RTE and SKY Live Coverage of GAA Championships 2014

[seafoid]

Another opinion poll for what it's worth.


More than half the public believe that the GAA should not have done a deal with Sky Sports for exclusive coverage of 14 All-Ireland championship games.
That's twice as many who support the switch to pay-per-view, while the remainder have no opinion on the issue or are prepared to wait until later in the season before making up their minds.

According to the findings of an exclusive Millward Brown poll for today's Irish Independent, 56pc consider the GAA's link-up with Sky a bad decision, while 28pc support the move.

13pc are in the 'don't know' camp, while 3pc want to see how the deal works out before making up their minds.

The main opposition to the GAA's decision to include Sky for the first time comes from those in the over-55 age bracket, where 62pc are opposed.

The 18-24 age category shows most support among those who back the deal, with 39pc in favour.

This is the first sampling of public opinion since the GAA announced in early April that Sky would replace TV3 as rights holders for the All-Ireland championships.

I'll bet you that if that poll is repeated in October, the numbers will be reversed.

Sky know how to titillate* the viewers and the viewers will lap it up. I have no time for them, but I do hope the move will have the effect of giving RTÉ the boot up the arse they need, though there's no sign of it so far. Maybe that was the whole idea anyway.

(* Disclaimer - this is not intended as a sexist comment and no reference to Rachel Wise is implied.)

Hardy

RTE do need a boot up the arse but I wonder if the problem isn't the audience/ad considerations.
I think a well written newspaper article has far more content than the typical TV analysis of sport and that is down to the target audience. Sports TV is aimed at Sunday World level. 
Sky may be great for graphics etc but for real insight you have to go elsewhere.
Watching Champions League on ITV - it's the same mediocrity.  TV needs ratings to sell ads and the only way you get the biggest audience is to dumb it down. There was an article in Private Eye about this recently. Detective shows on BBC1 are aimed at the general public and scriptwriters have to make certain aspects obvious so everyone can follow the story.

Discussions online are usually far more informative than TV.

It is the same with rugby and soccer etc.

[Syferus]

There was some excellent analysis on the highlights show on Sunday. There's things you can get across in seconds with video that'd take hundreds of words to get an approximation of in print.

[PatDaly]

Does anyone know why there's a round 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B in this years back door?

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/all-ireland-championships

Saturday, June 21st
Qualifiers Round 1A

Saturday, June 28th
Qualifiers Round 1B

Saturday, July 5th
Qualifiers Round 2A

Saturday, July 12th
Qualifiers Round 2B, Round 3A

Saturday, July 19th
Qualifiers Round 3B

[drici]

Does anyone know why there's a round 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B in this years back door?

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/all-ireland-championships

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=24038.0

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=24650.0

[Rossfan]

Does anyone know why there's a round 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B in this years back door?

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/all-ireland-championships

Saturday, June 21st
Qualifiers Round 1A

Saturday, June 28th
Qualifiers Round 1B

Saturday, July 5th
Qualifiers Round 2A

Saturday, July 12th
Qualifiers Round 2B, Round 3A

Saturday, July 19th
Qualifiers Round 3B

Do you just wake up at this time every year?

[drici]

Dia Sathairn   21 - 06 - 14

RTÉ1   3-30pm

Laois v Fermanagh

[drici]

Will youse stop making stuff up on that other thread.

[Archie Mitchell]

I thought Sky had rights to the qualifiers? Or is it shared?

[drici]

Aye, it's split.

[drici]

Nobody seems to have located the four All Ireland Minor Semi Finals yet.
Looks like they could be whacked.

[Archie Mitchell]

Aye, it's split.

Does each broadcaster show one per round then or just a set number. Who would get first preference for them?

[drici]

Does each broadcaster show one per round then or just a set number. Who would get first preference for them?

They are all on this:
https://gaago.rte.ie/

Buy Now matches up to 3rd August are the games RTÉ will be showing.

[drici]

RTÉ only matches:

21st June Laois v Fermanagh
22nd June Antrim v Donegal   Kilkenny v Galway

29th June Kildare v Meath   Dublin v Wexford

5th July Football Qualifier 2A
6th July Munster Senior Football Final   Leinster Senior Hurling Final

12th July Football Qualifier 2B/3A
13th July Connacht Senior Football Final   Munster Senior Hurling Final

20th July Leinster Senior Football Final   Ulster Senior Football Final

27th July All Ireland Senior Hurling Quarter Final   All Ireland Senior Hurling Quarter Final

3rd August All Ireland Senior Football Quarter Final   All Ireland Senior Football Quarter Final

[Farrandeelin]

Nobody seems to have located the four All Ireland Minor Semi Finals yet.
Looks like they could be whacked.

