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Thread: 2016-17 Season. Possible Football Impact

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    Default 2016-17 Season. Possible Football Impact

    Does anyone think the new football TV deal due for the 2016 season will impact on Rugby League as they say it will play Premiership games on Friday nights? Thinking of clashes re Friday night games? Possible attendence issues and TV coverage.
    Discuss.
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    Learning All The Songs jonimac's Avatar
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    I see it as an opportunity to play occasional Sunday games which attract more younger supporters with families. Sky TV won't want to see a drop in fairly healthy viewing figures for Superleague.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 49er View Post
    Does anyone think the new football TV deal due for the 2016 season will impact on Rugby League as they say it will play Premiership games on Friday nights? Thinking of clashes re Friday night games? Possible attendence issues and TV coverage.
    Discuss.
    Suppose it's already effecting us anyway with Sky's current premiership deal. The first part of our season we play on Thursday & Friday nights an sacrifice Saturday games not to clash with football. We then go back to Friday / Saturday evenings for the second part when the footbsll season is over.

    I'd imagine with premiership games on a Friday we'll still play Thursday then possibly Saturday later ie 8pm or on a different sky sports channel than the football is being played on the Friday

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    Quote Originally Posted by 49er View Post
    Does anyone think the new football TV deal due for the 2016 season will impact on Rugby League as they say it will play Premiership games on Friday nights? Thinking of clashes re Friday night games? Possible attendence issues and TV coverage.
    Discuss.
    I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have tbh. There are only up to 10 games across the whole season available for Friday night matches and fans groups are protesting at that apparently. Given that so much of the soccer season happens during the rugby league off season the chances are only half that number may clash with our games.

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    As someone who goes watching Wigan Athletic as well as Saints, I think it's ridiculous that they're making games get played on a Friday. At least it will have little impact on us as we're Championship now, but we still get games moved to Fridays. We had Bolton on a Friday night in November which isn't too bad, but for other fans it's ridiculous to travel to games. For example, this season we've seen Norwich vs Bolton, Blackburn vs Cardiff and Cardiff vs Reading. This is just 3 examples of the awfulness that fans have to travel. I suppose it will just get accepted though as match going fans are the last people the TV companies care about now, as long as they get what they want and get the viewing figures to match.

    I suppose the only bonus, if it counts as one, is that people can do weekenders in some places, for example in the Prem at places like Newcastle or any of the London teams. For me in the Championship, it could be at places like Brighton or Cardiff.

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    It depends who wins the bid for Friday night games. If it's BT we won't be affected particularly. If it's Sky who wins the bid, then things may well change

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    It will when Sky move all TV matches to midweek. And it will happen.

    When games moved to Thursday nights supporters should have boycotted games en masse, to let the RFL know and Sky that we will not be their doormats. Unfortunately it would have meant people not attending matches who had paid for season tickets and it would have been a sacrifice needed (like going on strike and losing pay) for long term gain.

    They now have their Thursday games all season with grounds still full and they will keep going, messing us around until people say no more and back that up with actions. As is already said, if BT win the contract then Sky will then in all probability move our matches to clash with BT's football coverage to compete. If Sky get the new football deal then I reckon it's hello to Tue and Wed night matches.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Saint Bert View Post
    It will when Sky move all TV matches to midweek. And it will happen.

    When games moved to Thursday nights supporters should have boycotted games en masse, to let the RFL know and Sky that we will not be their doormats. Unfortunately it would have meant people not attending matches who had paid for season tickets and it would have been a sacrifice needed (like going on strike and losing pay) for long term gain.

    They now have their Thursday games all season with grounds still full and they will keep going, messing us around until people say no more and back that up with actions. As is already said, if BT win the contract then Sky will then in all probability move our matches to clash with BT's football coverage to compete. If Sky get the new football deal then I reckon it's hello to Tue and Wed night matches.
    It's very much a case of "he who pays the piper calls the tune". RL is a relatively poorly supported sport with many fans being unwilling to travel the same distances that football or union followers are prepared to cover so TV income is fundamental to the continued full time professionalism of the game. Even if a mid-week game reduced the crowd by 10,000 (an impossibility for most clubs who don't get that many for a typical game), the loss of income would only be about 10% of what Sky provides for each club. As a consequence, fan power is minimal particularly if, as you infer, there is little impact on attendances.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Saint Bert View Post
    It will when Sky move all TV matches to midweek. And it will happen.

    When games moved to Thursday nights supporters should have boycotted games en masse, to let the RFL know and Sky that we will not be their doormats. Unfortunately it would have meant people not attending matches who had paid for season tickets and it would have been a sacrifice needed (like going on strike and losing pay) for long term gain.

