Rugby league in Norway has been given another massive boost with RLN signing a deal to screen a 30minute highlights show every week for the entire 2011 domestic season with public access channel Frikanalen.

The Norwegian channel has a current audience of 400,000 and is currently negotiating with another Norwegian pay TV broadcaster, Canal Digital, to grow that number to around 1.5 million potential viewers.

Frikanalen Head of Operations Hans Kristian Schilde said: “Frikanalen is experiencing rapid growth and we are very excited to have such a new and dynamic sport such as rugby league with our channel. We feel that this sport is exactly the kind of thing our channel can grow with. The sport has values of discipline, hard work and fair play and we feel this reflects what our channel wants to teach young Norwegians, so it was naturally a perfect fit”.

The first broadcast is set for May 18 and will be hosted by RLN’s Bjørn Mikelsen.