Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.
Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.
Underexposed
THE
recent televised Challenge Cup tie between Featherstone and Halifax provoked a
common question - why isn’t Championship rugby league on television regularly
again?
The straight-forward answer is that
Sky hold the rights to the competition and choose not to screen it on a weekly
basis.
They may also point to the fact that
they air the Summer Bash (terrific) and feature Championship sides in their
coverage of the Qualifiers, which is also welcome.
But when you see the kind of
entertainment served up by Fev and Fax, and compare it to some of the
other sports output on that platform, you wonder why it isn’t on every week.
For two years we had that courtesy of
Premier Sports, who grew into their broadcasting of the competition and by the
end had assembled a team that was widely appreciated by clubs and supporters.
Thursday night rugby league has it
problems - we all know that and hear enough about it in Super League, some of
it justifiably so.
But this was regular television
exposure that provided players with a bigger stage to showcase their talent on
(and given their sacrifices in most cases that is richly deserved), as
well as providing greater exposure for clubs and their sponsors.
Both coaches in the Fev-Fax game
certainly feel that the competition deserves a wider audience that it currently
gets.
Asked if the Championship should be on
TV more regularly, Fax’s Richard Marshall responded: “I’d love it
to be - I think it’d be great.
“Obviously there’s
an impact on crowd figures but in terms of sponsorship, exposure and levels of
competition, it’d be great
“This one was on
Sky and was an evening game.
“All the players
were excited about that, and if we could make that a regular feature it would
be fantastic.”
Rovers’ boss Jon
Sharp agreed.
He said:
“Featherstone people like to look on the dark side of most things and were
umming and arring about the television cameras being here.
“But we flipped it
on its head and said it would be a real positive thing, especially if we could
play as well as we can.”
And both sides certainly emerged from
last week’s
game with considerable credit, much of it from people who would never otherwise
have seen them play.
So, to the Sky problem.
If they are not in a position to
screen the Championship regularly then perhaps they could sell the rights onto
another company.
Chris Irvine, the rugby league
correspondent for The Times, tweeted that this is the case with Speedway, for
which Sky holds the rights but BT pay to screen.
That could be one option, although it
obviously needs a willing media partner to come forward and start discussions.
Just show them a recording of Thursday’s
Featherstone-Halifax game if they need any persuading.
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