertising revenue for union games than they do rugby league games

Regards

King James

How does this actually work?
Is it like, AIG, jaguar land-rover, HSBC, barclays etc want their products advertised when union is on and when league is on its a case of, bachelors, specsavers, Northern rock, ford etc?

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:48 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote: 1. So, Sky, who along with BT paid £5.1 billion for Premier League Football are a busted flush, oh really and just because BT are broadcasting RU, this doesnt preclude them from showing RL ?? 2. I agree that RL in Toronto and North America is just a spec of dust on the sports landscape but, this is a good thing and the fact that this is year 1 and their management appear to have set out a funded long term investment plan shows that they are serious about seeing just how far they can go. 3. Of course they have to use Aussie and UK players (with just a few home grown youngsters) and yes, long term, they will have to develop their "own" players, just like London or Catalan. 4. The major difference with Toronto seems to be that they have a guy with vision, ambition and cash steering them, instead of trying to expand the game on the cheap. 5. Well done for predicting that phones would be used for more than just making phone calls, brilliant !! but, even they need someone to broadcast the stuff that they want to tap into, it doesnt just appear on screen when you turn the thing on. 6. RL is without doubt at a cross roads and it's foray into N America seems almost like the last roll of the dice. 7. We could well end up reverting to being a part time Northern sport, with some of the big boys moving over to Union and none of uswant that to happen. 1. SKY have started to lose subscribers (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/96015124) here in a trend replicated all over the world. I had a party at mine last weekend where one room had the NRL on the other the All Blacks......both on internet streams with sites such as mobdro. 2. Toronto are great ad what a start.....but London averaged nearly 10k in year one......I hope that the Perez/Aussie Cash apex continues, but one swallow and all that...... 3. As a long term London fan I am fully aware of the timescales involved in developing players to a new sport.....and Canadians aren't as precious as we are when it comes to "needing" locals playing for them...ask the "J's" 4. The major difference is that Perez understands the need to market and to keep marketing. The Funding issue won't trouble them until they hit SL......then they'll really need to dig deep, but yeah, his enthusiasm is refreshing! 5. How long do you think it will be before larger sporting clubs broadcast their own games live to their own audiences? Remember, the 1st i-Phone is 10 years old this year.....and the stuff we can do now makes that look like it was steam powered. 6. RL is not at a cross roads.......it's broken down at the side of the road and it needs more like Toronto to come and give it a Jump-Start! 7. Part time at the 2nd tier is fine....but a strong, professional and PROFITABLE game at the front is a must!

wrencat1873 wrote: 1. So, Sky, who along with BT paid £5.1 billion for Premier League Football are a busted flush, oh really and just because BT are broadcasting RU, this doesnt preclude them from showing RL ?? 2. I agree that RL in Toronto and North America is just a spec of dust on the sports landscape but, this is a good thing and the fact that this is year 1 and their management appear to have set out a funded long term investment plan shows that they are serious about seeing just how far they can go. 3. Of course they have to use Aussie and UK players (with just a few home grown youngsters) and yes, long term, they will have to develop their "own" players, just like London or Catalan. 4. The major difference with Toronto seems to be that they have a guy with vision, ambition and cash steering them, instead of trying to expand the game on the cheap. 5. Well done for predicting that phones would be used for more than just making phone calls, brilliant !! but, even they need someone to broadcast the stuff that they want to tap into, it doesnt just appear on screen when you turn the thing on. 6. RL is without doubt at a cross roads and it's foray into N America seems almost like the last roll of the dice. 7. We could well end up reverting to being a part time Northern sport, with some of the big boys moving over to Union and none of uswant that to happen. 1. SKY have started to lose subscribers (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/96015124) here in a trend replicated all over the world. I had a party at mine last weekend where one room had the NRL on the other the All Blacks......both on internet streams with sites such as mobdro. 2. Toronto are great ad what a start.....but London averaged nearly 10k in year one......I hope that the Perez/Aussie Cash apex continues, but one swallow and all that...... 3. As a long term London fan I am fully aware of the timescales involved in developing players to a new sport.....and Canadians aren't as precious as we are when it comes to "needing" locals playing for them...ask the "J's" 4. The major difference is that Perez understands the need to market and to keep marketing. The Funding issue won't trouble them until they hit SL......then they'll really need to dig deep, but yeah, his enthusiasm is refreshing! 5. How long do you think it will be before larger sporting clubs broadcast their own games live to their own audiences? Remember, the 1st i-Phone is 10 years old this year.....and the stuff we can do now makes that look like it was steam powered. 6. RL is not at a cross roads.......it's broken down at the side of the road and it needs more like Toronto to come and give it a Jump-Start! 7. Part time at the 2nd tier is fine....but a strong, professional and PROFITABLE game at the front is a must!