The Sunday Game

[AZOffaly]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

Could they just upload to Rte player the unedited 1 camera coverage they have. Most people who would be interested in downloading games like that would be used to the 1 man amateur club videos, so it wouldn't be that we need 5 cameras to watch the game. I know I'd love to be able to download and watch a game, any game that I want, on Monday or Tuesday. I'd even pay a small subscription for the chance to do so.

[BennyHarp]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

If this true then the GAA should have a seperate package for the coverage of these games. I'm sure TV3, TG4 or even Sky or Setanta would have covered them with a bit more professionalism and respect.

[yellowcard]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

If this true then the GAA should have a seperate package for the coverage of these games. I'm sure TV3, TG4 or even Sky or Setanta would have covered them with a bit more professionalism and respect.

Exactly, selling the rights to the qualifier series matches seperately would solve the issue and produce a Monday night programme with 7/8 minutes per game instead of the usual 4 or 5 scores that they seem to show. Also annoying is the fact that the pundits in the studio analyse the games as though they were actually at the match. Do they actually watch the games in full or are their opinions just based on second hand information?? For instance Tomas 'Look' O'Se (who is mainly excellent) thought Armagh were dominated at midfield and seemed to be a team playing under a lot of pressure. He was correct in what he was saying but how did he know this without watching the full match?   

[easytiger95]

No it wouldn't solve the problem because no one would buy the package. For a company to get value out of the bundle they would have to show all the games live, which would mean the majority of them being rescheduled to throw in at different times from each other. Because of the crowded nature of the GAA calendar, this would not be allowed happen, so you'd have companies looking to buy games they couldn't show.

And no one is going to shell out money to cover games properly only to mothball the coverage for a highlights package. That is not how it works lads.

[AZOffaly]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

If this true then the GAA should have a seperate package for the coverage of these games. I'm sure TV3, TG4 or even Sky or Setanta would have covered them with a bit more professionalism and respect.

Exactly, selling the rights to the qualifier series matches seperately would solve the issue and produce a Monday night programme with 7/8 minutes per game instead of the usual 4 or 5 scores that they seem to show. Also annoying is the fact that the pundits in the studio analyse the games as though they were actually at the match. Do they actually watch the games in full or are their opinions just based on second hand information?? For instance Tomas 'Look' O'Se (who is mainly excellent) thought Armagh were dominated at midfield and seemed to be a team playing under a lot of pressure. He was correct in what he was saying but how did he know this without watching the full match?

Des mentioned that the lads watched the Armagh game live. I assume they were sitting in a room in RTE watching the feed.

[BennyHarp]

No it wouldn't solve the problem because no one would buy the package. For a company to get value out of the bundle they would have to show all the games live, which would mean the majority of them being rescheduled to throw in at different times from each other. Because of the crowded nature of the GAA calendar, this would not be allowed happen, so you'd have companies looking to buy games they couldn't show.

And no one is going to shell out money to cover games properly only to mothball the coverage for a highlights package. That is not how it works lads.

Would TG4 not be happy with a qualifier package and highlights show? Seems a fair bit more attractive than an u21championship or club matches that they cover so well. Shared amongst the broadcasters we could at least have scrabbled together more than RTE served up.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

Does time constraints come in to it as well? i.e. the one reporter has to field calls from the Sunday Sport studio, get the highlights of the game put together, commentate over it and get it shipped off before deadline?

[AZOffaly]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

Does time constraints come in to it as well? i.e. the one reporter has to field calls from the Sunday Sport studio, get the highlights of the game put together, commentate over it and get it shipped off before deadline?

Again, my point re the footage just available to whomever wants it on the website.

[easytiger95]

As i pointed out above you'd need to show the games live for it to make sense financially - that is not possible with qualifiers being scheduled for the same day, on the same weekends as championship games.

Guys, it is a minimum of 30k per outside broadcast plus satellite costs, plus production costs. You're not going to do that just for highlights.

[AZOffaly]

easytiger, you're in the game. How feasible would it be to just upload the footage that is sent to Montrose and ends up on the cutting room floor so to speak. Surely all this is digital at this stage? If it was a club game, you'd probably get Johnny Mac and Peader the commentator, but you'd get watchable footage. Surely a professional cameraman, even if there is just one camera, would be able to capture the game from a stationary position and upload it without even having commentary. (That might be a better experience for the viewer in some cases!!)

[easytiger95]

Lads, don;t want to defend RTE here, but there is absolutely no way that they could cover all the qualifier games. Do you know how expensive it is to put an outside broadcast unit into a ground? Bear in mind that a lot of these places wouldn't have a TV gantry so you're looking at a scaffold build for many of them. For you to have usable, broadcast quality highlights for more than 2/3 mins you need at least three cameras at a ground. Most of those qualifier games were covered by one camera - it is that that dictates the length of the highlights.

Slag them for analysis, presentation, whatever you like - but they simply don;t have the money to cover those games.

Does time constraints come in to it as well? i.e. the one reporter has to field calls from the Sunday Sport studio, get the highlights of the game put together, commentate over it and get it shipped off before deadline?

Yep, it is always a struggle to get these kind of shows done and dusted in time. But it still comes back to the basic thing of producing the content - if you want extensive highlights you will have to have covered all the games properly - and no one, including RTE, has the money or the inclination to spend to cover these games like that.

[easytiger95]

easytiger, you're in the game. How feasible would it be to just upload the footage that is sent to Montrose and ends up on the cutting room floor so to speak. Surely all this is digital at this stage? If it was a club game, you'd probably get Johnny Mac and Peader the commentator, but you'd get watchable footage. Surely a professional cameraman, even if there is just one camera, would be able to capture the game from a stationary position and upload it without even having commentary. (That might be a better experience for the viewer in some cases!!)

Used to be in the game AZ - I'm out of it nearly 3 years now. If you wanted to do something like that you could do that, everything is digital now, but you still use satellite uplinks to get live or recorded pictures back to base, so it's more than a single camera man. Or you can record to SD card, bring that back by road and upload. Obviously it would be a few hours before it was available.

If you wanted to stream games from a single camera you could, but a lot these places don't have sufficient bandwidth, so you'd have to buy wifi in - in terms of cost it's cheaper than satellite but the quality obviously isn't great.

Cheaper solutions will come online over the next few years, but for the moment, traditional broadcasting is too expensive for these games and no one has figured out how to monetize streaming.

[AZOffaly]

I'm thinking the low cost solution would work. One cameraman, digital recording off one camera. SD card back at base Monday morning, upload to rte.ie/gamefootage/ and Bob's your mother's brother.

[laceer]

Gary Neville made a good point about analysing games that he wasn't at-said he would watch the game on the camera with the wide shot that covered the whole pitch. Made it easier to see patterns of play, tactical set up etc.

[Redhand Santa]

I think the cost of highlights is being exaggerated here. Tg4 show highlights of league, u21, club, minor games etc that weren't on TV on a Monday evening and I'm sure they spend no fortune on it. You imagine if they were offered the right deal they'd happily do similar for the championship.