The Stobart Super League XVII was the official name of the 2012 Super League season.[2] Fourteen teams competed over 27 rounds, after which the 8 highest finishing teams entered the play-offs to compete for a place in the Grand Final and a chance to win the championship and the Super League Trophy.
The season kicked off on 3 February with two Round 1 fixtures being played: the Widnes Vikings, in their first Super League match since 2005, lost to the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, while defending champions the Leeds Rhinos defeated the Hull Kingston Rovers and ended on 6 October with Leeds Rhinos beating Warrington Wolves 26-18 in the 2012 Super League Grand Final.[3]
Super League XVII was the first year of the second round of Super League licences. Under this system, promotion and relegation between Super League and Championship was abolished, and 14 teams were granted licences subject to certain criteria. All existing Super League teams except Crusaders (who pulled out of the application process) earned a place in the 2012 season, Championship team Widnes Vikings were given a licence after their application was deemed better than Halifax and Barrow Raiders.
Geographically, the vast majority of teams in Super League are based in the north of England, five teams – Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan and Widnes – to the west of the Pennines in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and seven teams to the east in Yorkshire – Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers. Catalans Dragons are the only team based in France and are outside of the UK and London Broncos are the only team to be based in a capital city (London).
The maps below indicate the locations of teams that competed in Super League XVII.
The play-offs commenced following the conclusion of the 27-round regular season. To decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams, Super League uses its unique play-off system. The finals concluded with the 2012 Super League Grand Final.[5]
Awards are presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs in the week leading up to the Super League Grand Final:[8]
2012 is the first year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season.[10] The deal which runs until 2016 is worth £90million.
Sky Sports coverage in the UK see two live matches broadcast each week – one on Friday night, which kicks-off at 8:00 pm and another usually on Saturday evenings at 5:45 pm,[11] although for 2012, some matches between May and August will be scheduled for Monday nights[12] at 8:00 pm, filling the gap vacated by the summer break of Premier League football. Regular commentators were Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Shaun McRae, Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights this season in a new show on Sunday Nights called Super League - Full Time, usually airing at 10pm.
BBC Sport broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme. The first is only to the BBC North West, Yorkshire & North Midlands, North East & Cumbria, and East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35pm on BBC One,[13] while a repeat showing is shown on BBC Two in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The Super League Show is also available for one week after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only.[14] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package.
Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Māori Television (New Zealand), TV 2 Sport (Norway), NTV+ (Russia), Fox Soccer Plus (United States), Eurosport (Australia) or SportsNet World (Canada).
BBC Coverage:
Commercial Radio Coverage:
All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.
ESPN3 has worldwide broadband rights.
Starting from Thursday 9 April 2009, all of the matches shown on Sky Sports will also be available live online via Livestation everywhere in the world excluding the US, Puerto Rico, UK, Ireland, France, Monaco, Australia and New Zealand. List of Super League games available on Livestation.com
