14th March 2012

The Co-operative Championship Rugby on Premier Sports Ian Smith - Fourth Official

The RFL have heralded a new chapter in Rugby League broadcasting, with the successful launch of Televideo’s production for Premier Sports, the first programme of which was aired last Thursday 8th March at 7pm.

Televideo are delighted to be the independent production company for the RFL and Premier Sports, and look forward to a thrilling 32-programme series, which will include games from The Co-operative Championship and Championship 1, The BUCS Finals, the Northern Rail Cup and the European league.

The first programme of the season came from the Leigh Sports Village as the Leigh Centurions faced the Batley Bulldogs in the first game Championship game 2012. The show was presented by Ian Ramsdale, who was joined by rugby league legend Brian Noble in the studio and in commentary, with reporter Natalie Quirk on-hand on the touchline bringing updates and team news. Dave Woods will also be joining the talent team throughout the year. The show is set to include weekly features based at each home side, as well as interviews from in and around the sport, analysis, interviews, and of course full coverage of the selected game of the week.

The production team were also pleased to deliver the live Northern Rail Cup draw before the main game, which saw the 8 remaining teams in the competition drawn against each other for the Quarter Finals, which will begin with live coverage on Thursday 14th June as the Keighley Cougars take on the Featherstone Rovers.

Fans were also treated to an innovative approach, which allowed the fourth official and video referee, Ian Smith, to engage in discussion on-air with the on-pitch official. Viewers were able to ‘listen in’ on Ian’s decisions as he watched various angles of replays to assist his team in making try decisions. This gave great insight into how the video ref works from within the outside broadcast truck, and the response to this new part of the broadcast ahs been positive across the board.

Richard Webb, the Operations Director for Premier Sports, said: “We have had excellent feedback to our first Co-operative Championship broadcast. The live stream of the video referee decision has really made a big impact and we look forward to keeping viewers close to the action throughout the season.”

Paul Scivill, Managing Director of Televideo, commented, “It was a great first show and we hope to build on this across the season. We are based in Yorkshire and so are close to the rugby league community, many of our staff are big supporters of the game and so to have the opportunity to work on such a high profile competition is fantastic. We look forward to building our relationship with the RFL, Premier Sports, and of course the viewers at home.”

The next programme will be broadcast on Thursday 15th March on Premier Sports at 7pm, and will include all the action as Featherstone Rovers go head to head with the Leigh Centurions. Iam Ramsdale will be joined by Brian Noble and Sheffield Eagles’ Andrew Henderson in the studio.