GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[Eamonnca1]

Love it or hate it, this is GAA country. No sporting body comes close to creating such pride or such fury. The banks ruined the country and we took it all calmly. A relatively straightforward business decision by the GAA this week? Pandemonium. It made me wonder again if the GAA world is divided in two – those who give so much and then those who bellyache about someone getting rich through the GAA and want to know 'where's mine'? This was a big week for the bellyache brigade and the vested interests crying crocodile tears for the old people, the children, the community and the poor dead patriots.

Full article by Donal Og Cusack

[Redhand Santa]

Given that gaa is a new sport to the British audience it's a hardly a surprise that in the first season it's on ss3. If it goes well it could end up moving over in future years.

I'm looking forward to seeing their build up to the all Ireland finals. Rte have one show on the sat night full of music. It'll be nice to see the build up on sky sports news and preview shows during the week. The finals could be turned into big event with a decent international audience relatively quickly.

[Eamonnca1]

Given that gaa is a new sport to the British audience it's a hardly a surprise that in the first season it's on ss3. If it goes well it could end up moving over in future years.

I'm looking forward to seeing their build up to the all Ireland finals. Rte have one show on the sat night full of music. It'll be nice to see the build up on sky sports news and preview shows during the week. The finals could be turned into big event with a decent international audience relatively quickly.

+1. And there'll be none of this "puke football" and "tell your children to play tennis instead" rubbish from their pundits.

[Syferus]

Having the semis and finals of both codes gives Sky the sort of ammunition that can attract people with no relation to Ireland or the GAA to our sports. How many times have we fawned over great semis or finals? Even foreign journalists fall in love with the sports' big occasions as is. I'm really looking forward to how Sky approaches the sports.

[muppet]

I think I'd be in the 'suck it and see' camp.

Willing to give it a chance....but watching closely.

An awful lot of people who are against the Sky deal, would watch Sky.

I quit Sky in the mid 1990s, when I had to pay for the Ryder Cup for the first time.

The real question is...........is this the thin end of the wedge?

For the moment, I will keep an open mind.

[Minder]

This topic has reminded me I need to ring the bastards to get a discount as they are robbing me blind !

[armaghniac]

I hope the GAA has thought a bit about the use of clips for magazine programmes, news bulletins and the like. It is in the GAA's interest to have UTV (say) show clips without giving them an excuse to say that they cannot get the clips.

[tiempo]

That Ulster Heinekin Cup match tonight is exactly why the GAA have gone with Sky. The GAA are competing with Rugby and can't afford to take a backward step, on the back of an Ireland Six Nations win, BOD euphoria, and the provinces doing great, it's time for some more innovation.

The GAA is the worlds largest and most successful amateur sporting organisation and they are also great innovators and this is a brave and forward-thinking step into a new environment that will bring much needed freshness for the viewer and further competition for our national broadcasters who have become banal.

[Redhand Santa]

I remember channel 4 had coverage but it was well over 20 years so the general public wont remember too much about it. In recent years its been on other channels that wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as sky sports so it will be new to a lot of the British public.

[Sidney]

Following on from Sky, part 2...

BBC NI

BBC N. Ireland's end of the deal means it can show games involving any of the 9 Ulster teams in the Ulster SFC that is also being shown on RTÉ.

This means they will be able to show the preliminary round and all first-round ties, likely BBC 2 NI.

However they can only show one of the semi-finals. The semi-final between Armagh/Cavan vs. Tyrone/Down/Monaghan is one of the ties that is exclusive to Sky Sports who have the sole rights to the island of Ireland, meaning the BBC cannot show it.

They will be able to show the Ulster SFC final. Although not stated anywhere I've seen yet I would assume that like in the past few years, any Ulster team featured from the All-Ireland quarter final onwards (unless it's in the two quarter finals Sky Sports can exclusively show) will also be shown on BBC 2 NI as well

As far as I know the quarter-final involving the Ulster Champions will be exclusive to Sky.

[Syferus]

Huge amount of populist journo-scutter appearing in the rags with regards this deal.

Liam Fay in the Indo yesterday championing GAA fans 'who regularly pay big-money ticket prices' despite the fact there are hardly any major sporting organisations in the developed world with better pricing than the GAA.

You can tell the bluffers a mile away, at least these talking heads have almost no influence on public opinion anymore.

[Denn Forever]

How many Hurling games will sky be showing.  And re  the punditry, could Sky not just use  Brolly, O'Rourke, Spillane etc.?  Those guys are probably independent traders.

[blewuporstuffed]

Hopefully sky get Darragh Maloney to do the commentary, the best about by a long way, but RTE dont seem to use him for the GAA any longer.

[BennyHarp]

How many Hurling games will sky be showing.  And re  the punditry, could Sky not just use  Brolly, O'Rourke, Spillane etc.?  Those guys are probably independent traders.

They probably wouldn't use them because they'll most likely want pundits who can actually analyse a game and not just trot out meaningless sound bites!

[Main Street]

Given that gaa is a new sport to the British audience it's a hardly a surprise that in the first season it's on ss3. If it goes well it could end up moving over in future years.

I'm looking forward to seeing their build up to the all Ireland finals. Rte have one show on the sat night full of music. It'll be nice to see the build up on sky sports news and preview shows during the week. The finals could be turned into big event with a decent international audience relatively quickly.

+1. And there'll be none of this "puke football" and "tell your children to play tennis instead" rubbish from their pundits.

if you would pay  Eur40 pm just to view Sky eventism and style of popular punditry and consider it money well spent, then I'd file that viewpoint as lacking seriousness It's not just about all those who already are sky sport subscribers, it's mainly  about the rest who are not sky sport subscribers and so far have not taken the plunge and those who will never take the plunge.
I don't live on the IOI though I have an Irish sky card in my sky box.
This package of games would have been on the TV3 package, now it will cost an extra 40 eur pm. I tend to watch most every championship game televised.
This is the same situation for people in Ireland. For the most part, a package that was viewed at no extra cost now caries a hefty levy. Where is the progress  or benefit with this deal?  Afaics there is none in Ireland, mainly a large minus in regards to this package of games.
For Sky the attraction is holding onto and gaining new Sky sports subscribers, both in UK and Irl , those people with a basic sky package  who are on the edge,  might just now take the whole package.
For GAA residents in the UK,  splitting the package between 2 different subscription services is not about improving the service to  those GAA viewers who do not already subscribe to Sky Sports package.
For the most part, the interests of the UK GAA viewers would have been better served by negotiating and mandating a better service and expanding the game menu on one sat channel (premier sports) and increasing access in other ways to the same games.
For the GAA,  the main aim of splitting the UK package  would be catch the casual viewer who already has a Sky sports sub.  I can see that benefit mainly in one context, that the AI finals would eventually become an international event of interest, not unlike superbowl,  at least more high profile than Handball/Basketball European  finals  are currently across Europe.
I would be very sceptical that the casual sports subscription viewer would be motivated to watch the odcg (ordinary decent championship game).
When it comes to some games, I usually invite a few friends around who have not a clue about gaelic games, they enjoy  the occasion  just as I would a super bowl party, but would they watch it on their own? I very much doubt it.