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Premier League v Super League

By cdpark

Match reports are something which annoy the hell out of me sometimes.

Looking at the BBC’s coverage of football and rugby league there is a clear gulf in interest in what they think people might want to read.

Taking two match reports, Sunday’s title decider between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic, in the Premier League, and Wigan Warriors verses Whitehaven Warriors in the Challenge Cup from Monday, it is quite clear what their reporters interests are.

Admittedly, Sunday’s Premier League match I have picked was the match which won United the title and the Challenge Cup game was a Round Five match between a Super League powerhouse and a National League 1 average side.

However, 638 words make up the footy report compared to 79 in the rugby report.

This annoys me beacause, as an avid rugby league fan, there are times when I want to read a detailed match report about a certain match, just like you can for ANY football match.

With the footy report there are video links to the after-match interviews with the managers, but just an archived picture stuck in the middle of the rugby report.

Don’t get me wrong, it certainly isn’t just the BBC who tend to prioritise.  A lot of other sports websites and newspapers would do well to not restrict “other” sports to half a column in the inside pages of the sports section.

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This entry was posted on May 13, 2008 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Premier League v Super League”

  1. jkriley Says:
    May 14, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    Unfortunately..that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. The premier league is a global brand that attracts audiences of over half a billion people from over 200 countries.
    Super league is watched by only a handful of people by comparison, and largely only in certain parts of the UK.

    The prioritising of the premier league is a simple matter of supply and demand. More people want to read about Manchester United than they do Stoke, and more want to watch Stoke than they do Cambridge United etc etc. Regardless of what you’re interested in – it will always feature somewhere in the hierachy.
    There are still lots of local newspapers and websites that cover Rugby League, if you interested enough than you will make the effort to find out.

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