GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[Carmen Stateside]

Emlyn will be to busy winning a Connacht title, forgot you easties only know him as Mugsy!

[Ard-Rí]

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-president-shocked-by-aggressive-rt%C3%A9-interviews-1.1747424

GAA president Liam O'Neill says he was "shocked" by the "aggressive" RTÉ interviews he and director general Páraic Duffy took part in on Tuesday, in relation to association's decision to sell media rights to Sky.

Some man. Shocked by getting a fight where he picked one.

[quiganmaster]

Very excited about this deal. Can't wait to see the quality of the coverage SS can provide. Hopefully it will benchmark the standards for other TV coverage in Ireland. Enough of people complaining about paying, go to the match or got to the pub or a friends house if you don't already have Sky!

[laoislad]

I see all this crack of guessing who'll get the sky gaa commentary jobs is thriving. Speculation and so on.... It shows quite clearly to me that internet fora are ram jammed with teenagers who have a poor understanding of the the real world. This one here gaa.board included. 

Anyone taking soundings from these fora should be aware that 90% + of contributors are children or retarded adults. Please bear this in mind.

w**ker.

[thebandit]

I'm delighted.... The TV3 coverage was shite!!

Anchor - McDevitt?

Panellists - I really like Malachy Clerkin, but can't imagine he'll feature
Dave Brady - Every man/woman/monkey!
Galvin - a very fashionable shoe-in
Cooper? - he's free for the summer, but don't think he'd be that good
McConville - no bullshit with him, needs to brush up on the elocution though!!
Parkinson  - 🔫
Moyles - not keen on him
Eoin Mulligan - he'll get a chance, but only a few

I fear they will go down the Niall Quinn/Shane Long route though..... I wouldn't mind Kevin Moran

[haze]

The coverage and analysis by RTE over the years has been terrible. I for one am looking forward to a fresh approach to GAA analysis instead of the drivel that RTE serves up. I wonder if they will try to up their game or continue to punish us with the same tripe that they try to pass as analysis.

+1.
And as for League Sunday - must be the worst sports programme ever. Typical D4 effort -any oul thing will do the bogmen as we concentrate on "real" sport like rubby.

Nail on the head. I think League Sunday infuriates me even more than The Committee Room/Championship matters. What a lazy show - 1 hour weekly when some weeks you have football/hurling on same weekend.

[Jinxy]

RTE responding to Liam O'Neills comments today.

http://www.thescore.ie/gaa-rte-row-sky-sports-deal-1395115-Apr2014/

Speaking on Wednesday's Six One David Nally, RTÉ's managing editor of current affairs, said he was very surprised by O'Neill's comments.

"We're very satisfied that the coverage of this issue yesterday on RTE was fair and impartial and that the GAA got a very fair shake.

"If you take Prime Time for instance, I think nine people spoke in studio on this subject and I think five of them spoke in favour of the GAA on the Sky deal, three against and one was neutral. How that can be singled out as an example of a programme that was biased against the GAA, I find that hard to understand."

I don't care what the audience/panel make-up was, the editorial slant was very much, 'You've just sold-out the elderly men and housewives of the nation. FOR SHAME!'
I didn't hear Liveline today, as I make it my business to never hear Liveline, but I believe some woman said her mother would die as a result of this decision. 

[trileacman]

The coverage and analysis by RTE over the years has been terrible. I for one am looking forward to a fresh approach to GAA analysis instead of the drivel that RTE serves up. I wonder if they will try to up their game or continue to punish us with the same tripe that they try to pass as analysis.

+1.
And as for League Sunday - must be the worst sports programme ever. Typical D4 effort -any oul thing will do the bogmen as we concentrate on "real" sport like rubby.

Nail on the head. I think League Sunday infuriates me even more than The Committee Room/Championship matters. What a lazy show - 1 hour weekly when some weeks you have football/hurling on same weekend.

Have you ever seen against the head or Monday night Soccer?? Viewing for the condemned, I could hardly say they do more justice to the other sports than the shite attempt at GAA.

[Jinxy]

The sports dept. in RTE is, and has always been, run by rugby men.

