BBC might axe Challenge Cup final

[Panchitta Marra]

The government department running this deselection is ran by none other than Andy Burnham MP - Leigh.

I think a petition is in order.

Its only a recommendation to that department by an independent body though is it not. The Rugby League MP's were very vocal last time the list was being banded about and I believe they will be now.

The comment by Kooch on Claire Baldwin is harsh in my opinion. We complain that BBC aren't interested in Rugby League then when they get a presenter who is passionate about it she gets criticised. I personally think she does a great job and knows her onions and the fact she is a well known face is a good thing.

With you 100% on Claire balding.
She clearly does her up front ground work and is passionate about the games on match days.
She is miles better than that Welsh tosser who once played our game, only to knock it now.
Once a Yawnion, always a Yawnion hypocrite.

[highland convert]

Maybe it is attitudes shown in some of these posts that is killing the game. Not everybody has Sky sports, I kicked it into touch at the end of the season. It was £400 a year I could ill afford to wait for the new season. I will return to it at the start of the season. Without Beeb the sport will die out. Where do you think the new distant converts will come from. We need more RL on Beeb not less. Without exposure any sport dies. Union got to where it now is in what 15 years by selling its product. This idea that RL is Lancs/yorks and the rest can take a hike will leave it out in the sticks. Advertising will drop because nobody cares. Sky will say what's the use if we cant cover the outgoings with adverts. One game a week then goodbye sky sport. No sky sport revenue. Sky sport has the right idea. Expand outwith to increase audience. They will not want the cup away from Beed. In fact I would think they should offer BBC more games. Those that say take it away from the BBC are in danger of killing the golden goose,
Jim

[ancientnloyal]

Maybe it is attitudes shown in some of these posts that is killing the game. Not everybody has Sky sports, I kicked it into touch at the end of the season. It was £400 a year I could ill afford to wait for the new season. I will return to it at the start of the season. Without Beeb the sport will die out. Where do you think the new distant converts will come from. We need more RL on Beeb not less. Without exposure any sport dies. Union got to where it now is in what 15 years by selling its product. This idea that RL is Lancs/yorks and the rest can take a hike will leave it out in the sticks. Advertising will drop because nobody cares. Sky will say what's the use if we cant cover the outgoings with adverts. One game a week then goodbye sky sport. No sky sport revenue. Sky sport has the right idea. Expand outwith to increase audience. They will not want the cup away from Beed. In fact I would think they should offer BBC more games. Those that say take it away from the BBC are in danger of killing the golden goose,
Jim

I happily disagree. Im sure cpwigan isnt going to kill rugby league is he now? What kind of attitude are you referring to anyway, i've thought and can't come up with a solution or reasoning.
The BBC currently show the challenge cup, and thats it. Without major competition now SKY would probably get the rights cheaper as there'd be no competitors apart from possibly ESPN who have shelled out a heck of a lot of dosh in a short space of time, so SKY Sports it is.

I cant see why if it isn't on BBC a game will be abolished. New distant converts will come from exactly the same place on their sofa's... upto 90% of people (under retirement age) have access to SKY, Virgin media or espn so I cant understand your statement of "Without Beeb the sport will die out".

How much more exposure do you want? There hasn't been as much rugby league on telly as there has been this year. We have the super league, championship, nl1 + 2 games, insignificant cups (sorry widnes fans), internationals such as wales v lebanon for eg IMO 2009 has seen more broadcast hours of rugby league than ever before... i dont have hard facts as i dont want to trawl through spreadsheets of data but i think im right. Audiences on tv have gone up each year on sky - not exactly on deaths door is it?

Advertising has hit all tv stations sky isnt immune. Each week we have: boots n all, martin offiah, stevo as appetisers, thursday night game, friday night game, saturday/sunday night game... 3 live games.

I can understand BBC's stance... why would the BBC sacrifice Strictly come dancing or eastenders for a live game between wakefield and celtic crusaders? games cant be switched in replacem,ent of the (terrible and annoying religious crap that is) songs of praise for example.

[Panchitta Marra]

Maybe it is attitudes shown in some of these posts that is killing the game. Not everybody has Sky sports, I kicked it into touch at the end of the season. It was £400 a year I could ill afford to wait for the new season. I will return to it at the start of the season. Without Beeb the sport will die out. Where do you think the new distant converts will come from. We need more RL on Beeb not less. Without exposure any sport dies. Union got to where it now is in what 15 years by selling its product. This idea that RL is Lancs/yorks and the rest can take a hike will leave it out in the sticks. Advertising will drop because nobody cares. Sky will say what's the use if we cant cover the outgoings with adverts. One game a week then goodbye sky sport. No sky sport revenue. Sky sport has the right idea. Expand outwith to increase audience. They will not want the cup away from Beed. In fact I would think they should offer BBC more games. Those that say take it away from the BBC are in danger of killing the golden goose,
Jim

I think most people on here do realise that loosing the BBC coverage will do substantial damage to the game of Rugby League.
The game of rugby league has always come second best to other sports shown on the Beeb.
I am convinced that internal decisions are made by people in high positions who see Rugby League as a direct threat to the game they follow.
These decisions are also very detrimental to Rugby League.
The powers that be in Rugby League need to get a grip of what goes on in the game.
Rugby League is poorly promoted and advertised as you correctly say.
Its about time that the so called responsible people in Rugby League become more responsible and accountable.

