UTV & BBC & RTE & TV3

[T Fearon]

Well, even if they don't, you have to take cognisance of the budgetary restraints, and the quite reasonable deduction that there is less interest if an Ulster team isn't involved, from their point of view.

Cornerback, those are BBC Networked programmes

[Hardy]

Like it or not,there's infinitely more interest in football than hurling.Will be amazed if the Football Final isn't shown live on BBC 2 this Sunday.

Gimme your best amazed face Tony, Sailing, Canoeing & Rugby League according to the BBC2 NI schedule:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/schedules/ni/2013/09/22

Brilliant! Five episodes of James Martin's Food Map Of Britain. The last one of which is "Northern Ireland".

[rrhf]

They should be showing the minor match at least. 

[Redhand Santa]

As I said previously I believe the deal given to the bbc by the ulster council was one that would have been very hard to turn down. The argument is that there general sports coverage throughout the year isn't balanced. I've noted that no one who believes their coverage is good has argued with my point that the coverage on tv in the next month would be considerably less than 20 percent.

[thewobbler]

As I said previously I believe the deal given to the bbc by the ulster council was one that would have been very hard to turn down. The argument is that there general sports coverage throughout the year isn't balanced. I've noted that no one who believes their coverage is good has argued with my point that the coverage on tv in the next month would be considerably less than 20 percent.

Only because it's a really daft point.

Between now and the the first week of October, there will be exactly zero senior games involving county teams from Ulster, and there will be exactly zero games in the Ulster club championships. So why would Gaelic Games feature strongly, or even significantly? Remember they're a REGIONAL broadcaster, and what happens in local-level sport isn't relevant.

Similarly, there's feck all coverage of soccer in July on BBC NI, as there's no matches taking place. Yes, major announcements make their way onto sports bulletins, but so did the news of Kieran McGeeney getting the chop, so did the news of Peter Canavan standing down, etc.

[rodney trotter]

If there was any case for Club football - then maybe the County finals from each County should be mentioned, as the winners play in the Ulster Club. Not a Quarter final which Cross were involved in against Pearse Og. They win the Armagh club championship nearly every year, not big news, even if they were without Clarke and a few others. Great strength in depth

[armaghniac]

is the soccer County Antrim shield a "regional" or a "local" competition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9765116.stm

[sheamy]

If there was any case for Club football - then maybe the County finals from each County should be mentioned, as the winners play in the Ulster Club. Not a Quarter final which Cross were involved in against Pearse Og. They win the Armagh club championship nearly every year, not big news, even if they were without Clarke and a few others. Great strength in depth

In fairness, I think the county finals usually are given some degree of coverage. It's no different from RTE in that respect.

GAA people usually take issue with the amount of coverage that god awful soccer league gets week in week out on tv for most of the year, and the fact there are usually more people at a county underage final than goes to these games.

In terms of county games the BBC does a very good job on radio.

[T Fearon]

Simple facts:

BBC NI has a finite sports budget.

BBC NI has a responsibility to all its licence payers.

BBC has a balancing act to perform in terms of sports coverage,within the constraints of the budget available, and exactly like the Stormont Executive did in Stadia refurbishment (ironically the only dissenting voices to this emanate from Andersonstown nationalist residents opposed to a brand new 38,000 all seater GAA stadium!), prioritises the big three in terms of coverage, i.e. Soccer, GAA and Rugby Union.

Now you can argue about specifics etc, but no one can argue that all three of the aforementioned sports aren't allocated adequate and fair portions of BBC NI's sporting output.

[rodney trotter]

If there was any case for Club football - then maybe the County finals from each County should be mentioned, as the winners play in the Ulster Club. Not a Quarter final which Cross were involved in against Pearse Og. They win the Armagh club championship nearly every year, not big news, even if they were without Clarke and a few others. Great strength in depth

In fairness, I think the county finals usually are given some degree of coverage. It's no different from RTE in that respect.

GAA people usually take issue with the amount of coverage that god awful soccer league gets week in week out on tv for most of the year, and the fact there are usually more people at a county underage final than goes to these games.

In terms of county games the BBC does a very good job on radio.

Wouldn't disagree.  Don't listen to it much, but the coverage is very good anytime I did hear it.

[rrhf]

Simple facts:

BBC NI has a finite sports budget.

BBC NI has a responsibility to all its licence payers.

BBC has a balancing act to perform in terms of sports coverage,within the constraints of the budget available, and exactly like the Stormont Executive did in Stadia refurbishment (ironically the only dissenting voices to this emanate from Andersonstown nationalist residents opposed to a brand new 38,000 all seater GAA stadium!), prioritises the big three in terms of coverage, i.e. Soccer, GAA and Rugby Union.

Now you can argue about specifics etc, but no one can argue that all three of the aforementioned sports aren't allocated adequate and fair portions of BBC NI's sporting output.

Is that soup tasty tony

[Any craic]

Ok Tony I think we've got your opinion by now. The BBC themselves couldn't do a better job than you and a few others on here defending them to the hilt, which is fair enough, a bit strange and repetitive but fair enough. I disagree but that's ok too. I also find a few of the arguments to be a bit strange over the last while, like 'Sidebottom, Niblock and O'Callaghan are there primarily for GAA coverage' (the three lads would laugh at that) and 'Expecting them (BBC) to cover club games to any great extent would be akin to expecting them to cover junior soccer'. Really?

[rrhf]

To be honest its like a struggling marriage.  Great when they are with ye but half the time they are away from ye plotting again ye, planning to kill ye...

[imtommygunn]

Any craic it is very hard to take your arguments seriously based on the fact that you didn't even know that Kevin McGourty commentated / critiqued on club games on the radio and you didn't even know the particular national league game O'Neill mentioned was on!

You seem to like turning arguments round here and no doubt you'll just deem comments to be personal here when they're not really.

Can you answer this... Over this last year do you actually know what coverage the BBC had between club and county games? You're arguing vehmently here and rubbishing people who disagree with you when you can't even back up your arguments?

FWIW They could do better but it is pretty ludicrous to suggest they should be at a first round club championship games.RTE wouldn't be near it so why would BBC.

[T Fearon]

Any craic. I dont think the BBC is perfect, but you cannot expect them to cover every facet of every major sport. Does club rugby for example get any coverage at all? Don't confuse standard of play/attendances as indicators of what should and should not be covered either. The fact of the matter is that Irish League soccer, relatively poor and all as  the standard  may be, and with relatively low attendances, is still the highest standard of soccer available in the region.

Stick in a F.O.I. request to  BBC NI and get an analysis of its sporting output broken down into the percentages for each sport.