Sky Sports set to provide Super League streaming service

Now that IMG gradings are out of the way, the futures of clubs like Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, St Helen and the rest of Super League is a little clearer.

At the start of the 2023 Super League season the future of the competition and sport in this country was shrouded in mystery with three TV deals expiring and uncertainty over what IMG’s involvement in the sport would mean for the game.

Yes, there has still been no agreement with Channel 4 or any other free to air broadcaster about showing games in 2024 and yes no one has picked up the rights to the Championship in terms of broadcasting but the big stuff has been dealt with.

A slightly less favourable TV deal has been agreed with Sky Sports worth around £20 million which has impacted some clubs’ spending power in the transfer market.

Meanwhile, clubs voted to accept IMG’s proposals with the first ever gradings now published.

So now the sport is firmly in the hands of IMG and Sky Sports.

Sky Sports have a bigger part to play than ever in terms of helping the sport grow with every Super League game set to be broadcast by them in 2024 and beyond after the agreeing of a historic deal.

But the question still remains: how will this be enacted upon.

According to reports in French publications, Sky are considering the development of a streaming service that fans can subscribe to in order to watch every game.

It has also been rumoured that the RFL have been conducting surveys about how much fans would be willing to pay per game, per round and for the entire season.

That being said, Sky could also stagger kick-off times in order to show every game individually rather than splitting an audience.

However, this notion has been pushed back against likely to enable clubs to keep games in favourable slots such as Friday night to try and limit the impact the broadcasting of every game would likely have on attendances which is of course a key element of IMG’s grading criteria.

Thus, some sort streaming service or red button access seems likely and was confirmed by IMG yesterday.

They confirmed that an OTT will be developed. This seems set to be alongside Sky.