Super League streaming platform launch date and name confirmed as new era arrives

[josie andrews]

The new subscription service will provide access to every Super League game.

Super League's new streaming service will launch next week as the competition embarks on a new era of broadcasting. 'Super League+' will be launched on January 23rd, with the service providing supporters with the ability to watch every single game without needing a Sky Sports subscription.

Every match will be broadcast next year, with Sky Sports footing the production bill. For the first 15 rounds of the season, every game will be shown on Sky Sports, but rugby league fanatics can alternatively buy a subscription to the competition's new platform, which will give them the ability to watch every game, every week, for the entire season.

Providing further insight on the platform, Rugby League Commercial's Managing Director, Rhodri Jones, said: "It will be a subscription platform, similar to Netflix. You'll be able to buy an annual pass, a monthly pass or a game pay-per-view pass. In effect, the six games a weekend, two games are exclusively for Sky Sports. Let's, for example, say a Thursday night and one game on a Friday night. If there are other games on the same night, that game will be available on Super League+. If you are a Sky Sports subscriber, you are also able to watch that game via a Sky Sports platform.

In the first 15 rounds, it has been commented and noticed that all games will sit on the front channels of Sky Sports, that's because there's no streaming platform owned by Sky Sports. That is in development and the aspiration from their perspective is to get that ready for the new EFL season in August.

So there's a bit of a lag there for rugby league. After round 15, two matches will stay on the front channels and the other four will disappear onto the Sky Sports streaming platform. In terms of Super Legaue+, we'll launch on the 23rd; you can buy immediately at that point; there are over 250 pieces of archive uploaded onto the system, so it will be a proper subscription service."

It means that the new subscription platform is looking to attract the same audience as Sky itself. There is a possibility that the two platforms are essentially in competition but Jones said: "Modern-day sport, modern-day competition. You could argue there's conflict, equally Sky Sports is producing more games and delivering more content to their audience as well. There's a world where both can exist.

Our pricing will be very much akin to other competitions. The competition and market, namely around Netflix and monthly. Sky, I would say, is a more considered purchase. In my household, it's £130 a month. We're clearly not going to be that expensive. There's a place for both."

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... h-28452142

[Mike]

Id pay £10 a month for this. In comparison, if you want to watch all the NHL teams out of market games over here a subscription to ESPN+ is around $10 or 15 per month (if I remember correctly)

I want to be able to watch the games whenever I liked though,, not just live.

[josie andrews]

Id pay £10 a month for this. In comparison, if you want to watch all the NHL teams out of market games over here a subscription to ESPN+ is around $10 or 15 per month (if I remember correctly)

I want to be able to watch the games whenever I liked though,, not just live.

Mm, me too. When I come home from a televised game I like to watch back the game I’ve recorded earlier on my Sky box.

[doc]

I wonder how this will affect clubs income streams from their own versions of WiganTV or have SL taken it in house to provide a service for those clubs that dont have a "TV" service of their own already set up?

[Southern Softy]

Permission to be baffled about what exactly is going on with this season's coverage.............. apart from that sneaking feeling that sometime in the near future we're all going to be paying more to watch any RL and rather more to watch the team that we support.

[ian.birchall]

I'll stick with Bilko.

[Mike]

I also wonder how this will work with Wigan TV and this mystery Sky streaming service once its launched. I'd hope the cheapest would be Wigan TV for just all Wigan's games - ideally live in full, but I'd understand the club wanting to delay the broadcast. Then the next most expensive would be RL with all the games (I also wonder if they'll be live). Then a sky subscription for all the games live. Lets see how it shakes out.

[nathan_rugby]

Permission to be baffled about what exactly is going on with this season's coverage.............. apart from that sneaking feeling that sometime in the near future we're all going to be paying more to watch any RL and rather more to watch the team that we support.

The article above explains.

All games on Sky Sports until round 15.

Then they will move to showing two games a week on Sky and the remainder on a streaming service.

They are hoping to price it simile to Netflix which would put it in the £10-£15 a month bracket.

[robbobillinge]

I too will stick with Bilko

[moto748]

Like Southern Softy, I'm a bit baffled too. It seems less than clear to me.

Super League's new streaming service will launch next week as the competition embarks on a new era of broadcasting. 'Super League+' will be launched on January 23rd, with the service providing supporters with the ability to watch every single game without needing a Sky Sports subscription.


implies that it starts straightaway, supporters will be able to see every game, but later it says the first 15 rounds will just be on Sky. So if you buy their streaming platform in January, all you're going to see for 15 rounds is archive stuff (last season's game?)? Is that right?