GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[armaghniac]

Does Keane still run a pub? Not many vinters opposed to this.

[magpie seanie]

Where is the national furore about the new rugby "European Champions and representives of countries we can make money from Cup"? Oh that's right - as with alcohol sponsorship the GAA is held to a higher standard than everyone else. Pure RTE driven hypocrisy. Delighted (especially for their "Head of Sport" who only has interest in one sport) they have lost the rugby world cup. Their sports coverage, especially GAA is abject.

[orangeman]

The diaspora have never had it so good. Gaelic games on the telly and now Malachy Cush and programmes from their own county.all thanks to Sky TV.

A satellite television station is creating 150 jobs across the island of Ireland, 30 of which will be based in Northern Ireland.

IrishTV, based in County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland, is set to begin broadcasting 24 hours day to audiences in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US.

Twelve of the posts will be created at its Northern Ireland headquarters in Donaghmore, County Tyrone.

The firm will also recruit three staff in each of Ireland's 32 counties.

As part of the 15m euros (£12.4m) expansion, every county will have its own weekly 30-minute programme called County Matters, to showcase local issues.

'New platform'
IrishTV's operation in Northern Ireland will be managed by the singer and TV presenter Malachi Cush, who is from Donaghmore.

He rose to prominence through the first series of the BBC talent show, Fame Academy, in 2002.

Mr Cush said: "IrishTV is going to provide an exciting new platform on which to profile all that is good about visiting, living and working in Northern Ireland and through the County Matters shows, the six counties of the north will have the opportunity to showcase themselves to a global audience."

The TV company was founded by County Mayo entrepreneurs, Pierce O'Reilly and Mairead Ní Mhaoilchiaráin.

The firm is backed by one of Ireland's richest men, the Mayo-born multi-millionaire, John Griffin.

'Irish diaspora'
Mr Griffin is believed to be the 37th most wealthy person in Ireland and recently sold the UK's largest minicab service, Addison Lee, for 360m euros (£298m).

Mr O'Reilly, who is the TV firm's chief executive said: "Securing the deals both with Sky in the UK and Europe and PBS in the US has enabled us to potentially capture a large portion of the Irish diaspora - people who will now be closer to home than ever.

He added: "Through the launch of this new channel we will be supporting local communities and businesses showcase their produce to both local and international audiences, and, importantly, helping local firms achieve their full export potential."

Thirty-four of the 150 new jobs will be based at IrishTV headquarters in Westport, County Mayo.

Ten people will be employed across three UK offices in Manchester, Liverpool and London and five of the posts will be based in IrishTV's first US base in Cleveland, Ohio.

[AZOffaly]

I've actually seen this channel. It's somewhere on the Sky platform already, maybe a slot on one of the channels in the 200 range. It's sort of bizarre. Kind of like a televisual version of what you'd imagine the Galtee Mór in Cricklewood to have been like. 1980s Ireland. Country and Irish muisic, interviews with lads about local stuff. Fair play to them for risking a venture on it, and expanding. I'd imagine it gives fierce homesickness to emigrants looking at it and remembering a different Ireland though.

[seafoid]

Where is the national furore about the new rugby "European Champions and representives of countries we can make money from Cup"? Oh that's right - as with alcohol sponsorship the GAA is held to a higher standard than everyone else. Pure RTE driven hypocrisy. Delighted (especially for their "Head of Sport" who only has interest in one sport) they have lost the rugby world cup. Their sports coverage, especially GAA is abject.

Seanie

Which TV station, in your opinion, does sports coverage properly ?

[Croí na hÉireann]

Who'd have thought you could have stretched Nationwide to 24 hours a day.

[easytiger95]

Foster and Allen TV - can't see the appeal myself.

[AZOffaly]

Foster and Allen TV - can't see the appeal myself.

Poor, poor you.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Joe Brolly and Parkinson had another ding-dong over it on Twitter today. Over Brolly's article in Gaelic Life.

Joe Brolly: The GAA's forgtten principles

on April 13, 2014 5:15 pm /


Sky GAA

"With our TV rights we're constrained, rightly, because we would not get away with selling the rights to the championship to SKY Sports or somebody like that."

GAA Director General Padraic Duffy, 2013.

"We are delighted to have awarded SKY Sports the rights to show a third of the televised games in the season. This is great news for fans, players and the sport and we look forward to working with the best in the business."

GAA Director General, Padraic Duffy, April 1st, 2014.

Seems you can get away with doing it after all, so long as you do it secretly. The problem now is that there is no point in giving out. As Colm Bradley complained during the week, anyone who protests is a dinosaur or as Donal Óg put it in his column at the weekend, "One of the bellyache brigade crying crocodile tears."

The core of the GAA has always been that it is of the people, by the people, for the people. But as each new line is crossed, it becomes more difficult for us to feel that we are all in it together. I was reared by GAA parents. The message was to be a community person. To give whatever I could and do my best for those around me. I go to around 100 GAA functions, charity matches and the like every year. I have never charged a penny. Sometimes, a brown envelope makes its way onto my passenger seat or coat pocket. When that happens, the envelope is in the post box the following morning. I sent one of those back just a few weeks ago, full of unmarked twenties. God I can take or leave. The GAA? That, I believe in.

