St Helens chairman Eamon McManus has labelled the Rugby League World Cup not being on free-to-air TV as “depressing.”
It was announced earlier this week that the tournament will be broadcast exclusively on Premier Sports, meaning that the BBC will not have coverage in any form for the first time since this century.
The broadcaster will show all Men’s games live, as well as all of England’s Women’s and Wheelchair games, as well as the semi-finals and finals of those competitions.
What it means is that fans in the UK and Ireland will need to pay a subscription to access the coverage, meaning that only dedicated fans will watch the tournament, and the casual or first-time viewers are being left behind.
McManus, who spoke to BBC Radio Merseyside this week on a range of topics, said that the broadcast deal is a “reflection of where we’re at” as a sport, and that more needs to be done to raise the profile of the game.
“We’ve got a sport, and we’ve got a fan base that are fanatical about it and want more of it and want to see more of it,” he explained.
“There’s no doubting, I’ve never taken anybody to a rugby league game in my life who’s not enjoyed it. And if they do, then there’s really something wrong with them or they have a prejudice or whatever, but it’s an incredible sport.
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“What it has lacked, certainly in our country and in my lifetime, is profile, certainly in media and broadcast. So, to hear that, is quite depressing. It really is.
“We’ve got to do something about it to change that, because otherwise the World Cup becomes yet another domestic Australian rugby league competition watched by Australians and not admired by the rest of the world.”
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