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  1. #1
    Administrator DIEHARD's Avatar
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    Default Super League secures new 5 year deal with Sky Sports

    GAME CHANGING DEAL WITH SKY SPORTS



    Super League is delighted to announce that it has agreed a new five-year contract with Sky Sports that will have a transformational impact on Rugby League as the sport enters an exciting new era.

    The new contract comes into place from 2017 and will extend Rugby League’s hugely successful partnership with Sky Sports into a fourth decade.

    As part of the deal, Sky Sports will provide enhanced coverage of the whole sport, including the resumption of live Championship action from 2015 when Rugby League embraces the exciting new league structures that see two divisions of 12 teams split into three groups of eight in the closing stages of the season.

    Super League and RFL Chief Executive Nigel Wood said: “I am delighted that we have been able to agree a new contract with Sky Sports that will extend our hugely successful partnership until the end of the 2021 season.

    “The association with Sky Sports has enabled Rugby League to realise many of its ambitions over the last two decades and this new contract will allow the whole sport to grow still further as we enter an exciting chapter in our history.

    “Throughout our negotiations it was clear that Sky were genuinely excited by the league structures that we are putting in place from 2015 onwards.

    “Whilst the new contract does not come into effect until 2017, it allows for the return of live Championship action to Sky Sports from next year which will complement their first class coverage of the First Utility Super League and capture the thrills and drama of new-look competitions where every match matters.

    “Following on from the success of Rugby League World Cup 2013, the forging of significant commercial partnerships around the First Utility Super League and the decision by the clubs to embrace the new league structures, this is another momentous day for the sport.

    “This really is a fantastic time to be a Rugby League supporter.”

    Sky Sports Managing Director Barney Francis said: “This new deal is great news for Sky Sports and our customers, who will enjoy at least eight more years of live Rugby League and an exciting new structure for the sport in the UK.

    “This new deal will take Sky’s partnership with the RFL to 30 years, 26 of those between Sky Sports and Super League. Now, at the dawn of an exciting new era for Rugby League, we’re thrilled that the premier competition in the UK will continue to be available only on Sky Sports until at least 2021.

    “We are also pleased to be bringing even more live coverage, with over 80 matches in 2014 and over 100 a season from 2015 onwards.”

    As well as a new contract from 2017 to 2021, the RFL has agreed a number of changes to the current deal with Sky Sports that runs to the end of the 2016 season. These include regular live action from the Kingstone Press Championship in 2015 and additional coverage of Catalan Dragons home games from 2014.

    The 2014 First Utility Super League season kicks off on Friday February 7 live on Sky Sports when Wigan Warriors begin their defence of the title with a match against 2013 League Leaders Huddersfield Giants at DW Stadium (8.00).

    http://www.londonrugbyleague.co.uk/a...-deal-with-sky
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  2. #2
    Administrator DIEHARD's Avatar
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    Salford owner Dr Marwan Koukash pours scorn on Super League TV deal

    Dr Marwan Koukash, the Palestinian refugee turned successful racehorse owner who rescued Salford this time last year, has followed Wigan's chairman Ian Lenagan by slamming Super League's new long-term television deal with Sky in a scattergun attack on the game's governing body.

    Speaking at Salford's pre-season launch at Media City, Koukash urged the collection of internationals he has allowed the former Great Britain coach Brian Noble to assemble to look across the Manchester Ship Canal, to Old Trafford, and target a first Grand Final appearance there in October. "I know you believe we can do it, and we're going to bloody do it," he said, notwithstanding Salford's finishing position at the bottom of the table in 2013.

    But that was almost an afterthought, well over halfway through an entertaining monologue in which Koukash offered a collection of sponsors, supporters and media his thoughts on recent Super League developments.

    Of the new Sky deal, which is worth around £200m and runs until 2021, he said: "I voted against it, because I didn't think it is the right one. You don't marry the first girl you meet. You go out with them, you sleep with them, you try them, but don't commit to the long-term relationship until you're sure there's no one else better."

    Like Lenagan, Koukash was especially annoyed at the lack of notice he and the other Super League chairmen were given, having been summoned to a meeting last Thursday at 24 hours notice. "I have nothing against Sky, I will always work with Sky and I respect what they've done for the sport," he added. "But hang on, there's other players around. Have we talked to them, or gone to a tendering process? No. Why commit for so long?

    "All right, we've got more money – bloody £300,000 per year. Will it let us increase the salary cap? No. I tell you what it will do – it will allow us to stabilise some of the clubs. But imagine a salary cap of £1.8m in a few years time. It will drive our best talent to bloody [rugby] union or the NRL [Australia's National Rugby League]. That's what it's going to do."

    Koukash was similarly scathing over the new three-year sponsorship deal with First Utility that was announced last week. "Supposedly wonderful news, but we will be lucky if we get £30-40,000. We are securing better deals than that ourselves as a club.

    "The World Cup was a huge success, which shows there are people out there willing to get involved in rugby league provided we have the right product on the field, and we market the game properly."

    He had already dismissed the reintroduction of promotion and relegation in a new system which involves two divisions of 12 splitting to three of eight midway through the season from 2015, and then turned his attention to the RFL's reappointment of Steve McNamara as the England coach.

    "We finished third, on the face of it maybe a good result, and maybe not. For me, with all due respect to the other teams, we finished third in a three-horse race. We have world-class talent in the team, and we should be planning for the next World Cup now in order to win it, not just finish second or third. That's why it shocked me a little bit when I heard that they have opted for reappointing the coach.

    "And what really pissed me off is I learned the coach [McNamara] is going to be an assistant coach in the NRL [with Sydney Roosters]. What message are we sending out? That the England coach is only good enough to be an assistant coach in the NRL. Instead of spending so much money on administrators" – Koukash had already complained that the RFL can pay their employees more than he can his players, because they are not subject to a salary cap – "why not pay for a full-time coach? And if they decide on part-time, why not look at people who really want the job? Brian is available, aren't you? Part-time, I'm not sacking you mate. Also people like Brian McDermott, Shaun Wane, Paul Anderson. They'll all do bloody good job, they know how to win.

    "Maybe I've said too much ... no, I haven't said enough. The RFL, before they come out and make all the statements, I think of that song, who are you kidding Mr Hitler? Sorry, Mr Wood."

    That was a reference to Nigel Wood, the chief executive of the RFL, who first alerted Koukash to the appeal of rugby league when they had adjoining seats in business class on an Emirates flight to Dubai. Wood may have mixed feelings about that meeting now.
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  3. #3
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    freedom of speech
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Titanic View Post
    freedom of speech
    Is that you Clive?
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