    They now have their Thursday games all season with grounds still full and they will keep going, messing us around until people say no more and back that up with actions. As is already said, if BT win the contract then Sky will then in all probability move our matches to clash with BT's football coverage to compete. If Sky get the new football deal then I reckon it's hello to Tue and Wed night matches.

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    "It's very much a case of "he who pays the piper calls the tune""
    If Sky are able to move Premier League matches to friday night, even though the majority of football fans don't want this, they will be able to do what they want with RL, because the sport hasn't got the financial clout to say no.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie's Boots View Post
    I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have tbh. There are only up to 10 games across the whole season available for Friday night matches and fans groups are protesting at that apparently. Given that so much of the soccer season happens during the rugby league off season the chances are only half that number may clash with our games.
    Exactly

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    It will be up-to 10 games a season and from what I can see the Friday night package is part of the pack of games that includes Monday Night Football, meaning that in all likelihood when there's a Friday night game there won't be a Monday Night one on the same weekend. I think if Sky win the rights to this package of games they'll simply stick Super League games on head-to-head with PL ones as it'll have minimum effect over the course of an entire year as it may result in maybe 4 or 5 clashes in the course of a calendar year. Or alternatively they may just put Super League games on the Monday night if they have a PL game on the Friday.

    However, BT may win this pack of games and that will result in them having a conflict of interest with the RFU as Friday night on BT is Aviva Premiership night, and those two seasons run concurrently. So, it may end up with RU fans complaining just as much as RL fans about Friday night PL games.

    One last thing to mention is that this pack of Premier League games will not contain what are called 'first pick' games, so there will be very few games on Friday nights featuring 2 of the big clubs against each other. Look at MNF as a gauge of the type of games we'll likely see on a Friday night in future, and in the vast majority of those 10 Friday nights (or more likely the 4 or 5 that clash with the RL season) there won't be huge games for the RFL to worry about going head-to-head with.

    BTW, Al is right about the general apathy amongst the RL fanbase. We have let Sky and the RFL do whatever they want with our league system and we've done little to protest about it. We accepted the play offs, we accepted them going to 6 teams, we accepted them going to 8 teams, we then accepted the new system from next season, we accepted Monday night games, Thursday night games etc, etc. All with hardly a whisper of discontent. So when Sky or the RFL decide to change things again in the future they'll be well within their rights as they'll just think 'we can do whatever we want, the RL fan will do as we tell them and have done for 20 years'. That's our fault, not theirs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray77 View Post
    It will be up-to 10 games a season and from what I can see the Friday night package is part of the pack of games that includes Monday Night Football, meaning that in all likelihood when there's a Friday night game there won't be a Monday Night one on the same weekend. I think if Sky win the rights to this package of games they'll simply stick Super League games on head-to-head with PL ones as it'll have minimum effect over the course of an entire year as it may result in maybe 4 or 5 clashes in the course of a calendar year. Or alternatively they may just put Super League games on the Monday night if they have a PL game on the Friday.

    However, BT may win this pack of games and that will result in them having a conflict of interest with the RFU as Friday night on BT is Aviva Premiership night, and those two seasons run concurrently. So, it may end up with RU fans complaining just as much as RL fans about Friday night PL games.

    One last thing to mention is that this pack of Premier League games will not contain what are called 'first pick' games, so there will be very few games on Friday nights featuring 2 of the big clubs against each other. Look at MNF as a gauge of the type of games we'll likely see on a Friday night in future, and in the vast majority of those 10 Friday nights (or more likely the 4 or 5 that clash with the RL season) there won't be huge games for the RFL to worry about going head-to-head with.

    BTW, Al is right about the general apathy amongst the RL fanbase. We have let Sky and the RFL do whatever they want with our league system and we've done little to protest about it. We accepted the play offs, we accepted them going to 6 teams, we accepted them going to 8 teams, we then accepted the new system from next season, we accepted Monday night games, Thursday night games etc, etc. All with hardly a whisper of discontent. So when Sky or the RFL decide to change things again in the future they'll be well within their rights as they'll just think 'we can do whatever we want, the RL fan will do as we tell them and have done for 20 years'. That's our fault, not theirs.
    Well put.
    Your last point about fan apathy is true and I include myself in that. However I do think if fans could actually band together for just one weekend and on a given game day all fans did not go to all games the fans would then hold a trump card. But the powers that be know that that won't happen, as there is to much dysfunction with fans lobbies and general fans. Truth is we will put up whatever the 'suits' decide and only the odd individual will decide not to continue to pay to watch say a Friday/ Thursday night game etc.
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    If there are doubts, surely club chairman should take it up with the RFL and Sky if there's disquiet amongst the fans.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray77 View Post
    It will be up-to 10 games a season and from what I can see the Friday night package is part of the pack of games that includes Monday Night Football, meaning that in all likelihood when there's a Friday night game there won't be a Monday Night one on the same weekend. I think if Sky win the rights to this package of games they'll simply stick Super League games on head-to-head with PL ones as it'll have minimum effect over the course of an entire year as it may result in maybe 4 or 5 clashes in the course of a calendar year. Or alternatively they may just put Super League games on the Monday night if they have a PL game on the Friday.

