The RFL Answers is a new section of the RFL website designed to allow us to respond to your questions*. Please submit your questions to feedback@rfl.uk.com

There are many factors to be taken into consideration when arranging Cup draw. These include the requirements of the host broadcasters, the requirements of the tournament sponsors and the timings of individual rounds. Whenever it takes place, it is important that the draw – and reaction to it – is seen by as many people as possible. Exposure is crucial for the sport and the competition.

The quarter-final draw will take place live on BBC 5 Live at 8.20am on the Breakfast Show to an estimated audience of 8 million people: that will give valuable visibility to Rugby League’s oldest and most prestigious knockout competition.

By staging the draw on a Tuesday, the Carnegie Challenge Cup gains more media interest: had the draw taken place on Sunday evening, the impact of it would have been diluted by the media’s interest in the fifth round matches that took place at the weekend.

There was also no opportunity to conduct the draw with a national broadcaster on Sunday evening: 5 Live’s focus was on Premiership football throughout Sunday afternoon and evening. It was a similar story on Monday, when the times available for sport items were dominated by the reaction to the weekend’s matches and the build up to the Manchester derby on Monday night.

One alternative may be to stream the draw live on the Carnegie Challenge Cup website at a fixed time after every round: that idea does bring consistency but does little to expose the competition to the widest possible audience.

The days when the draw took place at 6.50pm on BBC regional TV news programmes  – as happened in the 1980s and 1990s – are long gone: 20 years ago the broadcasters had little access to footage from the weekend football competitions with longer programmes. Nowadays every regional TV station gets the tapes from every goal scored by their local teams for a Monday night show which is shorter than it was a decade and more ago.

Details of when draws are scheduled to take place are always circulated well in advance: news of the draws themselves are also circulated as they happen via the RFL’s Twitter feeds and Facebook pages to ensure maximum coverage.

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