Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:48 pm  

Chris Irvine now made redundant as RL correspondent at The Times. Rugby League has a serious PR problem and the RFL are oblivious to it. Perhaps now that Ralph Rimmer will be paid a handsome £250K by the RFU, whoops, sorry RFL, we may see a u-turn?

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:38 pm  

Shame on The Times.

Like so many others in London this paper ignores anything from the north and that includes Scotland.

The boys at Twickenham must be sniggering now (little weasles).

Thanks for your efforts Chris.

Can Hector McNeil or the RFL make a strong protest do The Times.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:52 pm  

Ideally i'd boycott the Times and the rest of the southern based media but as I no longer buy any of these Tory propaganda sheets, that wouldnt change anything. So instead Ill just continue with my barrage of twitter posts to the varous sports desks. Again that wont change anything but it will make me feel better.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:03 pm  

The RFL have got every game for he 2021 World Cup to be shown by the BBC.

For 2013 there were only England and a couple of other games on BBC and 2017 we only had England games on BBC.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:05 pm  

Give The Sunday Times' 'Putting the Boot in' article a read from just after the Bradford City fire. I can't believe it was written in my lifetime. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXoqsnsXkAUST_2.jpg

Give The Sunday Times' 'Putting the Boot in' article a read from just after the Bradford City fire. I can't believe it was written in my lifetime. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXoqsnsXkAUST_2.jpg

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 6:27 pm  

Does anybody actually buy newspapers anymore

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:00 pm  

fun time frankie wrote:

Does anybody actually buy newspapers anymore

Not since the improvements in toilet paper and chip wrappings have made them redundant.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:20 pm  

Unfortunately, even if the Beeb did show weekly RL games from all leagues, the nation is so round ball focussed and Union focussed, it would take a lot to get people interested. Most true sports fans subscribe to BT or Sky anyway so if we can't get viewers already.

The only way to truly know though is to abandon Sky, take a massive financial hit, tons of adverising (another financial hit) and show weekly or twice weekly games on the Beeb or another free terrestial channel. This is similar to how the NFL got so many viewers when it came ocer in the late 80s on C4. However, this is a risk SL is not willing to take, and I can't blame them really.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:48 pm  

Sky own the rights to show Championship games as well as SL. I guess there's probably more to it, but wouldn't it be in everyone's interests if live Championship games could be on the BBC instead at minimal cost to the broadcaster just to cover expenses and reduced attendances for the home team?

That way there'd be more exposure for the game, which wouldn't be harmful to Sky if a few folk then decide to subscribe because they enjoy watching the Championship games and want to watch some SL as well.

Re: Rugby League’s dwindling profile : Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:57 pm  

HXSparky wrote:

Sky own the rights to show Championship games as well as SL. I guess there's probably more to it, but wouldn't it be in everyone's interests if live Championship games could be on the BBC instead at minimal cost to the broadcaster just to cover expenses and reduced attendances for the home team?

That way there'd be more exposure for the game, which wouldn't be harmful to Sky if a few folk then decide to subscribe because they enjoy watching the Championship games and want to watch some SL as well.

The BBC made most of their Outside Broadcast staff redundant about a decade ago and contract out all major Outside Broadcast events like Wimbledon, FA cup, Challenge Cup and the 6 Nations.

The set-up at an OB usually involves a command truck worth about £4,000,000 and costing £10,000 a day to hire, a team of self employed contracted 6 riggers/runners, 6 cameras (minimum) and another Transport vehicle as well as Camera operators, producers, directors, presenters, commentators normally BBC employees. If the game involves the crew driving from London, then 1 game takes a minimum of 2 days and an overnight stay.
Knowing how much a driver/rigger get's paid, I would estimate the cost of putting on a Live game as between £65,000 and £75,000........so 2 games a week will run the BBC £3,500,000 or so over the season and that's for a pretty basic set up......
...the question needs to be asked if the RFL were to offer to bankroll this themselves for 3 seasons, would the increased exposure help the game and would the increased exposure attract a big name sponsor to cover the costs through naming rights?

IF....and it's a BIG IF.......we were to get 1,000,000 a game, then that would be essentially 69,000,000 sets of eyeballs over 3 years for £10,000,000.......I am a risk averse person by nature, but I reckon the games got more to lose by not trying something like this.....if sky come back with less money and more conditions in a few years time, I'd let them keep SL, but not the rights to the championship......