GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[seafoid]

Paddy Heaney in today's Irish News

Why go to a match when you can complain about Sky showing it?

IF the negotiations between Croke Park and Sky run smoothly, the GAA will announce details of its new TV and radio rights deal today or tomorrow.

There has been widespread speculation that Sky Sports has secured the exclusive broadcast rights to 14 Championship games. But those 14 games are only part of Sky's package. In addition to acquiring eight Saturday evening Qualifiers, two Saturday evening and two Sunday provincial Championship games, and two All-Ireland football quarter-finals, Sky has also purchased 'simulcast rights' to the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland football and hurling Championships. That's an additional six matches, which brings Sky's total for the summer to 20.

There is now a distinct possibility that RTE and Sky Sports 3 will be showing the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals at the same time. Subscribers to Sky Sports will be able to choose between the two channels.

Contrary to some reports, RTE's coverage will remain largely unaffected. During last year's Championship, RTE showed 31 games. For the next three years, RTE will continue to show 31 games. Their package includes all the provincial finals. The BBC will continue to cover the games in the Ulster Championship which are broadcast by RTE.

The big losers are TV3, the station which showed nine games in last year's Championship. TV3 are no longer part of the equation. Given that TV3 isn't available in huge chunks of the North, there will not be a huge amount of weeping about that particular revelation.

Under the last deal, RTE (31) and TV3 (nine) broadcast a total of 40 Championship games. From 2014 to 2017, it will be possible to watch 45 games, 31 on RTE, and another 14 for those who are willing to sign up to Sky Sports. Even before the details of the GAA's TV rights deal have been confirmed, the backlash has started. Former Kerry footballer Tommy Walsh, who joined the Sydney Swans five years ago, outlined his views via Twitter.

Walsh wrote: "So our 'amateur' game is now being sold to Sky? There is no other sport in the world where players and supporters are taken advantage of more!"

Derry County Board chairman John Keenan has voiced his opposition to games being broadcast on subscription channels. "I would not favour asking our patrons to pay to watch gaelic games [on TV]. I am in favour of having all our games being available to all classes and creeds," said Keenan.

A few years ago, I would have been in total agreement with the Derry chairman. However, my views on this issue have changed somewhat. For the continued promotion of gaelic games, it remains extremely important that matches are aired on free-to-air television.

But let's consider the amount of fixtures which are available on RTE and TG4. Under the new deal, RTE will show 31 Championship games. TG4 will show 62 live and 22 deferred games. That's 93 live games.

Now, let's examine the identity of your stereotypical armchair viewer.

John Keenan's native county Derry represents an excellent case-study. The county has a population of roughly 250,000. Sunday's home game against Kildare attracted a crowd of 2,429. That's equates to less than one per cent of the population.

Using this formula, Dublin don't fare much better. Saturday night's attendance of approximately 22,000 in Croke Park might sound good. But Dublin is a city of nearly 1.5 million. That crowd represents about two per cent of the population.

The bottom line is the vast majority of television viewers never darken the turnstile of a GAA ground. They don't pay into county games. They don't support their clubs. They don't pay club memberships. They contribute nothing.

Why are these people automatically entitled to watch every GAA game free-of-charge? Where is it written that all gaelic football and hurling matches must be broadcast on terrestrial channels?

Let's not forget that for the purpose of this debate, we are talking about the loss of nine games from a station which wasn't even available nationwide. Naturally, once Sky enters the arena, the GAA will be accused of succumbing to corporate greed. But this is just a lazy sound-bite, which is normally flung around by people who know nothing about the GAA.

Just look at Croke Park's two leading figures. The director-general is Paraic Duffy, a dyedin-the-wool GAA man, who never misses a Monaghan game. As a character, Duffy is about as far removed from a corporate fat cat as you can get. He is the former principal of St Macartan's, Monaghan.

The GAA president is Liam O'Neill. Cut from much the same cloth as Duffy, the Laois man is the principal of a primary school. While the GAA's commercial director Peter McKenna might have headed the negotiations with Sky, he would have taken his direction from Duffy and O'Neill. It's understood that the GAA will not make a huge amount of money from Sky. Next year's financial figures will show that the new contract will net a marginally larger figure than the last deal. Croke Park's main motivation for allowing Sky to join the table goes back to the primary purpose of the GAA - they believe it's the best way for the Association to promote its games, not just in Ireland but in Britain and further afield.

If the National League is a taster for the Championship, there is no reason why gaelic games can't attract a wider audience.

If Irish people can become avid fans of American football, it is not beyond the realms of fantasy that the Scottish, English and Welsh will start watching football and hurling.

There is no doubt that Tommy Walsh will have voiced the sentiments of many people. But the GAA has no need to apologise for this deal. The GAA is perfectly entitled to sell their games to whomever they please.

It's hardly corporate greed when 80 per cent of all revenue is redistributed to the provincial councils and county boards. Besides, there are plenty of games on terrestrial television - 93 of them to be exact.

