The Virtual Terrace • Re: Future of the Game

Just a quick one mate. Do we actually have any sources to say Bradford’s exit cost SKY 8,000 subscriptions? I’ve seen that number said on this post a few times but I can’t find anything to back this up?

Also top English clubs aren’t the sole attraction to by SKY. People won’t just stop watching the vast array of sports just because their rugby league club isn't in SL. My team were relegated, we still have SKY Sports for the football, NFL and Sky Sports News. A SKY subscriber won’t cancel SKY, I concede they may cancel the sports package but they won’t fob off SKY completely.



Just to back these points up slightly:

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2020/05/01/sky-tv-base-and-revenues-fall-as-sports-lockdown-hits-home/

According to the above website SKY had 23.9 million subscribers as of Q1 of this year. They only lost 65,000 during the first bit of lockdown when there were NO sports on whatsoever. This includes fans of all sports (not just RL). This could be football fans cancelling because the Premier League was cancelled for 2-3 months?

I’d say 65,000 subscriptions out of 23.9 million is a small drop in the ocean like puroresu boy stated.

If that figure of 8,000 is correct (and proven to be so) then that is even smaller than a drop in the ocean. I promise you SKY won’t care about 8,000 less.

The sport isn’t attractive enough for other companies to even bid. Even BT Sport wouldn’t entertain the idea of a bidding ‘war’ for the rights. So many fans were saying oh give it to BT, give it to Amazon. They simply don’t want it or care enough at the moment about RL.

Again like Puroresu said, having Bradford in wouldn’t cause a spike in subscriptions as fans are more than likely already subscribed to SKY. They only thing they would have is if the my had Leeds vs Bradford on a Friday night, the viewing figures for that game (not subsciptions, two different things) would be probably bigger than say Leigh vs Wigan because people are more likely to watch a Bradford vs Leeds derby (backed up by the stats from last seasons CC match).

Expansion and development is crucial for our game to grow. But only if it’s done right. Catalans are in and established. That’s the end of that discussion so lets move forward. Newcastle and York on the face of it are doing the right things. Introducing new kids to the game and a pathway for those players to access semi-professional rugby which may not have been possible. Even if it’s not through Newcastles and York’s systems. Leigh are in a difficult position because everyone around there knows and plays rugby league so getting ‘new’ blood will be hard. There’s like 4 clubs nearby and 3 of those are in the top flight I think.

I also think it’s important for the heartland clubs to be as strong as possible too. A strong Bradford, Widnes etc can only be good for the game and reinforces to the kids up here that RL is a great game.

I am both a heartlander and an expansionist and for me that’s the best way to be.

What I would like to see in the future is ‘amateur’ feeder clubs. Like a proper system where say all Leeds amateur clubs have to go through the Leeds Rhinos system first. Any leftovers then are free to other clubs. So Leigh Miner Rangers for example would produce young players to go into the Leigh system (if they had one) and Wigan couldn’t just cherry pick the best players. I think that quality would be spread more evenly over the teams and that would provide more opportunity for young players too. I know this system has it’s flaws as some places may have 10 teams servicing that area whilst other have two. But that means that local players are selected for their local team.

EDIT - Also Merry Christmas! Here’s to a quality 2021 season in all the leagues!

Statistics: Posted by Bulls Boy 2011 — Fri Dec 25, 2020 12:42 am

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