Prime Minister implored to call out ‘travesty’ World Cup paywall decision by top pundit

One of rugby league’s leading and most eloquent pundits has insisted he believes the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, should have a strong opinion on the ‘shocking’ decision to put the Rugby League World Cup behind a paywall.

The tournament gets underway on Thursday but supporters in the United Kingdom will have to pay to watch it, after the BBC opted against covering the event – leading to Premier Sports picking up coverage instead.

But Jon Wilkin has insisted that decision is a ‘travesty’, as is the fact the most prestigious tournament in rugby league will not be shown on free-to-air television.

Jon Wilkin calls out ‘shocking’ World Cup decision

Ironically, Wilkin was speaking on a BBC Radio 5 Live preview show to build up to the tournament starting this week – but the broadcaster ultimately made the decision themselves not to show the event, rather than them being out-bid by another channel.

In the end, the rights for the tournament in the UK went to Premier Sports after they were the only broadcaster to show an interest – and Wilkin insisted it is ‘concerning’ for rugby league that it has had to go behind a paywall.

He said: “If you think of the cumulative TV audience that the 2022 World Cup gained from a free-to-air asset people could watch, there was 30 million-plus views of our sport.

“Now, if we’re going to make a decision about growing our sport, and we want to put out that we want to grow our sport, we’re in the BBC now – the BBC chose not to bid for it; Premier Sports did. They made a commercial decision.

“It’s alarming, it’s concerning, and frankly, it’s a travesty that this competition isn’t on free-to-air [TV].”

Andy Burnham urged to take stand

That then led Wilkin to insist he felt the Prime Minister, a keen supporter of rugby league himself, should have a strong stance on why the move has happened.

Wilkin added: “I expect Andy Burnham and people in government to have a really strong opinion of why this sport should have tournaments like this on free-to-air TV.

“(The World Cup) inspires young people to play sport, to be healthy, be energetic in the most deprived areas of our country. To then put it behind a paywall for commercial gain, I think it’s shocking.”

There have already been calls of concern from the Government over the decision – with Lisa Nandy, who is Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the MP for Wigan, admitting earlier this year she was concerned about the move from the BBC not to show the tournament.

But it appears that unless there is a late intervention, the entirety of the World Cup will be behind a paywall.