After St Brigid's juvenile training the other morning, a group of the coaches stood around discussing the deal. "What" said one, "is the f*** ing point of all this?" I looked around at the hundreds of boys and girls playing tag and kicking ball as they headed for their parents' cars. At the pitches that we raised fortunes to pay for. At the coaches gathering up the balls. For the first time in my life, I wondered the same thing myself.

At the 1997 Congress, then GAA president Jack Boothman stated what was, until now, a cardinal principle of the GAA: " We could never in conscience sell our rights to a media provider not widely available throughout the country that was not national in character. We are not going to sell our people down the river for money." In 2011, The GAA hierarchy informed the Department of Communications that they would not sell media rights to "a foreign channel" as it would be "contrary to the culture and national ethos of the association". So why the f*** are our leaders shaking their hands and praising them to the hilt in April 2014?

No wonder the process was wrapped in secrecy, with no more than a handful of the hierarchy in the loop. At the GAA Congress in february, there wasn't a mention of SKY. Had a democratic vote been taken, there would have been a landslide against the plan. Instead, it was done covertly. When Murdoch's ink was on our pages, the hierarchy announced the deal as a triumph for the diaspora, then ran for cover as soon as questions were asked.

The justifications for the SKY deal, that it increases the audience and encourages global participation, are fallacies. Up until now, UK Gaels could watch all the games via Premier Sports for £9.99 a month. From now on, assuming they want to watch the games owned by SKY, they will have to pay for both Premier and SKY Sports. As Premier Sports Chief Richard Sweeney said on Wednesday " Our coverage was priced at £9.99 a month. Now UK fans are being asked to fork out huge sums to continue watching on TV." A new subscription digital streaming service provided by RTE will in future give worldwide access to all games and highlights. This takes care of the US in particular. In Australia, where the streaming service is also available, Channel 7 will have free to air coverage of all games, slotted into the dead hours in their schedule. As their twitter account put it " To be sure, to be sure, we're showing live Gaelic football this year. Games will be v late night so you'll need coffee. Or Guinness!" Doesn't it make you feel proud?

So we are left with the bizarre situation that in Ireland, only 2/3 of the games are free to air, whereas in Australia, all of them are. This channel 7 deal, to be sure to be sure, is being used as a sort of blackmail against criticism "Do you not want our Australian cousins to see the games for free?" GAA Director of Communications Alan Milton, asked why no free to air service was delivered for the US and UK, said, without any hint of irony, that "a suitable nationwide partner couldn't be found." For reasons that are not apparent, RTE is not, it seems, a suitable, free to air, 32 county, public service broadcaster? Cynics might think that the real reason is that with a public service remit and annual turnover of under $300 million, RTE simply couldn't outbid SKY (annual turnover £6.5 billion).

As for participation, this is increased solely by volunteer coaches, administrators and honest toil. My children and their friends love watching WWE on telly. This has not yet led to an explosion in wrestling in the Belfast area. Commercial Director Peter McKenna waffled on RTE radio on sunday about "globalising" the game, but it was just..... waffle. If he wants to find out how to create a club from nothing he should visit us some weekend & I'll give him the tour.

The reality is that the deal will dramatically reduce audience exposure. UCD's Dr Paul Rouse landmark research paper "The Impact of Pay TV on Sport (2012)" demonstrates how Pay-TV damages the values of community, access and inclusion. The harshest impact is on kids, people in rural areas, farmers, the elderly and women. In 2006, 255,000 people watched Leinster's away quarter final v Toulouse on RTE. SKY bought the 2007 rights. For Leinster's away quarter final v Wasps in 2007, only 47,000 watched on SKY. The number of people in rural areas watching the game dropped from 111,000 (RTE) to 9,000 (SKY). It is a pattern repeated throughout the research. I asked Paul on Wednesday if the GAA/SKY deal was likely to have a similar impact. His answer "For sure Joe. I find it hard to believe. And the justifications don't hold water. I have never heard such rubbish."

This is a purely commercial decision, driven by Peter McKenna, the commercial manager. Peter is not a GAA man or member, but he is very good at his job. It is not part of his remit to strike the balance between business and the ethos of the GAA. That is supposed to be the role of Padraic and Liam and the rest of us. The question for us now is "Where is the line?" Or "Is there a line at all?"

My fear is that as we have seen recently with some of the major Irish charities, once a certain overtly commercial line is crossed, trust begins to evaporate and credibility is lost. We urgently need to decide what we are. What are our priorities? A Code of Practice setting out what we can and cannot do in the pursuit of money would be a good start. Where do ideals end and business begin? The principle that televised games should be free to air for the people of Ireland would have been an obvious one but its a bit late now. We are left with the depressing situation of Irish Ministers and TDs calling for government intervention, just as they did when rugby was sold.

The SKY deal is a potent symbol of a new commercial era, where greed is good and the old values of community & togetherness are quaint and embarrassing. The deal is undoubtedly good business and the money will, as always, filter back to the wider GAA. But it is a breach of trust, casting the GAA community further adrift from the commercial juggernaut that is Croke Park and setting a poor example.