[cavanmaniac]

These debates never seem to mention that RTE's command of the licence fee effectively makes them paid-for-TV in another guise anyway. And when you see what they've done with that slush fund over the years, and TV3's gradual descent into a cardboard and sticking plaster type production of their GAA, is it any surprise that Croke Park has looked to other partners? Especially to further the promotion of the games abroad, for which serious potential exists?

RTE's nose is obviously seriously out of joint. They've been the main show in town for years and still are, but any time a company with financial muscle gets involved in TV rights bidding, they've been very quick to steer the debate to the emotive faith of our fathers stuff and ramp up public opinion along those lines. It happened last time when Setanta were in the ring, flush with money. And there's plenty who take that bait happily without considering the logic and realities that some of the saner contributors have already outlined on this thread. The world will not stop turning. The planets will not collide. Nobody will die. In a few months it will be accepted and absorbed into the fabric of the association and largely forgotten about. It's only nine games for which people will find any one of a number of ways, paid for or otherwise, to tune into.

The truth is that with regard to GAA, there is a massive, massive sense of The Big House/Old Money entitlement and 'The Establishment' in RTE, now exacerbated that for the first time they not only have competition, but competition that has the innovation, production values, promotional machinery, global reach and financial clout to really put it up to them and by contrast, expose to the viewing public just how jaded, staid and formulaic their own coverage has become. I believe this is the real fear here.

In the longer term though, it could actually be good for RTE if it forces them to reappraise their approach, maximise their resources and develop themselves. Look outward and upward and stop being peevish and petulant because Mommy gave some treats to someone else for a change. Even the presence of TV3 forced them to change a little, SKY will most likely do so too. Unless they mess things up spectacularly, RTE will always have the larger share of games and the most glamorous games. Why not concentrate on protecting what they have by doing a knockout job from this position of great advantage instead of whining and trying to beat back the winds of change.

[ONeill]

In the longer term though, it could actually be good for RTE if it forces them to reappraise their approach, maximise their resources and develop themselves. Look outward and upward and stop being peevish and petulant because Mommy gave some treats to someone else for a change.

That's a key benefit.

[armaghniac]

So this thread also has insane contributors  planted by RTE? Are the sane ones in Sky's pocket?

[Ball Hopper]

Just checked the RTE website.  Good account of the Dublin/Meath U-21 game.

Not a mention of the Ulster U-21games...no final scores even.

Shows their commitment to anything outside the Pale. 

[Lone Shark]

Just checked the RTE website.  Good account of the Dublin/Meath U-21 game.

Not a mention of the Ulster U-21games...no final scores even.

Shows their commitment to anything outside the Pale.

I hate to be cast in the role of defender of RTE, but in fairness to them, they cover provincial finals only at this grade. If you want to accuse them of scant coverage then do, and you may have a point, but it's not geographical bias whatever else it is. I was on duty for RTE.ie tonight and I will be again for the Connacht final on Saturday - and it's a long way from the Pale to Carrick on Shannon.

[cavanmaniac]

So this thread also has insane contributors  planted by RTE? Are the sane ones in Sky's pocket?

I don't know. Are they? I didn't say so either way and you know that, although you've chosen to interpret it that way - in what's a good example of the hair-trigger hyperbole and faint hysterics awash in this thread.

But you're naive if you think that RTE's own radio shows, news bulletins, current affairs journalists - and on-screen contributors with newspaper and internet columns like Brolly and O'Rourke  - didn't or don't currently leverage them in some way to protect their own, and by extension RTE's interests. It's a natural phenomenon and not specifically an RTE one, but in any case my substantive point was that the predictable hand-wringing and will somebody please think of the pensioners is all a bit twee and parochial, in my opinion, and just takes the discussion out of the realm of the logical where it belongs.

Nobody will die and the fabric of our universe will not be irredeemably altered because SKY TV has nine GAA matches in a summer. If we actually waited to see how it pans out, it might actually...whisper it now...be a good thing. And here's the really great part - if after the deal runs out, the GAA decides it hasn't been beneficial or doesn't merit renewal, or SKY make a bags of it, then they can simply bin it and move on or return to RTE or get new partners or whatever. Nothing is etched in stone.