    However, BT may win this pack of games and that will result in them having a conflict of interest with the RFU as Friday night on BT is Aviva Premiership night, and those two seasons run concurrently. So, it may end up with RU fans complaining just as much as RL fans about Friday night PL games.

    One last thing to mention is that this pack of Premier League games will not contain what are called 'first pick' games, so there will be very few games on Friday nights featuring 2 of the big clubs against each other. Look at MNF as a gauge of the type of games we'll likely see on a Friday night in future, and in the vast majority of those 10 Friday nights (or more likely the 4 or 5 that clash with the RL season) there won't be huge games for the RFL to worry about going head-to-head with.

    BTW, Al is right about the general apathy amongst the RL fanbase. We have let Sky and the RFL do whatever they want with our league system and we've done little to protest about it. We accepted the play offs, we accepted them going to 6 teams, we accepted them going to 8 teams, we then accepted the new system from next season, we accepted Monday night games, Thursday night games etc, etc. All with hardly a whisper of discontent. So when Sky or the RFL decide to change things again in the future they'll be well within their rights as they'll just think 'we can do whatever we want, the RL fan will do as we tell them and have done for 20 years'. That's our fault, not theirs.
    What you say is very true,one thing SKY did press hard for in the new contract was Thursday night matches,they can get big viewing figures for Thursday as it rarely has any live sport on (except for darts)I personally hate Thursday matches,I hate Sundays as well though to be fair,I don't have young children anymore and i can understand the parents view on Sundays.
    Rugby League is very highly thought of at SKY it really is,whether they consider the actual fan is very doubtful

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathon1964 View Post
    Rugby League is very highly thought of at SKY it really is,whether they consider the actual fan is very doubtful
    No argument whatsoever with that, and you phrased it well. I have no doubt Sky think highly of RL, it is a sport that gets them good ratings, a sport that fills in the problematic Thursday and Friday night prime time slots, a sport which gives them a presence over Summer in the football off season, a sport that gives them two marquee events at MW and the Grand Final, and importantly it is a sport that gives Sky a lot of publicity and costs them not a great deal compared to football.

    So yes, I agree entirely, and I also agree with your doubts that the paying fan is anywhere near the top of their priorities when it comes to the game. But, I doubt they care a jot about the match going football fan, cricket fan or rugby union fan either. I don't think we are singled out as a fanbase that gets shafted by them and other TV companies at all, but we are the ones that put up the smallest amount of fight against it, even if it may end up being in vain as in football.

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    Based purely on guesswork, I think a lot of Friday night PL fixtures may be in the Champions League break. Europa League teams can't play on Fridays, and teams that play on Wednesdays in the Champions League won't either, meaning at least 5 will probably be in the winter or our off season. Because of the minimal number of Friday games, I can't see this impacting on the Super League slots.

    As an aside, what slot would everyone prefer for the non-Friday sky match, because when Sky have used the Saturday teatime kick off, I'm sure that has been criticised too. Interestingly, they now do put Catalans home matches alongside Premiership football, which is why we moved to Thursdays in the first place. The talk of protest is nice but irrelevant. Say it was hugely successful and crowd figures fell by 50%, then sky's viewing figures increase, and they aren't really too concerned if that stadium is full or not. We, and every other sport on Sky is worked to fit around it's football coverage. Without football, Sky Sports are nothing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RV12 View Post
    Interestingly, they now do put Catalans home matches alongside Premiership football, which is why we moved to Thursdays in the first place.
    I don't think Sky have any input into that though. Catalans play at that time for French TV, and they supply the TV coverage so its cheap for Sky to show the games live using the French pictures. When Sky specifically want a Catalans game and they send Hemmings and co. down there once or twice a year it's usually moved to Friday. I don't know the ins and outs of it but I think that's why Sky only get the rights to move a very small amount of their home games for their TV slots, and as a substitute Sky now get the rights to show all the games through the the French coverage.

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    Tuesday night SL it is then, except when CL footie on, which I dont think there is as down to last 8 by late Feb ?

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    Empty stadia is not good for sponsors or Sky. All has impact on revenue which rules all. Too many apathetic supporters now or people not willing to sacrifice a game on their season ticket for any decent protest action. It should have been done when games started on a Thursday, no coincidence that they started with big matches that people would not want to miss.
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    Ironically we used to regularly play on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings pre the revolution! They are now the only nights we do not play. Its not so much the night that matters to me its the late changes.

    Getting to Hull on a Friday is just as much of an arse as midweek.

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