It would be a pity if that happened.

[drici]

Kilkenny-Galway replay will not be screened

TV rights rule out matches being shown in competition with each other


This Saturday's eagerly awaited replay of the weekend's dramatic Galway-Kilkenny Leinster hurling semi-final will not be shown on television or streamed live. The news emerged yesterday when the fixture was finalised for O'Connor Park, Tullamore at 7pm.
As a result it will clash with the Ulster semi-final between Monaghan and Armagh, which is to be broadcast by Sky Sports. According to the GAA's Head of Media Relations Alan Milton, the association is not allowed to allocate television rights to matches, which take place at the same time as fixtures already scheduled to be broadcast.

"Contractually we're obliged not to allow games go out in competition with others that are an agreed part of the schedules announced at the start of the championship," said Milton.

A year ago exactly a similar situation arose when Kilkenny drew with Dublin at the same stage of the Leinster hurling championship and the replay was fixed for 7pm the following Saturday evening.

Although it wasn't televised either, it was streamed live on rte.ie, an option also exercised when Waterford and Cork drew in last month's Munster hurling quarter-final.

The difference in both cases is that RTÉ as the rights holder had the ability to webcast a match in competition with its own schedules. As Sky have the rights to Saturday's match, RTÉ won't under the terms of the rights agreement be allowed to compete with the Ulster match on television or internet platforms.

'Fixture makers'
"It's unfortunate," said Milton, "but because of pressures on broadcasters and fixture makers at this time of the year replays can't always be shown but if it's at all possible we try to facilitate it."

It is believed that Leinster Council did consult with RTÉ but because of a very busy diary on Saturday – the first of the World Cup knockout matches is on at 5pm whereas the Irish Derby from the Curragh is also being televised on Saturday evening – the only time at which the match could start and be screened was 2.30pm.

Neither Galway nor Kilkenny were happy with that, as it would inconvenience their supporters and the council was also mindful of the impact of match traffic on a Saturday afternoon in a provincial town.

The stakes for Galway and Kilkenny became clearer with yesterday's draw for the All-Ireland hurling qualifiers round one. The losers will have to travel to Thurles a week later to take on Tipperary.

Should that be Kilkenny, this would mean a sixth successive championship meeting between the counties after the All-Ireland finals of 2009-11, the All-Ireland semi-final 2012 and last year's memorable qualifier encounter in Nowlan Park, all won by Kilkenny apart from the 2010 final

Galway haven't faced Tipperary in the championship since that 2010 campaign and that year's All-Ireland quarter-final, which Tipp won narrowly on the way to winning that year's Liam MacCarthy Cup.

Kilkenny played their perennial rivals in the league final last month and beat them in extra time.

Average audience
This match will also be shown by Sky Sports 3, as the station's first qualifier selection. That station, according to figures supplied to The Irish Times, drew an average audience of 18,000 for last Saturday's GAA Connacht football semi-final between Sligo and Galway.

That is the same as the audience that watched the Wexford-Dublin Leinster hurling semi-final, which was down from the 32,000 that tuned in for the first Sky broadcast at the start of the month, the Kilkenny-Offaly Leinster hurling quarter-final.

The figures are for Irish residential subscribers only – not including those watching in HD – and do not include those who watched the match in pubs or in Britain. Sunday's broadcast of the Galway v Kilkenny draw on RTÉ One attracted an average audience of 329,000.

RTÉ will show the hurling qualifier between Clare and Wexford from Ennis earlier in the same day. This weekend's two hurling qualifiers see Laois travel to Waterford on Saturday and Offaly go to Ballycastle on Sunday to take on Antrim.

Finally Armagh have yet to lodge an appeal from the weekend's one-match suspensions handed down by the CHC to players Andy Mallon, Brendan Donaghy and Kieran Toner for the melee before the county's Ulster quarter-final against Cavan. It is thought, however, that they will do so.

Although the deadline for appeals isn't until Thursday, if the county wishes to exhaust its remedies – Central Appeals Committee and Disputes Resolution Authority – before Saturday evening's meeting with Monaghan, they won't want to hang around.