Daily Mail: BBC to screen live Super League matches on a Saturday evening

Story from Daily Mail:

The BBC have won the rights to broadcast Super League matches free-to-air for the next three years in a major boost for rugby league.

Mail Sport has learned that BBC Sport have seen off competition from Channel 4 to secure live Super League games for the first time in a deal that will see at least 12 matches-a-season shown live on BBC Two on Saturday evenings from next month.

The BBC’s coverage will complement that of Super League’s main rights holder Sky Sports, who will show all six games live each week for the first time when the competition resumes with the Hull derby on 15 February.

In addition, BBC Two will broadcast 12 live regular season matches, with more to be made available in BBC iPlayer, as well as two play-off games at the end of the season and the World Club Challenge between Wigan and NRL champions Penrith Panthers on 24 February.

The BBC are also set to extend their live rights deal for the Challenge Cup, which expires at the end of this year, until the end of the 2026 season.

Securing regular Super League games on top of their established Challenge Cup coverage is seen as a significant fillip for the corporation, who have not broadcast league games since the mid-1990’s and whose portfolio of live sport has been decimated in recent years.

Channel 4 are understood to have also attempted to obtain Super League rights having secured a last-minute cut-price deal to bring games onto terrestrial television two years ago, but were outbid by the BBC.

Super League and the BBC declined to comment.