UTV & BBC & RTE & TV3

[darbyo]

Would it not be fair to say that more people in the 6 counties might have greater interest in, for example, Dublin V Meath as opposed to Cavan V Antrim and as a consequence BBC NI should be able to show the former game.

[Bogball XV]

Brennan had a pop at both the BBC and UTV for their attitude towards Gaelic games during his speech at the GAA writers dinner last Saturday. It got a good round of applause from the crowd. Logie was MC and didn't look too pleased - when he got back to the mike he said something about it working both ways?!

And he was right, it does/should work both ways, the GAA do fcuk all to promote tv coverage in the north.  Look at how they sell the GAA rights, ulster championship games only for the bbc/utv, qualifers and quarter final onwards go to RTE, or deferred and highlights to RTE/Setanta.  Neither of which are available throughout the north, thus the gaa snub their own members in the pursuit of money.
End to end, which I enjoyed, was cut because UTV said, fcuk it, they won't even allow us to show snippets of games (in fairness I was happy enough listening to the lads talk shite, a bit like being on here, except the posters were unmasked!), we're just going to drop it.
I think the GAA have got to stop this pursuit of money at all costs, for one thing, it gives Dessie ammo, for a second, it's detrimental to games promotion.  The GAA should produce their own highlights package for club games and sell it on to networks if that's what it takes to get games on tv.

Bogball,

where there's a will there's a way.
BBC just don't have the will, inclination, or imagination to give any quality coverage of gaelic games.

What has ever stopped them from co-producing all-island coverage with RTE?
If they were prepared to pay some share of rights, I'm sure RTE would have considered letting them simultaneously broadcast live coverage / highlights / a Breaking Ball type programme.

Live coverage of a Munster final on BBC NI would always do more to promote gaelic games to the unconverted than the likes of Antrim v Cavan anyway.

I bet my arse that BBC NI never even bothered picking up the phone to Montrose to raise the idea.

Imo, auctioning off the Ulster rights separately was always a load of shite. They should always have been showing the biggest matches of the day to the NI audience, not the local ones.

I know what you're saying snatter, but maybe the gaa should not put any obstacles in their way, as we know they will use any opportunity to wiggle out of their responsibilities, if we give them the rights, they can't very well use the cost issue.

[thewobbler]

Would it not be fair to say that more people in the 6 counties might have greater interest in, for example, Dublin V Meath as opposed to Cavan V Antrim and as a consequence BBC NI should be able to show the former game.

If BBC NI was to show a televise a game from the Leinster Championship when an Ulster Championship match was taking place, they would be 100% out of order. Their budget is provided to cover local affairs and local interests, and not to take a whimsical guess that something happening outside the six counties might (and this is a big might) have a greater local interest.

This would be on a par with covering an FAI game at 3pm on a Saturday.

[raisins]

Mr Wobbler - whoever you are - you speak a lot of sense. BBC NI seeks to serve the NI public - Exactly why they wouldn't show a Leinster or Munster game over an Ulster one. And why would RTE show an Ulster game ahead of Leinster etc, etc.  I always thought the GAA were great at promoting their matches and very inventive with press releases and ideas.  This is my opinion - it's a small pie and everyone wants a piece. So you have to be a little bit more ambitious than just sitting there whinging.  Go for it!

[snatter]

Would it not be fair to say that more people in the 6 counties might have greater interest in, for example, Dublin V Meath as opposed to Cavan V Antrim and as a consequence BBC NI should be able to show the former game.

If BBC NI was to show a televise a game from the Leinster Championship when an Ulster Championship match was taking place, they would be 100% out of order. Their budget is provided to cover local affairs and local interests, and not to take a whimsical guess that something happening outside the six counties might (and this is a big might) have a greater local interest.

This would be on a par with covering an FAI game at 3pm on a Saturday.

But the local interest is in Gaelic Football, which includes all matches on in a given day.
Its unarguable that a big game, eg Dublin v Meath might be of more interest to the majority of NI viewers than Antrim v Cavan.

Regional broadcasters in England take the same decisions, eg on Match of the Day they don't show the matches on a region by region basis - they realise that soccer fans in NW england do want to see Arsenal, Chelsea, etc matches. After all, they are all playing in the same competition.
I can't see any difference here.

If I'm one of the many who can't get RTE in NI, I'd rather see coverage of the best games from the whole island rather than some inferior local game.  The bigger games will always be worth more as promotional tools.

[thewobbler]

Its unarguable that a big game, eg Dublin v Meath might be of more interest to the majority of NI viewers than Antrim v Cavan.

This is utter nonsense. Every GAA follower from Antrim has an emotional interest in the latter game. Every Ulster GAA follower from the county that meets the winner of that game in the next round has a vested interest. Dublin and Meath only creates a passing interest for Ulster GAA fans.

Regional broadcasters in England take the same decisions, eg on Match of the Day they don't show the matches on a region by region basis - they realise that soccer fans in NW england do want to see Arsenal, Chelsea, etc matches. After all, they are all playing in the same competition.
I can't see any difference here.

The difference is that MoTD is a network programme, commissioned by BBC Network to go live across all BBC regions ( I won't even get into the fact that all events covered on MoTD take place within the license payer's jurisdiction). They don't have a regional bias (at least not in theory). The Championship, as it was called, was a BBC NI programme, commissioned by BBC NI for the solitary audience of license payers in the six counties.

[snatter]

Its unarguable that a big game, eg Dublin v Meath might be of more interest to the majority of NI viewers than Antrim v Cavan.

This is utter nonsense. Every GAA follower from Antrim has an emotional interest in the latter game. Every Ulster GAA follower from the county that meets the winner of that game in the next round has a vested interest. Dublin and Meath only creates a passing interest for Ulster GAA fans.

