The General Manager of the Super League, Blake Solly, believes there is no need for rugby league to fear the gargantuan Premier League TV deal announced earlier this week, which will feature matches in one of Super League’s traditional timeslots.
Sky have shown Super League fixtures on Friday nights since the inception of the competition in 1996, but they could now face direct competition from the Premier League after it was announced that the new TV deal, which begins in 2016, will include 10 matches per season to be broadcast on Fridays.
However, Solly has been quick to point out that rugby league has squared off against Friday-night football for years, namely Football League games, which Sky have broadcast for some time now. Audience figures, he says, suggest there is nothing to be overly concerned about.
“In all of our discussions with Sky they never indicated it would interfere with us directly,” Solly said. “They might have a Premier League game on the same night on occasions, but in some ways that’s no different than when they put on a game from the Championship.
“I don’t think we’ve got too much to fear from going up against the Premier League on a Friday night. It won’t stop us from doing what we’re doing, and our audiences suggest we don’t suffer when we’re up against a televised game, including a big club from the Championship.”
He added: “It’s not something we’ve got to worry about. We’ve got to be confident in our own product; the Premier League went to market with their packages 12 months after us and we couldn’t schedule our competition around the priority of other sports.”
Rugby league itself secured a new seven-year deal for games to be shown on Sky Sports last year, and Solly insisted the faith the broadcaster has shown in the game means that there is no need for those involved to worry. “We were up against strong competition last weekend and we posted strong figures. We’ve got a great audience who watch rugby league no matter what it’s up against, and if Sky didn’t believe in us then they wouldn’t have considered broadcasting us,” he insisted.
“Sky are confident in the viewing figures we deliver. We can run around for the rest of our existence worrying about what other sports are doing and it will get us nowhere. We’ve built up a strong viewing audience on our Thursday and Friday night slots, and I think we should be confident and hungry in what we’re doing – it’s why Sky signed us up for seven years.”
Solly also confirmed that the Rugby Football League are targeting a crowd of 65,000 for the upcoming Magic Weekend. The event, which features all 12 Super League teams playing inside the same stadium over one weekend, will take place at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park over the weekend of 30-31 May, with 10,000 tickets sold in the north-east already.
