I was tempted to start a new thread discussing TV coverage until I discovered this one.
I would like to know how people feel the attendances of the games would have been affected, if at all, if the tournament
had been broadcast by a free-to-air channel (such as across the BBC television network or even the ITV platform) rather than as it has been by a limited viewing audience channel such as Premier Sports with only the England games live on the BBC?
Do you feel that more people would have stayed at home to watch matches on the TV rather than attending in person, or is it purely the fact that well attended RL matches would have been watched by a potentially larger audience across a free-to-air TV channel?
Would people really have switched across to BBC4 (or ITV3) to tune in to watch Tonga vs Cook Islands live? Or have the BBC got it right by choosing to just show the England games as they are the ones that generate more interest to the not-so-die-hard-RL- fans?
Also, speaking ‘media’ broadly, it also spoke volumes that of the two English Rugby Teams that were in action over the last weekend, it was the Union boys’ victory over Australia that was reported on more than the excellent performance of the League boys who competed in a WORLD CUP tournament in front of a sell out John Smith’s Stadium.