BBC coverage questioned after underwhelming viewing figures

[WarriorWinger]

For me the Superleague show was more than just a highlights reel, I enjoyed the discussions about the games and future games that they had with the weekly pundits, RL needs a show like this to raise the profile of the game, rather than it just being a sit down and watch a game sport

[morley pie eater]

I was pleased when I heard that BBC would be covering SL, but i've missed more games than I've seen on BBC this season. I'm rarely aware that they are on, as there is no regular time/day or even channel, and no publicity.

I use the BBC website to check fixtures. Couldn't they just add brackets with the channel, such as (bbc3) or (iPlayer) when they're televising a game? Zero cost or effort, and it would boost their viewing figures, but seems that it's too much to ask.

[Mike]

One problem is that they space out the games by weeks so you never know if one is on or not. If you're not a big fan of the game, you won't become one because its hardly ever on - you would have to seek it out, rather than knowing that there's probably a game you can watch on a saturday afternoon or whenever they pick for a regular slot. It made no sense to give the BBC less than one match a week, and the broadcast agreement should have stipulated that the time slots given would be regular and agreed in advance.

IMO, that mistake was down to the RFL/IMG. However, I also think that after the initial success of the WCC and the first SL game on the BBC, I'm pretty sure they came under pressure from the RFU to "hide" the coverage. They followed up by shifting challenge cup games to website only coverage. This made no sense at all after their initial successes and clearly wasn't a scheduling issue. It must have been a conscious decision to lower the profile of the sport on their network. I think they still have the RFU old boys network in full effect on the Beeb.

[ian.birchall]

I agree the coverage has been really poor. I think most folk think of BBC3 as "Yoof TV", and it wouldn't even occur to them to check schedules for sport. Just how hard is to plug the game a bit? Mentions on MotD and so on. If the BBC want to know how it's done, they might check how they publicise the Six Nations each year!
I think the camera-work, or perhaps more accurately, the editing is really poor too. Much too many zoomed-in close-ups where you can only see the ball-carrier and maybe one other player in the frame, continual reaction shots to the coaches whilst the ball is in play Why?
Also, it's gaslighting the public to tell that getting rid of the Superleague Show (for all its faults) is somehow an improvement. It isn't. Yes, the brief highlights are available online, but once again the BBC seem to need to be reminded that not everyone is online.

As an earlier poster said the game was on Sky as well as the BBC and I suspect that what appeared on the BEEB was just the same pictures as on Sky, I cannot believe that the BBC would have a separate production team on the ground at the same time as Sky. I would further suspect that when the dreadfully northern Sharon Storkle is commentating she is only doing that from a studio whilst watching Sky.

[moto748]

Oh yes, there's only going to be one set of cameras at a game, I assume Sky do the camera-work and the editing too.

[Mike]

BBC may get the feeds and have their own producer I suppose, but I doubt it, they probably take the feed from the sky producer.