GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[StephenC]

Sky won't be overly concerned about the English numbers. They'll be looking a the Irish ones. Since Sky got a monopoly on 2 of the 4 quarter finals, how have their Irish subscription (residential/commercial) figures changed? That's the immediate yield they are looking for from this deal.

[thejuice]

So what then, we know the game isn't growing, (yet anyway) and sky aren't promoting GAA in Britain for the hell of it so we have to give them a bigger slice of the Irish pie to keep it going.

i honestly believe if we were serious about growing the game we should get out of the sky deal and put it on a channel that has a much wider reach like channel 4 or itv.

[ashman]

American football was first on TV over here in the 80's and was dropped but had a second coming with Sky which just goes to show it can take many years for a game to take hold. Bear in mind that NFL has a proper season too unlike the farce that is the GAA season and American football can more easily grow by the nature of the sport and the fact that there isn't a lot of fairly high level players playing in Britain unlike the GAA. We need to grow through the kids, American football can grow through adults, we can't.

American football is not on the same time as soccer and has a free run on Sunday nights. 

[giveballaghback]

Sky sports have no interest in gaelic games, for the last several weeks since the soccer season started there has not been one add on sky for upcoming gaa games and I have seen adds for every other sort of a dogfight that they were showing. Maybe they have coped on that the gaa is parochial and will remain so and no amount of bullshit hype which sky do so well matters, the gaa need to launch their own sports channel covering all our games. Irish tv, amateur and all as it is has proved that their is an apatite there for all things Irish. 

[Zulu]

So what then, we know the game isn't growing, (yet anyway) and sky aren't promoting GAA in Britain for the hell of it so we have to give them a bigger slice of the Irish pie to keep it going.

i honestly believe if we were serious about growing the game we should get out of the sky deal and put it on a channel that has a much wider reach like channel 4 or itv.

ITV??? Didn't channel 4 drop NFL? Lets give sky a few years before we make any decisions.

[ashman]

Sky sports have no interest in gaelic games, for the last several weeks since the soccer season started there has not been one add on sky for upcoming gaa games and I have seen adds for every other sort of a dogfight that they were showing. Maybe they have coped on that the gaa is parochial and will remain so and no amount of bullshit hype which sky do so well matters, the gaa need to launch their own sports channel covering all our games. Irish tv, amateur and all as it is has proved that their is an apatite there for all things Irish.

To be honest I think the GAA could be on the cusp of a crisis.  I expect a drop in attendances next year . Also crowds are dropping at local club games.

Look at the huge drop in leinster football over the last decade.

[Kickham csc]

Just moved to the UK after living in the states for 10 years.

Sky's coverage was excellent, 100 times better than RTE. Intelligent analysis, great footballing debate, and analysts who were spot on in their analysis (who tried to predict how the teams were going to win)

Very positive even though the game was a dog fight. The GAA should award all coverage of GAA to Sky for 1  year, then tell RTE to get their finger out and do a professional job if they want the contract back

[RealSpiritof98]

Seriously need a stop clock just like rugby, the last 10 minutes was ridiculous, I'd say the ball was in actual play for about 60 seconds (guess). With 2 mins to go in was thinking 5 mins injury, the game didn't start for another 2 mins and he did add it on even though he had probably already given the official the 4mins

[ashman]

Sky sports have no interest in gaelic games, for the last several weeks since the soccer season started there has not been one add on sky for upcoming gaa games and I have seen adds for every other sort of a dogfight that they were showing. Maybe they have coped on that the gaa is parochial and will remain so and no amount of bullshit hype which sky do so well matters, the gaa need to launch their own sports channel covering all our games. Irish tv, amateur and all as it is has proved that their is an apatite there for all things Irish.

Sky sports have no interest in any sport!!!

Bottom line with Sky is dosh.

[giveballaghback]

Spot on ashman.

[Main Street]

Just moved to the UK after living in the states for 10 years.

Sky's coverage was excellent, 100 times better than RTE. Intelligent analysis, great footballing debate, and analysts who were spot on in their analysis (who tried to predict how the teams were going to win)

Very positive even though the game was a dog fight. The GAA should award all coverage of GAA to Sky for 1  year, then tell RTE to get their finger out and do a professional job if they want the contract back

Leave rte out of the comparison, they have nothing to do with the 2nd GAA tv package. Comparisons between Sky's coverage  and RTE's is comparing apples to oranges. One can compare Sky's coverage of their package to the TV3 efforts  with a similar package up to  2013  and I suppose when you pay to hear Canavan, Darragh and the commentators on Sky, one can possibly convince themselves that they sound so much better than when they were on TV3. But the reality is TV3 did a very good job and did it without a subscription fee being required and with much more humble resources.
Somehow some people are deluded that Sky will promote GAA sports to a worldwide satellite couch potato audience and gain a foothold. That will never happen.