The armchair viewers who want to see more, but who don't want to subscribe to Sky, always have the option of getting off their backsides and going to one.

Does Paddy not  understand Irish culture ?
Do not ask what I can do for my country. What will it give me ?   

[sheamy]

What about the people who do support their clubs? and do pay club memberships and more.

[Father Jack]

Get a dreambox and Sky can shove their subscriptions for watching GAA matches up their hole!!

You get the whole shooting gallery of channels and can watch sport all weekend until your hearts content!!

[J OGorman]

What about the people who do support their clubs? and do pay club memberships and more.

exactly. To spite these shameful rascals who watch the game yet dont suport club / county, alot of good gaels (without whom there wouldnt be this 'business' 'product' to whore off to Sky) will miss out on important championship matches

Is there a single man / woman on here who has access to TV3 and rte and doesnt subscribe to Sky Sports support this deal? 

[orangeman]

Whilst Paddy makes some very good points, he is too broad in some very important analysis :

Almost one-third of all Irish adults are members of a sports club and that one-third of that sports membership in Ireland is
accounted for by the GAA. Similarly, of the approximately 50% of all Irish adults who attended a sports
event in 2005, nearly two-thirds went to a GAA match.

A lot of people who watch TV do pay club memberships, buy lotto and do contribute something.

To say that the vast majority of television viewers contribute nothing is over the top and takes away from an otherwise decent article.

[J OGorman]

http://www.todayfm.com/player/podcasts/The_Ian_Dempsey_Breakfast_Show/The_Ian_Dempsey_Breakfast_Show/13260/2/Gift_Sky_Sports_GAA

:-)

[orangeman]

http://www.todayfm.com/player/podcasts/The_Ian_Dempsey_Breakfast_Show/The_Ian_Dempsey_Breakfast_Show/13260/2/Gift_Sky_Sports_GAA

:-)

Pure class. John Mullane - LOL

[Stall the Bailer]

What about the people who do support their clubs? and do pay club memberships and more.

exactly. To spite these shameful rascals who watch the game yet dont suport club / county, alot of good gaels (without whom there wouldnt be this 'business' 'product' to whore off to Sky) will miss out on important championship matches

Is there a single man / woman on here who has access to TV3 and rte and doesnt subscribe to Sky Sports support this deal? 

I don't have Sky and have access to the others.
I haven't seen the detail on deal yet so I will not be making a judgment.
However it will probably mean the same to me as the Setanta situation now. Where I go to a friend's house/pub to watch the game I want.
There will still be the Sunday game to catch the highlights (the importance of this will be increased somewhat. Hopefully RTE can improve their game time coverage here).

[Zulu]

What about the people who do support their clubs? and do pay club memberships and more.

exactly. To spite these shameful rascals who watch the game yet dont suport club / county, alot of good gaels (without whom there wouldnt be this 'business' 'product' to whore off to Sky) will miss out on important championship matches

Is there a single man / woman on here who has access to TV3 and rte and doesnt subscribe to Sky Sports support this deal?

Half these 'good gaels' wouldn't even watch many of the matches, or certainly wouldn't be upset if they missed them. What are the TV viewing numbers for most qualifiers?

[AZOffaly]

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0104141419-media-rights-press-release/

Boom goes the dynamite.

edit, great news for the Aussie ex-pats amongst us...

In addition to Sky Sports providing exclusive live coverage of 20 championship matches in Britain, in a major new departure, Channel 7 will show all 45 live championship games free to air in Australia.

[J OGorman]

What about the people who do support their clubs? and do pay club memberships and more.

exactly. To spite these shameful rascals who watch the game yet dont suport club / county, alot of good gaels (without whom there wouldnt be this 'business' 'product' to whore off to Sky) will miss out on important championship matches

Is there a single man / woman on here who has access to TV3 and rte and doesnt subscribe to Sky Sports support this deal?

Half these 'good gaels' wouldn't even watch many of the matches, or certainly wouldn't be upset if they missed them. What are the TV viewing numbers for most qualifiers?

how do you know this? jayzus

[Zulu]

Viewing figures. What are you basing your view that these good gaels will miss out on these games due to 'whoring' out the games? Have none of these gaels friends or a pub close by?

[orangeman]

It was never about money so you have to commend the GAA for doing this deal on behalf of Gaels all over the world.

Padraig Duffy

"Financial considerations were far from being the guiding criterion in our negotiations, and were of lesser importance than the issue of making our games more widely available to Irish people living abroad. In fact, the financial benefit to the GAA from the new broadcast contracts compared to the previous ones is marginal

[Zulu]

So do premier sports still get to show the RTE covered games in Britain?

[Bingo]

So do premier sports still get to show the RTE covered games in Britain?

RTE  - same package as before
SKY - TV3 package plus get to show the semi-finals and finals.
TG4 - same package as before
Setanta - same package as before
Chanel 7 Australia - show live championship games, 45 or so.
US - some live streaming online package.

No idea where premier sports fits in.