Streaming Womens Super League - An Idea

I'm all for the Women's Super League. It's going to be a great way to improve participation and interest in the greatest game.

After BBC Sport online recently had Jodie Cunningham as co-commentator for the Challenge Cup, then on the 5live RL podcast, and then had Faye Gaskin & Gemma Walsh do the 5th round draw, it got me thinking...

The Women's competition is surely ripe for extending the BBC Sport's online live-stream coverage after the Challenge Cup goes on to TV in the later rounds. They could show a game once every three weeks or so. Please make it happen Dave Woods and the BBC!

Then, the RFL need to back that up by providing coverage through the Our League app of other games/rounds from the competition. It can serve a double whammy of promoting the app and testing out their own live-stream capabilities. They might not want to limit things to the app and Our League website though, I'd suggest having a Women's RL YouTube channel too.

Both measures will also mean some great exposure for the women's game and the clubs that are running women's sides. One extra benefit for the clubs might be that they can attract extra sponsorship revenue from getting new sponsors involved on the women's kit, meaning more money can go back into the fledgling teams and competition.

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Whilst I'm touching on Our League and streaming, it is time that the RFL did more with this platform. My suggestion would be having different options available for fans. 

For example, you can have the free membership as it is now, with news and match stats, plus the man of the match voting etc. 

Then you can have Our League Plus, which for a small monthly fee, say £5 a month, you get extra content, like coach press conferences and highlights packages from all the competitions.

Then, for a slightly larger fee, say £10-£15 a month, you could have Our League Premium. Subscribers would get delayed replays of all the Super League games in full (e.g. on the Tuesday following the game, like I know Wigan are able to do through Wigan TV), extended highlights of games from all levels and live-stream access to exclusive events (e.g. Man of Steel awards, women's internationals etc.). 

Some concessions to satisfy broadcasters could be made if needed, like not running highlights packages until after BBC's Super League show and Sky Sport's Full Time have aired on Monday nights, or not having the Sky live games available on the full replays.

Until then, the functionality to share the news stories on to social media direct from the app, or a fix to the glitch where some of the key parts of the news copy doesn't show on the app, would be great. I offered this feedback on the app within days of it being launched. Hopefully fixes and continued improvements will be made.

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Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your views on how the greatest game can be better promoted and covered, be it the women's game or any level of action. And don't forget to listen to SLP every week to get your unfiltered rugby league fix! Listen here (Apple) or here (non-Apple).

Mark

SLP