{{unreferenced, date=May 2019
Code XIII is a regional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
programme on
Channel M
Channel M was a regional television station, serving Greater Manchester. The station, originally known as ''Manchester Student Television'', was owned and operated by the GMG Regional Media division of Guardian Media Group.
Coverage
Original ...
, and was originally presented by Barney, the presenter of Channel M's boxing programme Seconds Out. Jack Dearden took up the role of presenter following a move to the studio in 2007.
The programme began in the 2006 season and focused mainly on teams playing in the
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
area such as Salford City Reds, Wigan Warriors, Leigh Centurions, Rochdale Hornets, Oldham Roughyeds and Swinton Lions. A spin-off series entitled ''Code XIII: Grassroots'' focused on local amateur rugby league highlights. Although the programme predominantly concentrated on the main Greater Manchester teams, it also touched upon the progress of other teams in the region including Warrington and Widnes.
The management at Channel M decided that due to the Superleague rights held by Sky Sports, they were not willing to go forward with another series that did not contain game action, and that the asking price for buying in the footage was more than the Guardian Media Group could afford. It was for this reason that the programme was not recommissioned by Channel M for the 2009 season.