Super League Launches With TV Changes

The new Super League season officially launches today at Old Trafford, with the announcement that Sky Sports will televise matches on Monday nights, as well as Fridays, throughout the summer.

The switch of the second televised game from the previous Saturday slot has been agreed as part of Sky’s new five-year Super League deal, with the broadcasters and the clubs keen to fill the gap left on Monday nights when the football season finishes, from late May to early August.

The Monday night games are set to broadcast from 21st May, although Sky will already have shown two Monday night games on bank holidays before this date.

Until the current football season concludes the league, armed with new title sponsors in Stobart, will continue with Friday and Saturday broadcasts.

Stobart Group announced its partnership with the Super League last week, in a cross-marketing deal to secure title naming rights to Rugby League’s elite club competition, until the end of the 2014 season.

The new agreement will see the competition become the Stobart Super League with the transport and distribution brand featuring prominently across all 14 clubs.

The season begins this weekend with beginning with Widnes’s first match back in the elite competition at home to Wakefield Trinity will be shown on Friday night, and Salford’s first game at their new stadium, against Castleford, the following evening.

The BBC will now screen two fewer Challenge Cup ties this season under their new broadcasting agreement, which is understood to include only one game from the fourth and fifth rounds in April, as opposed to two from each round in previous years. 

The BBC will still cover two of the four quarter-finals in May and both the semi-finals in mid-July before the final at Wembley on 25th August.