Channel 4 chief confirms Sky Sports relationship and where they plan to improve coverage

Channel 4 head of sport Pete Andrews was delighted with the viewing figures for Saturday’s historic Leeds-Warrington match but has vowed to make their Super League coverage even better.

The Headingley clash was the first time a live Super League match had been televised free-to-air on terrestrial and the Channel 4 audience peaked at an impressive 735,000 viewers.

That compared favourably with the recent Sale-Leicester game televised live on ITV, which attracted a peak of 750,000 to set a new record for the biggest TV audience ever for a Premiership rugby union match.

Andrews was at Headingley to witness the action unfold on Saturday lunchtime and saw Warrington edge a dramatic encounter 22-20.

He told Rugby League Live: “We’re really pleased with the figures because it represents a great start on what was a really busy day of sport with the Six Nations and Premier League football.

“I was hoping for figures in that area but you never quite know and I’m always reluctant to set specific targets.

“We had a lot of messages on the audience log from people who said they had never watched rugby league before but they really enjoyed our coverage and would be watching it again.

“That’s the feedback we really enjoy because we know rugby league is a brilliant sport and we just want more people to watch it.”

Popular Aussie comedian and The Last Leg frontman Adam Hills presented the match and was joined by pundits Danika Priim, Sam Tomkins and Leon Pryce.

Having watched the coverage back, Andrews said: “I thought the whole team did really well, but we want to keep going and get even better.

“This was the first show and there are always little things we can have a look at.

“We’ll see what we can do to enhance the match graphics –