Nonsense - people would be more interested in the big match. The problem is that if they can't get RTE, they'll never ever get to see it.

Regional broadcasters in England take the same decisions, eg on Match of the Day they don't show the matches on a region by region basis - they realise that soccer fans in NW england do want to see Arsenal, Chelsea, etc matches. After all, they are all playing in the same competition.
I can't see any difference here.

The difference is that MoTD is a network programme, commissioned by BBC Network to go live across all BBC regions ( I won't even get into the fact that all events covered on MoTD take place within the license payer's jurisdiction). They don't have a regional bias (at least not in theory). The Championship, as it was called, was a BBC NI programme, commissioned by BBC NI for the solitary audience of license payers in the six counties.

If the BBC can see fit to commission comprehensive coverage of soccer's premier competition, regardless of where the mathces are played, then why can't they do the same for gaelic games?

Imo, they're using the border as an excuse.
The AI is an island wide competition, and NI local's who can't get RTE shouldn't be deprived of all-island coverage.
Co -commssioning (or co-production) simultaneous broadcasts with RTE would be the most effective way of delivering high quality coverage of our sport.




[/quote]

[thewobbler]

Snatter, BBC NI has a charter to fullfil. I'm sorry that it doesn't meet your desired agenda to provide Ireland-wide GAA coverage, but that's the way it is.

[snatter]

Snatter, BBC NI has a charter to fullfil. I'm sorry that it doesn't meet your desired agenda to provide Ireland-wide GAA coverage, but that's the way it is.

This has nothing to do with BBC NI's charter - its about BBC NI's unwillingness to give comprehensive coverage of gaelic games.

The facts are pretty plain - gaelic fooball is the most attended sport in NI by a country mile.
Nothing else comes remotely close.

Yet, if you dropped down from Mars and had a look at BBC Ni's sports output, you'd swear that we were the 20 th most popular sport.

Surely the whole rationale of regional broadcasting is that it should reflects the diversity within the regions of the UK.
Well, when it comes to sport, you couldn't get more different than here in NI.
And, how do BBC NI Sports reflect this massive regional divergence?
How do they champion their role as regional broadcaster?
By giving shag all covergae of the most attended sport here.

If they took their role of regional broadcaster even half seriously, they would be getting extra resources to cover this seismic difference.
They'd be saying to BBC HQ - look, we've got this unique sport that draws massive crowds, but we give it rubbish coverage when compared to our total (ie local and national) soccer / rugby output.
They'd say that we need extra resources to redress this imbalance.
They'd also say that gaelic games are organised on an all-Ireland basis and the most effeective way to cover them is to jointly produce with an Irish broadcaster.

They should be pumping out lots of gaelic coverage to redress their output that is massively skewed in favour of national/UK sports. That should be the role of a strong regional broadcaster. Even more so in somewhere as unique as NI.

And just as there's no regional borders in MoTD, neither should there be in gaelic games coverage.

[thewobbler]

BBC NI's coverage of Ulster Gaelic Games is not good enough. I'm not arguing that.

But Snatter, until you are willing to accept that BBC NI is a regional broadcaster, and not a nationwide broadcaster, there is no point in continuing this debate. They have absolutely no business, legal, cultural, logistical, traditional, or otherwise, in covering sport from outside the six counties. If you are going to condemn them for things, please try to condemn them for things they can control.

[snatter]

BBC NI's coverage of Ulster Gaelic Games is not good enough. I'm not arguing that.

But Snatter, until you are willing to accept that BBC NI is a regional broadcaster, and not a nationwide broadcaster, there is no point in continuing this debate. They have absolutely no business, legal, cultural, logistical, traditional, or otherwise, in covering sport from outside the six counties. If you are going to condemn them for things, please try to condemn them for things they can control.

Under your logic, the BBC should then have no business covering the Euro football championships as no UK teams will be playing.

The reality is that they will cover it because there will be enough soccer fans interested in watching high class games.

The exact parallel should apply here to gaelic games, especially as we're all playing  in the same competition (the AI series).

[scalder]

Snatter has a point, now if BBC NI was the local arm of an Irish national station, which offered truly nationwide coverage then it would be silly to cover games involving teams from outside their catchments. However they are not, as RTÉ is not available throughout the 6 counties, so Gaelic Games supporters rely on the BBC for coverage.  Our local radio station in Wexford covers live only games involving Wexford teams, fair enough, but they have reports on for example yesterdays Leinster and Munster club hurling finals on their sports bulletins. Yes they are regional but they realise their listeners are interested in what happens beyond the county and report on this. By the BBC only covering Ulster games, these are the only games some people will see, surely its in the interests of the GAA to expose people to the very best our games have to offer? Hurling for example, surely it would be beneficial to have the Munster final broadcast by BBC NI? I will accept though it would be nice to see them first off giving Gaelic Games the coverage their levels of support deserve but then again the BBC is a political tool...

[Maguire01]

Got decent coverage to be fair.

[orangeman]

Leopards don't change their spots ! 

[bloody mary]

From Gerry Donnelly's report for the Derry convention:

The coverage of the Derry Championship by both the BBC and UTV is appalling.  At best, it could be described as scanty.  Both TV stations showed quick clips of the county finals.  I estimate that the entire action amounted to less than thirty seconds.  Blink and you would have missed it.

For some reason, they both seem perfectly content to show lingering coverage of other games, apparently oblivious to the empty stands so pitifully displayed in the background.  They provide minimal services for the thousands who attend Gaelic Games.

The BBC has the nerve to advertise itself with the slogan – "It's your BBC".  For the supporter requiring information on Derry gaelic games, the station of choice is not the BBC.