Thought it has potential.
George Burgess was incredibly boring, turned it off just after the Reagan Grace section.
Hopefully it will pick up after round 1.
I’ve set up a series link and can’t be bothered to cancel that. I’ll therefore give it a second chance in the hope that someone more interesting than George Burgess is chosen to be a guest (shouldn’t be difficult). I thought that the female presenter came across as out of her depth while Perry was no better than the performances delivered by our own Josh. Hope that it improves as the season progresses.
I'm glad it wasn't just me who thought the sound was odd, I'm slightly deaf and use heaing aids but it was like they were speaking through a drainpipe in a studio made from a converted garage. I've seen the Grand Final package before, I think it was on the Saints Twitter account months ago. I thought it was awful at first but to be fair it was the first one so it may improve, still appeared to be done on the cheap by an independent company, Leeds based (naturally) as opposed to a professionaly done Sky production
Burgess looks like a serial killer who's preferred method is talking to his victims. I don't know who dressed him either the scruffy get.
I thought the first part of the documentary series was brilliant, with one exception, the narrators annoying accent that grated every time he spoke.
I understand that this is going out internationally and they want someone narrating it who has a neutral accent that doesn’t perpetuate the stereotypes of RL, but for me this went too far in the opposite direction. My other half who is a middle class woman from Hampshire even rolled her eyes when she heard his accent, claiming he sounded like a Union fan who had been given the job to describe something he’s probably never watched.
There were some Americanisms in there as well, such as “St Helens has” instead of “St Helens have” which have been stuck in there for an audience that I doubt would care either way but will probably annoy the core audience here.
As I said, the first part was really good, really interesting, and I’ll continue to watch.
I agree that it's brilliant - just watching it now (the accent doesn't bother me). It achieves the difficult task of actually making rugby league seem relevant, even important. It's very honest and even said league is basically invisible in this country which isn't far from the truth
The other show was ok but needs a few improvements. For me they should have aimed it more at new fans, floating viewers that might want to get into rugby league. The NFL show even now, something like 5 years after it started, still explains the basics. It would be good if they could do a feature on a different club each week, their history, great moments and players etc
Some of the filming style reminded me of the Netflix American football documentaries doing the rounds at the moment. I really enjoyed most of the show. The guests really let it down though, I know Burgess is a big signing this year but man he was boring. It's got potential and it's definitely more forward thinking than anything else we've seen over here or copied from down under but it's still in its infancy and needs improvement. Hopefully people can get behind it and if it improves it's guests I'll be watching most weeks.
Sky coverage totally unimpressive: Phil Clarke still pointless, Bill Arthur sounds like he should be covering Formula 3 on Eurosport and above all that retarded try music. Jesus wept that 2unlimited shit died 26 years ago; would any serious sport enter a new decade with such childish nonsense?
The coverage still lags way behind the curve and the fact shit like womens netball is getting a bigger push speaks more than enough. Sky offers bread crumbs and hopes the desperate fall for its gimmicks. Its been a shit production for years, ruined by Neville Smith and his nepotistic self satisfaction.
Time to ditch sky and has been for a long, long time.
It’s the commentators who let it down in my opinion. I think the studio build up with Carney and Jon Wells is excellent and very professional. Bill Arthur, however, and Barry and Terry are amateurish and don’t even get some of the basics right - such as when a sub has replaced a player for example.
Jackson Hastings was excellent on Sky IMO on Friday night. And overall the inclusion of current players alongside Carney is working in the studio. The commentary and in game stuff is still not great, but I think the studio stuff is getting better.
If we ditch Sky where are we going to get the £40 million a year from?
I also think we need change but what is the alternative?
Quite a few people feel we need to acquire a new sponsor that is more appropriate in this day and age, where are these other companies and their endorsements?
The game needs to stop looking at SKY as some sort of kindly benefactor; its not as if Rupert Murdoch is known for being generous of spirit.