TV3 were a great success with their coverage and a good antidote to RTE's coverage. So far, Sky's audience figures have been pathetic and have resulted in hundreds of thousands of Irish people not watching a portion of championship games. And there have been no gains in UK audience switching on.
Sell games on subscription channels abroad  by all means  but don't mix and match with the home audience, it doesn't work to the benefit of irish gaa fans, the game and irish tv stations such as tv3 and tg4.

[Minder]

Just moved to the UK after living in the states for 10 years.

Sky's coverage was excellent, 100 times better than RTE. Intelligent analysis, great footballing debate, and analysts who were spot on in their analysis (who tried to predict how the teams were going to win)

Very positive even though the game was a dog fight. The GAA should award all coverage of GAA to Sky for 1  year, then tell RTE to get their finger out and do a professional job if they want the contract back

Leave rte out of the comparison, they have nothing to do with the 2nd GAA tv package. Comparisons between Sky's coverage  and RTE's is comparing apples to oranges. One can compare Sky's coverage of their package to the TV3 efforts  with a similar package up to  2013  and I suppose when you pay to hear Canavan, Darragh and the commentators on Sky, one can possibly convince themselves that they sound so much better than when they were on TV3. But the reality is TV3 did a very good job and did it without a subscription fee being required and with much more humble resources.
Somehow some people are deluded that Sky will promote GAA sports to a worldwide satellite couch potato audience and gain a foothold. That will never happen.

TV3 were a great success with their coverage and a good antidote to RTE's coverage. So far, Sky's audience figures have been pathetic and have resulted in hundreds of thousands of Irish people not watching a portion of championship games. And there have been no gains in UK audience switching on.
Sell games on subscription channels abroad  by all means  but don't mix and match with the home audience, it doesn't work to the benefit of irish gaa fans, the game and irish tv stations such as tv3 and tg4.

Sensible post

[armaghniac]

Leave rte out of the comparison, they have nothing to do with the 2nd GAA tv package. Comparisons between Sky's coverage  and RTE's is comparing apples to oranges. One can compare Sky's coverage of their package to the TV3 efforts  with a similar package up to  2013  and I suppose when you pay to hear Canavan, Darragh and the commentators on Sky, one can possibly convince themselves that they sound so much better than when they were on TV3. But the reality is TV3 did a very good job and did it without a subscription fee being required and with much more humble resources.
Somehow some people are deluded that Sky will promote GAA sports to a worldwide satellite couch potato audience and gain a foothold. That will never happen.

TV3 were a great success with their coverage and a good antidote to RTE's coverage. So far, Sky's audience figures have been pathetic and have resulted in hundreds of thousands of Irish people not watching a portion of championship games. And there have been no gains in UK audience switching on.
Sell games on subscription channels abroad  by all means  but don't mix and match with the home audience, it doesn't work to the benefit of irish gaa fans, the game and irish tv stations such as tv3 and tg4.

Well said, Main Street.
Every effort should be made to ensure that the GAA is made available to the maximum home audience.

[Pascal Brennan]

Smoke and mirrors gentlemen. I live in Australia along with a huge diaspora. For years we were able to access the GAA and some other Irish sports through Setanta. Didnt have much build up or analysis but had the Live Games including some National League with repeats and highlights during the week. More than enough to keep the interest alive though. Next came the SKY deal at home and Setanta lost the rights to show games in OZ. GAA reasoned this as they were bringing the games to their people around the World and allowing games to be shown Free-to-Air on Channel 7. This lasted all of one year and included missing starts and finishes of some Games. Channel 7 proceeded to dump coverage alltogether and only access now in the home is GAAGO. Surprise surprise all money now goes to HQ

[AZOffaly]

Smoke and mirrors gentlemen. I live in Australia along with a huge diaspora. For years we were able to access the GAA and some other Irish sports through Setanta. Didnt have much build up or analysis but had the Live Games including some National League with repeats and highlights during the week. More than enough to keep the interest alive though. Next came the SKY deal at home and Setanta lost the rights to show games in OZ. GAA reasoned this as they were bringing the games to their people around the World and allowing games to be shown Free-to-Air on Channel 7. This lasted all of one year and included missing starts and finishes of some Games. Channel 7 proceeded to dump coverage alltogether and only access now in the home is GAAGO. Surprise surprise all money now goes to HQ

Sure isn't that better? What do you think the GAA HQ does with the money? By subscribing to GAA Go you are actually helping the GAA as an organisation. How is that a bad thing?