Jerome Ousted?

[T Fearon]

applesisapples. Wasn't every Ulster Championship match shown live on television by BBC this year, and the All Ireland semi final and final, yesterday the Tyrone ladies game was covered live on radio and wasn't there a radio programme broadcasting live NFL games every Sunday afternoon between February and April, and also sometimes  on Saturday nights etc, and aren't a substantial number of important club games broadcast live and others reported on etc, not to mention online coverage etc etc.

Just because there is substantially less interest in local soccer and rugby doesn't mean that these should not be covered, and the BBC covers far more live GAA Games than soccer or rugby games. After all if popular taste was the only criiteria Hugo Duncan would be permanently silenced. I would contend now that GAA coverage accounts for the major share of the BBC's sports output. 

[lynchbhoy]

I think self delusions like self proclaiming yourself "the voice/face of the GAA" indicate a hugely self inflated ego. GAA coverage like coverage of all sports in all media everywhere, has evolved with the BBC, and no one person deserves any special credit.

If anything the BBC could have taken umbrage with Ulster GAA, as after having got the ball rolling with meaningful television coverage back in 1990, they were shafted by the Ulster Council who sold the rights in the mid 90s to UTV for more money.

I well remember back in the 70s when RTE wasn't accessible in the North and all you got all year was 30 minutes of highlights of the Ulster Final late on a Sunday night in July on tv, and perhaps a live screening of the Ulster team in the All Ireland semi final (and of course the 1977 All Ireland Final thanks to Armagh ). There is no comparison these days, and instead of whingeing people should be grateful

might have been blowing his trumpet a bit but Jerome WAS Mr Gaa at one stage. A lot of what now passes for GAA tv coverage in the north of Ireland can be traced back to Jeromes good work kicking it all off.

I think people want a bit more GAA coverage as the games are popular - i'd like to see championship footage of all ulster counties club championship games as thre are snippets of hockey, rugby, soccer etc shown on weekly basis. Not too much to ask for a bit more 'equality' !

I'd like rte to show a bit more club championship games also - though TG4 are doing a good job in this regard, I'd still want more on the telly !
there is a demand for it !

[Applesisapples]

applesisapples. Wasn't every Ulster Championship match shown live on television by BBC this year, and the All Ireland semi final and final, yesterday the Tyrone ladies game was covered live on radio and wasn't there a radio programme broadcasting live NFL games every Sunday afternoon between February and April, and also sometimes  on Saturday nights etc, and aren't a substantial number of important club games broadcast live and others reported on etc, not to mention online coverage etc etc.

Just because there is substantially less interest in local soccer and rugby doesn't mean that these should not be covered, and the BBC covers far more live GAA Games than soccer or rugby games. After all if popular taste was the only criiteria Hugo Duncan would be permanently silenced. I would contend now that GAA coverage accounts for the major share of the BBC's sports output.

I'm not suggesting that minority sports like soccer and rugby should be given less air time, but when you consider the general amount of time given to GAA in general considering the interest then there is a definite paucity of coverage. For example the Antrim hurling final was on yesterday, more people at it than you would get at your average IFA Cup final and it gets a line on Radio Ulster. As an Ulster Gael and one with an interest in both codes it remains my opinion that there is insufficient coverage, we can agree to differ. By the way why do peolpe in Poyntzpass park in the middle of the main st?

[T Fearon]

Ha Ha Ha, cos there's never any fecking parkin space near the one and only retail outlet

I think the argument goes that a soccer fan in the 6 counties pays the same licence fee as a GAA Fan, therefore deserves his or her sport to be covered. Implausible though it sounds, Irish League soccer games are the equivalent  for him of Inter County Senior Championship games, thats why you'll see goal highlights etc.

To be honest I've never seen the Kilkenny County Senior Hurling Final covered by RTE.

[lynchbhoy]

Ha Ha Ha, cos there's never any fecking parkin space near the one and only retail outlet

I think the argument goes that a soccer fan in the 6 counties pays the same licence fee as a GAA Fan, therefore deserves his or her sport to be covered. Implausible though it sounds, Irish League soccer games are the equivalent  for him of Inter County Senior Championship games, thats why you'll see goal highlights etc.

To be honest I've never seen the Kilkenny County Senior Hurling Final covered by RTE.

are TG4 not owned by RTE ?
these (selected) county finals are screened every year now for the past few years...

[T Fearon]

Don't think so, is TG4 not Government funded with additional revenue streams from advertising? In any event it has become practically a sports channel covering soccer, gaa and tennis even.

