GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[AZOffaly]

RTE lost 0 games to Sky.

TV3 are the ones who lost games.

I believe there were 14 games on Sky that were not on RTE.

[Dirtyball]

If you can find any "doughnuts" who objectives to Sky showing games in Britain then please show me where.the only objection. Is the removal of games from RTE TV3 and BBC in Ireland.

Just out of interest, how many games were removed throughout the year that you couldn't see in Ireland?

a few hurling miss matches.. That's all.sky got nothing special that RTE didn't get.

Since you seem to know, why don't you list the games for BennyHarp's benefit.

Kilkenny/Offaly. Tipperary/Offaly are 2 that quickly come to mind

[BennyHarp]

So over the course of approximately 90 hurling and football championship matches, a maximum of 14 where involved in the "removal" from Irish TV, but however they were still available in pubs and online. That leaves a paltry 76 games (approx) that were unaffected and not part of the "removal" plans at all. How did you lads at home cope this summer?

[Keane]

So over the course of approximately 90 hurling and football championship matches, a maximum of 14 where involved in the "removal" from Irish TV, but however they were still available in pubs and online. That leaves a paltry 76 games (approx) that were unaffected and not part of the "removal" plans at all. How did you lads at home cope this summer?

Two lads in hospital had to listen to a Dublin game on the radio according to some reports.

[orangeman]

Was it " in the paper" ?? 

[armaghniac]

but however they were still available in pubs and online.

These games were not available online, the GAAGo service is crippled when the games are on Sky. and did Duffy not claim that the attraction  of the Sky deal was that you didn't have to go to the pub?

[easytiger95]

It wasn't 14 lads - AFAIK Sky had a total of 9 matches exclusively, whilst they had semi finals and finals shared with RTE.

[AZOffaly]

It was 14.


Sky Sports has obtained exclusive Island of Ireland rights to 14 Championship games.
These consist of eight Saturday evening matches in the All-Ireland qualifiers, two All-Ireland football championship quarter-finals, and two Saturday evening and two Sunday Provincial championship games.
Confirmed fixtures which will be broadcast on Sky include Kilkenny v Offaly and Dublin v Wexford in the Leinster SHC; Sligo v Galway/London in the Connacht SFC; and Armagh/Cavan v Down/Tyrone/Monaghan in the Ulster SFC.
Sky Sports will also broadcast the All-Ireland Hurling and Football semi-finals and finals, thus making 20 live games available to its subscribers throughout Britain and Ireland.

[StephenC]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

[Dirtyball]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

well the Irish government or RTE or both need to make RTE available worldwide . We are the only nation who can't access  our live TV abroad. Be it free or subscription it needs to be available abroad.

[Eamonnca1]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

Let's see you negotiate the deal with Sky next time around then.

[rrhf]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

well the Irish government or RTE or both need to make RTE available worldwide . We are the only nation who can't access  our live TV abroad. Be it free or subscription it needs to be available abroad.

why is this the case?

[StephenC]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

well the Irish government or RTE or both need to make RTE available worldwide . We are the only nation who can't access  our live TV abroad. Be it free or subscription it needs to be available abroad.

why is this the case?

AFAIK it's cause RTE pay for US series etc on the basis of their audience. Say when Lost was airing ... if RTE was available worldwide, then they would have had to pay a much higher price and probably couldn't afford it.

[StephenC]

It's the 2 quarter finals that should be focused on. Two if the biggest games of the year, on the bumper footballing weekend of the year.
I want everyone in the whole world to get the chance to see the games. I do not accept that the price for that is to restrict access in Ireland.

Let's see you negotiate the deal with Sky next time around then.

So if I offer Sky in the UK access to all televised games (restricted to mainland UK), would they take it? Yes, I'd guess. Again, I don't believe that the "price" of sharing our games in America, Australia and elsewhere, is the restriction of some of the biggest games of the year in Ireland.

[easytiger95]

It's very simple lads - commercially the GAA need a rival to RTE to maintain the rights price, let alone improve it. TV3 and Setanta are not capable of doing that. They don't have the money and TV3's coverage after a good start, had severely degraded production values by the end of their tenure - so even if they could afford the rights, it looked like they couldn't afford to televise them.

Without some form of TV money and an international dimension, a lot of things that are taken for granted in the GAA would no longer be available. People seem to forget that there was no live coverage beyond semis pre 95 - I remember it well.

There are good arguments on both sides, but overall the GAA (and by that I mean us as well as Croke Park) came out well in this.