More fundamentally, it undermines the principle at the very heart of the association. The one that until last week was so eloquently expressed by the men now shaking hands with Murdoch.
- See more at: http://gaeliclife.com/2014/04/joe-brolly-the-gaas-forgtten-principles/#sthash.uyOGYifJ.dpuf

[easytiger95]

On the surface a  persuasive argument. Read deeper into it and the logic starts to become threadbare.

The justifications for the SKY deal, that it increases the audience and encourages global participation, are fallacies. Up until now, UK Gaels could watch all the games via Premier Sports for £9.99 a month. From now on, assuming they want to watch the games owned by SKY, they will have to pay for both Premier and SKY Sports. As Premier Sports Chief Richard Sweeney said on Wednesday " Our coverage was priced at £9.99 a month. Now UK fans are being asked to fork out huge sums to continue watching on TV."

So the head of a subscription channel bemoans the fact that another subscription channel has the rights to games it previously put behind a pay wall, with the GAA's permission? Once the Setanta deal was signed in 2006, the GAA was in the subscription TV business. Once you lose your virginity, you're no longer a virgin. To pretend any differently is to be guilty of the same hypocrisy Brolly is slating.

The reality is that the deal will dramatically reduce audience exposure. UCD's Dr Paul Rouse landmark research paper "The Impact of Pay TV on Sport (2012)" demonstrates how Pay-TV damages the values of community, access and inclusion. The harshest impact is on kids, people in rural areas, farmers, the elderly and women. In 2006, 255,000 people watched Leinster's away quarter final v Toulouse on RTE. SKY bought the 2007 rights. For Leinster's away quarter final v Wasps in 2007, only 47,000 watched on SKY. The number of people in rural areas watching the game dropped from 111,000 (RTE) to 9,000 (SKY). It is a pattern repeated throughout the research. I asked Paul on Wednesday if the GAA/SKY deal was likely to have a similar impact. His answer "For sure Joe. I find it hard to believe. And the justifications don't hold water. I have never heard such rubbish."

Very disappointing that an academic would go along with Brolly and pick up a pitch fork here. Two very different situations, in that the entire Heineken Cup went to Sky - there is still a huge majority of GAA games available free to air. You could argue that the selling of all the rights to Sky could have the same effect, should it happen - but even then, rugby v gaa is a very bad example. You could argue that the 47000 watching on subscription actually represented rugby's normal constituency, and the 255,000 figure represented people who watched it only because it was available (I'd hesitate to use the word bandwagon, maybe casual consumption is better). The actual figure of committted GAA fans has always been bigger then rugby, though I'm sure there would be some drop off. Just remember that rugby picked up a whole new constituency through the Heineken cup - but these newer fans are easier to lose.

Where do ideals end and business begin? The principle that televised games should be free to air for the people of Ireland would have been an obvious one but its a bit late now. We are left with the depressing situation of Irish Ministers and TDs calling for government intervention, just as they did when rugby was sold.

I don't think it is too late at all. You can be guaranteed that the next Congress will have exactly the kind of debate Joe wants about the character of the organisation. If the deal has only one good aspect, it will have been to encourage that. But this kind of scaremongering is typical of someone associated with RTE. This is a challenge they should be rising to, and they sat at the same table as Sky. Rather than bemoan the loss of our national character, go and show the GAA what they are missing by not having the games on RTE. Sky may have resources, but surely RTE has knowledge, passion and a sense of how important the GAA is to Irish society. And if they don't, they should. If their coverage made it easier for the GAA to make this decision, they owe it to their viewing public to improve.

We should see how this goes, analyse the pros and cons acutely, and then make our decisions with some evidence to refer to. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. There is no gun to our heads. And if it doesn't do what Sky wants it to, they won't be slow in moving on, as anyone who remembers Sky News Ireland will know.

[AZOffaly]

Rte pundit bad mouths deal which may make him change his stupid smarmy ways on TV or risk being left behind. Shock horror. Not so sniggery now joe.

[seafoid]

I presume Sky will show more tanned players. The fellas RTE show are mostly as white as a sheet and it clashes with those white shorts with the dodgy stripes. Presumably Sky will be jazzing those up as well.   

[easytiger95]

Mobile tanning salons are on the road as we speak. Brave new world.

[magpie seanie]

Where is the national furore about the new rugby "European Champions and representives of countries we can make money from Cup"? Oh that's right - as with alcohol sponsorship the GAA is held to a higher standard than everyone else. Pure RTE driven hypocrisy. Delighted (especially for their "Head of Sport" who only has interest in one sport) they have lost the rugby world cup. Their sports coverage, especially GAA is abject.

Seanie

Which TV station, in your opinion, does sports coverage properly ?

Properly? That's difficult. Better than RTE? That's pretty much everyone.

[rrhf]

The constant rubbishing of our games and players from the current Rte pundits makes me on one hand think that  the gaa had to make a move to ensure an integral coverage. The sad thing is every word Joe says is right... but he must shoulder his share of the blame for the verbal trash that the panel  have produced for the last decade which became currency among all other media and critics of our games.