BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Exclusive: RL Commercial has apologised over a mistake in its advertising for its streaming service Super League+, clarifying that the two Sky Sports picks each week will not be available to subscribers 48 hours after broadcast as previously stated.
Originally Super League+ had been marketed as having 106 live games this season, with the remaining 61 games to be available on demand 48 hours after that specific fixture takes place.
But rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads has discovered that is not the case, as due to licensing restrictions on-demand replays for the two Sky Sports specially selected games each round will not be available on Super League+ in the UK, Ireland and Canada until after 10pm GMT on the Monday, following the live Sky broadcasts.
RL Commercial has confirmed to us that an error was made in its promotion and has apologised for the miscommunication.
“We are grateful for this opportunity to clarify the timings of coverage of matches which aren’t available live to UK and Ireland SuperLeague+ subscribers because they have been selected by Sky Sports for exclusive live coverage,” a spokesperson said.
“From Round 4 onwards, these matches will become available to domestic SuperLeague+ subscribers at 9am on the Monday after the completion of the round – as opposed to 10pm on the Monday in the previous three rounds.
“We apologise for stating on the website that these matches would be available earlier (48 hours after they had finished) – this was down to an internal miscommunication, which we are now correcting as soon as it has been flagged with us.
“All other matches are available live to all subscribers, at home and abroad – and all six matches from every round are available live to many overseas subscribers, with the exception of certain selected territories which have separate broadcast agreements.”
Super League fan Dom Hodgson discovered the error after signing up and found he could not watch the Thursday night match on Super League+ until 96 hours after it had been played, instead of the advertised 48-hour delay period.
“The Super Leagye+ proposition was clear and I said that at the time that Super League had hit it out the park with the right features and pricing,” he told rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“To actually not have matches 48 hours after changes the value of the service and means a Thursday night game is delayed nearly four days.
“Even posts on the Super League website from two weeks ago state the 48-hour delay so is this false advertising?”.
Super League= launched on January 23, before the first round of the 2024 season.
Fans can purchase an annual pass for the streaming service for £129.99 or a monthly subscription for £19.99 per month, with Pay-Per-View match passes available from £6.99 per game.
There has been no official confirmation of how many fans have signed up to the service yet six weeks after it launched.
