Sky to broadcast Super League on Mondays

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB said it would start showing matches from the Super League, English rugby league’s elite competition, on Monday evenings as well as its usual Friday night slot.

The first Monday evening game is scheduled for May 21. Sky's new five-year Super League deal was signed in August 2011.

The Guardian said the decision was made with broadcasters and clubs keen to fill the gap left on Monday evenings from the end of the English football season in May to the start of the new season in August. Sky broadcasts English Premier League football games on Monday evenings.

Public-service broadcaster the BBC will televise two fewer games from the sport’s knockout Challenge Cup competition this season under its new broadcast agreement. Only one game from the fourth and fifth rounds will be broadcast in April, down from two from each round in previous years.

The BBC will still cover two of the four quarter-finals in May and both semi-finals in mid-July, before the final at Wembley Stadium in London on August 25.