The reality is the game is selling broadcast rights not asking SKY for a charitable donation. There are potentially a lot of options and opportunities to explore and that's why SLE are looking at using venture capitalists to sell those rights instead of the 'old' ways of the past where SKY dictated what they wanted to an overly compliant RFL who were basically using their power to secure their position. I expect streaming, web presence, secondary rights etc to be fully explored. At the very least we should be leveraging those for a better deal and presentation of the sport than the tired rubbish we see at the moment. SKY aren't what they once were and SLE should take advantage of that.
Your right to infer that the commercial profile of the sport is in the toilet after years of horrendous decisions by the old governing body, however its up to SLE to change that not just sit back and accept it as if its written in some sort of tablet of stone.
Sounds positive and it is a viable alternative media wise, times are changing no doubt about that, a different platform maybe the break we need, just like the investment 24 years ago that should have been built on.
Who are the wealthy investors coming on board to sell these rights?
Is it still at an early stage to say and who at the Super League Executive is managing this, sounds like have we finally got a forward thinking committee.
Easier said than done for a niche sport like RL. Sky is now owned by Comcast (NBC) and there is no guarantee the Americans will see the worth in RL, so it may well be that Sky aren't the best option anymore anyway.
I will be interested to see how much the club RU rights go for in the coming months as the Premiership rights are up at the end of next season. If Sky get the rights back from BT and pay over the odds to get them will they still be that bothered with RL? And if BT lose the rights to Sky will they then try to replace them with a good bid for Super League? I think the outcome (and the money spent) of those RU Prem rights will have a decent bearing of what we can expect to happen to the RL rights as well.
Also, if the likes of Amazon Prime do not try to get involved in the RU Prem rights then I see no reason why they'll get involved in ours either, given that the consensus is that RU rights attract a more affluent demographic and can be linked to a higher brand of commercial tie-ins. I don't see why Amazon will think that attracting 200,000 Prime subscribers (a chunk of whom will already have Prime subs anyway) would be worth the hassle of streaming 80 games over 8 months with all the costs and dedication that comes along with it.
I think the current deal that the RU Premiership have with BT and Channel 5 is one we should aim to replicate, in that BT show the bulk of the games but Channel 5 get to pick 5 live games of their choosing and also have a prime time Monday night highlights show. Compare our deal with the BBC where the SLS is on in the middle of Monday night and only up North, and you can see we are getting shafted in comparison. If the SL clubs are serious about getting proper attention on the domestic game then I would like them to offer up two packages. One for live rights (for pay TV or streaming) and a mini package for 5 live games and a prime time weekly highlights show to a FTA operator. If none of them want it, fine, but have we ever asked the BBC, ITV, etc if they'd like to pay £5m a year for some live games? Sky, BT or whoever keep their weekly rights and would be a must for those wanting to see live games every week, but allowing a FTA operator to (for example) pick 5 live games a season (a game from the opening weekend, the Saints v Wigan Good Friday, the biggest game of the Magic Weekend, etc) would IMO be massive for the domestic game and give it spotlight that it currently only gets on 2 weekends a year for the Cup SFs and Final.
If all the clubs are aiming to do is sign another deal with Sky for a touch more than the current deal then we are once again wasting a chance to explore other ideas.
As ever well reasoned. One of the real problems with past SKY deals are the restrictions to 'secondary' rights. The lack of negotiating skills by the RFL has enabled SKY to get away with murder. We've trialled sillygimmicks on their behalf for years and being shackled from really allowing other broadcaster to show even highlights of the game until as of late. As you say a terrestrial screening of SL should be a must next time around. It really is a relief the likes of Rimmer have been ostracised from any decision making. They've misold the sport for years.
Agreed. Just watched the first SLS of the season, which as well as being on at a ridiculous time over 4 days after the round started it is also still not in HD. How many other mainstream sports in England don’t have terrestrial highlights of their top competition at a sensible hour and in HD?
That new Sky magazine programme was truly amateur the first week. Haven't seen this weeks yet but I hope it's better.
At one point they had the girl presenter and Hurrell both in black clothes sat on black leather chairs in front of a black curtain, to add to it the lighting was poor and the sound not that good. Just amateur.
The Sin Bin with Rod Studd and Paul Cullen was quite informative.
https://www.rugby-league.com/article...-bin--episode-