[highland convert]

Thank you PM. A&L Tosh. 90% of statistics are made up on the spot I never mentioned CP, why have you. Exactly the reason I stay clear most of the time. Many have Sky but who don't have sky sports. Sky does not pay for RL. Their advertisers do. To increase there revenue they must build the game. Cable subscribers and bt subscribers don't get sky sports. ESPN are backed by the Disney Corps so I don't think money is a big issue. Accessibility to put a product in front of new potential users is the backbone of any success. Sky sports has limited access to new users. Games are shown at peak viewing Friday nights so only diehards would watch. Limiting new audiences would you not think. Skys idea seems to be to emulate the success of union on a europe wide stage because they realise they cannot generate sufficient audience from a couple of counties to justify the expense. Look how quick they boot RL out of their slot or onto another sky channel. Why Union,cricket, football, snooker , golf, or darts all get priority due to audience numbers. What happens when Sky decises to pull the plug because it is not viable. RL probably be like shinty. A match a year if you are lucky. Clubs then cant generate superleague wages, standard drop, Ozzidream players don'y come north because it is a RL backwater. Celtic folds, Dragons does not fly north, London pack in. Football does not get the stadium rent so games return to the training pitches. Then your younsters follows the glory games and the money, so youth development is a fruitless exercise.
Il realised right at the beginning for the game to survive and grow it must atract wider audiences. TV revenue will be the backbone of the sport. Without that you have the local undertaker and builders centre plastering a sign on the hoadings. You have gate revenue. How many top clubs would survive with just that. The game needs access to the prime sporting slots on terrestrial tv and that is Sat. annd Sun. afternoons not competing aganist weekend primetime entertainment,
Jim

[KOOCH]

Probably is a little harsh regarding my comments re Claire Balding.However I do stand by my dislike of her.Not going to change my mind even though I do agree that it was probably a touch over the top.This however is a discussion site and I unfortunately feel that my opinion is just as valid as those posted by others even though I might not often agree with them.But have taken on board your comments.And shall moderate my post in future.In an ideal world I would like to take our game global not just nationally.However I do not feel that the Beeb show as much interest in our game as they do for the yawnions.And fortunately I am in a position to afford Sky sports at the mo and that is why I lean towards Sky coverage.If it was left up to the Beeb we would be waiting for the Challenge cup once a year and the possibility of the odd international.I would much rather have a decent coverage than little or no coverage.

[gpartin]

Probably is a little harsh regarding my comments re Claire Balding.However I do stand by my dislike of her.Not going to change my mind even though I do agree that it was probably a touch over the top.This however is a discussion site and I unfortunately feel that my opinion is just as valid as those posted by others even though I might not often agree with them.But have taken on board your comments.And shall moderate my post in future.In an ideal world I would like to take our game global not just nationally.However I do not feel that the Beeb show as much interest in our game as they do for the yawnions.And fortunately I am in a position to afford Sky sports at the mo and that is why I lean towards Sky coverage.If it was left up to the Beeb we would be waiting for the Challenge cup once a year and the possibility of the odd international.I would much rather have a decent coverage than little or no coverage.

Your comments are welcome Kooch, you don't have to like the woman nobody's forcing you bud

[Panchitta Marra]

Probably is a little harsh regarding my comments re Claire Balding.However I do stand by my dislike of her.Not going to change my mind even though I do agree that it was probably a touch over the top.This however is a discussion site and I unfortunately feel that my opinion is just as valid as those posted by others even though I might not often agree with them.But have taken on board your comments.And shall moderate my post in future.In an ideal world I would like to take our game global not just nationally.However I do not feel that the Beeb show as much interest in our game as they do for the yawnions.And fortunately I am in a position to afford Sky sports at the mo and that is why I lean towards Sky coverage.If it was left up to the Beeb we would be waiting for the Challenge cup once a year and the possibility of the odd international.I would much rather have a decent coverage than little or no coverage.

The Beeb cruxifies Rugby League in every way it can.
The only 100% commentator the game has had over latter years was Alex Murphy, the BBC soon put a stop to that.
We regularly had Ray French as the answer.
Games are often commentated on by people who's main interest is Rugby Union, Jonathan davies being a prime example.
We even had Eddie Butler on occasions that I can remember, and who the f88k is he.
Are these people really going to "up" our game.
Big Big insult when Clive Clog Head woodward gets up on the "Sports Personality of the year" to present Stains with their team of the year.
Then that Kick and Clap Fanny Johny no balls Wilkinson presents the trophy to Paul Sculthorpe.
Is is all this planned ahead, guess it must be.
You watch a game of League on BBC with maybe 6 tries scored.
You can put odds on that the worst, most error ridden try is the one shown on the highlights of BBC News.
It stinks, its downrifgt rotten, but they get away with it as the leaders in our game say nothing in response.
The game is nothing without people who are willing to stick up for it and spread the gospel as such.

[DaveO]

Unless I have misunderstood this isn't all that is proposed is that the Cup is removed from the list of events that must remain on free to air TV?

That doesn't mean the BBC are going to drop it. It means the RFL can sell it to the highest bidder and I thought it was the RFL who lobbied to get it removed form the list in the first place?

Conversely the Ashes in cricket have been recommend to return to free to air TV much to the consternation of the cricketing authorities who claim that will reduce the amount they can sell them for to the TV companies. There is some debate about that going on and I don't profess to know if the cricket authorities are right or those claiming they shout too loud are right but for RL there is hardly any RL on free to air TV as it is.

ITV show the Guinness Premiership RU games. That's top level SL equivalent RU league games on free to air TV. They are also on Sky so somehow RU has got league games on both satellite and terrestrial TV. Why can't we do that?

What RL needs is terrestrial broadcaster to take an interest in the game much like Channel 4 did with American Football years ago and actually promote the game.

If they could tempt a TV company to do that with the CC along with NL1 games and some internationals then it ought to be a good thing. As it is RL on the BBC is a quaint side show.

Dave