Value of Super League’s new TV deal ‘revealed’ by IMG as worrying figures emerge

Super League received just over £21million in television revenue from Sky Sports this season – almost half the figure it was as recently as three seasons ago.

That is according to a new interview with IMG supremo Matt Dwyer in Sport Business, which has gone into great detail about the challenges IMG and RL Commercial have in ensuring Super League and the wider game fulfils its potential in the years ahead.

The report discusses the challenges surrounding Sky Sports, Super League’s long-standing broadcast partner, and the significant drop-off in revenue which has hit all clubs hard on the bottom line.

Many of the competition’s leading clubs have posted significant losses in their most recent accounts, with the loss in Sky income undoubtedly a major factor behind the numbers.

The report states that Super League was earning around £40million per season in 2021 from Sky Sports – as part of the long-term deal which was struck by the Rugby Football League in the mid-2010s.

But in consecutive broadcast rounds, the value paid by Sky Sports has dropped.

The game has now reached a point where it receives just £21.5m this season, meaning the central distribution allocated to all clubs has taken a sizeable and significant hit.

Dwyer reportedly said that Sky had concerns about Super League’s ‘lack of growth’ – which is why the broadcast deal was lower once again this time around.

The deal was therefore reduced by a further 10 per cent until the end of 2026, at which point the Super League rights will once again go out to tender.

Dwyer said: “Sky said to us: ‘Look, you’ve been very steady for a long period of time and you need to be growing the fanbase.’ We need that critical mass to start moving the needle, and that takes time. That’s why this is a 12-year deal.”

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