Not comparing like with like here. Any fair minded person would concede that the GAA is getting a fair deal from BBC now. Of course not every event can be covered, but GAA is well catered for.

[lynchbhoy]

Don't think so, is TG4 not Government funded with additional revenue streams from advertising? In any event it has become practically a sports channel covering soccer, gaa and tennis even.

Not comparing like with like here. Any fair minded person would concede that the GAA is getting a fair deal from BBC now. Of course not every event can be covered, but GAA is well catered for.

I did believe that our taxpayers money and TV licence paid for TG4 - certainly they do not operate out of advertising revenue ! Bit of a lame attempt to say its a sports cannel Tone - you obv only watch it when games are on !

I would agree that sports are on terrestial TV more than in yesteryear when coverage was painfully lacking. But to try and intimate that there is equal let alone enough GAA coverage is a p**s take too far to be honest - even for you !

[T Fearon]

LB, honestly I can't see any cause for grievance here, and I'd be the first in line with my cudgel if there was. Every game in the Ulster Championship is covered live, as are the Ulster teams in the latter stages of the AI, any significant GAA developments are broadcast on the 6.30pm evening news, BBC Radio has a game live practically every Sunday (inlcuding Tyrone ladies yesterday) and added to the online coverage etc, I cannot see what more the BBC can do given its finite resources etc. I don't know of another programme from the BBC here like the Championship, that is on so frequently and dedicated to one particular sport. I really am at a loss here to see what the grievance is in terms of the BBC's GAA coverage.

[lynchbhoy]

LB, honestly I can't see any cause for grievance here, and I'd be the first in line with my cudgel if there was. Every game in the Ulster Championship is covered live, as are the Ulster teams in the latter stages of the AI, any significant GAA developments are broadcast on the 6.30pm evening news, BBC Radio has a game live practically every Sunday (inlcuding Tyrone ladies yesterday) and added to the online coverage etc, I cannot see what more the BBC can do given its finite resources etc. I don't know of another programme from the BBC here like the Championship, that is on so frequently and dedicated to one particular sport. I really am at a loss here to see what the grievance is in terms of the BBC's GAA coverage.

not even close
with so many soccer matches covered and 'highlights' from pog-a-sus varsas ra-lwa une-ah-yun in the div 2 hockey league etc shown every saturday, then if not for equality , but to show a huge proportion of GAA followers their preferred games by putting a few snippets of action from football and hurling club championship games on a sunday - if not a saturday (for games played thus far that particular weekend) - well I wont consider this enough or equal viewing time.

while rte are carp - they are consistent. They show all the major soccer, rugby, boxing as well as Gaelic games.
setanta and to a far lesser extent TV3 and TG4 show more lower level 'local' sports.

[Applesisapples]

BBC show 4 or 5 Chamionship matches each summer depending on Ulster representation, lord help us if Cavan, Monaghan or Donegal make a final. This is over 3 months. Where is the coverage from September to May. Comparisons with RTE don't stack, RTE is a national station which actually looks after Ulster reasonably well. BBC NI is local or regional and could show highlights of Ulster Club or County Senior finals games with much greater potential interest than Larne versus Dungannon Swifts!!

[T Fearon]

I would imagine RTE have far greater resources than BBC North of Ireland, not too mention two significantly long news bulletins at night. I don't see any live hockey on BBC, no live domestic soccer, except for he two cup finals etc.

Looks like we are going to have to disagree on this, but I would argue that nowadays GAA accounts for more proportionately of the BBC's sports output than any other given individual sport.

Another poster made a good point here as well, as to why the BBC bothers, when with a choice, most people, myself included, opt to watch matches on RTE

[Applesisapples]

It's about difference Tony, hence I mentioned Club matches. but I said before agree to differ.

[Maguire01]

I can't actually believe that I agree with Tony.  I feel slightly ill.
(Although as I had already been saying the same thing, technically it's him that agrees with me.)

The BBC can't cover every competition in every sport, so they appear to concentrate finite resources on the main competitions in each sport. I don't think we should expect TV coverage of club games. Some people here seem to reckon there's a real demand for such coverage - if there was, i'm sure the commercial competition would have been sniffing. It doesn't appear that they have.

[Maguire01]

while rte are carp - they are consistent. They show all the major soccer, rugby, boxing as well as Gaelic games.
setanta and to a far lesser extent TV3 and TG4 show more lower level 'local' sports.

We can't really bring Setanta into the mix, can we? Is it not a pay to view sports channel?

[T Fearon]

Maguire, fear not, most people come round to my way of thinking eventually It just takes some a little longer than others