Sky eye up the All Ireland championship matches?

keane2097

Prop Joe wrote: »

What an ignorant comment

I don't think it is at all to be honest.

He's highlighting the fact that most people here are using some phantom uber-isolated old people who are so alone and out of touch that they have no phone, no tablet, no laptop, no PC, no money, no transport, no pub, no friends, no match tickets and no Sky Sports for whom the thought of not being able to see the dozen odd games Sky have is going to be a major detriment to the lives of this summer.

Realistically, if anyone knows of any real person in this sort of deplorable situation then shame on them for letting the situation continue. You shouldn't need a GAA deal with Sky to tell you to call around to this poor old soul and take them out of the house for a few hours.

In reality, this is just a fairly transparent attempt to moralise by people who are really just whinging that they don't have every game served up to them for nothing this year.

Prop Joe

keane2097 wrote: »

I don't think it is at all to be honest.

He's highlighting the fact that most people here are using some phantom uber-isolated old people who are so alone and out of touch that they have no phone, no tablet, no laptop, no PC, no money, no transport, no pub, no friends, no match tickets and no Sky Sports for whom the thought of not being able to see the dozen odd games Sky have is going to be a major detriment to the lives of this summer.

Realistically, if anyone knows of any real person in this sort of deplorable situation then shame on them for letting the situation continue. You shouldn't need a GAA deal with Sky to tell you to call around to this poor old soul and take them out of the house for a few hours.

In reality, this is just a fairly transparent attempt to moralise by people who are really just whinging that they don't have every game served up to them for nothing this year.

I could name 15 people off the top of my head within 3 miles of my house who have no internet,Don't drink or very rarely visit the pub and no SKY sports,What is their choice?

Should they all cram into some neighbours house to watch a game?

Ok,Thats fair enough if maybe your county is playing but what about the rest of the games?

These are guys who are long standing supporters of GAA,These guys also would of always watched Munster rugby games when on Free to Air and just lost interest in them when they went to SKY.

The guys who want to see these games just won't watch them if they cant from the comfort of there own homes,So in fact the GAA will just lose viewers.

This is going to affect rural Ireland massively.

P.S The streaming service the GAA announced with the RTE Digital does not cover SKY games

munchkin_utd

Prop Joe wrote: »

I could name 15 people off the top of my head within 3 miles of my house who have no internet,Don't drink or very rarely visit the pub and no SKY sports,What is their choice? [/B]

What will they do for the 50 odd championship games that are on neither sky nor rte?

prospect

Lets not forget, it is over €750 a year to subscribe to Sky and get sports for 12 months, so it is highly naive for anyone to play down the cost, this is a huge expense.

Now there is a Sky mobile app, but that is €14 a month (there is a cheaper one, but that doesn't include SS3 & SS4, which i believe the GAA will be shown on), but that requires a good broadband connection and an Apple iPhone or iPad.

Prop Joe

munchkin_utd wrote: »

What will they do for the 50 odd championship games that are on neither sky nor rte?

Well in fairness alot of them 50 will be on the same time as televised games so that argument doesnt really stand.

It's not as if all the 50 games are on individual days

maestroamado

mariano rivera wrote: »

Here is my tuppence worth


1.RTE's coverage has been shambolic at times. See Brolly Slouching. If he was working for me (not that anyone works for me) he would get a kick in the arse for the way he was sitting.

The cring inducing rant of Eamon O Hara or Marty's Committee room on thursday. (Or what is should be called, 4 man sit in a room and talk about a little bit of GAH)

No harm for RTE to get a kick in their arse to lift their game

GAA sport is a quality product. RTE's coverage is not

Alot of this stuff has been amateurish


2. If anyone is worried about some old lad down the road with no SKY TV and he wont be able to see the match, well


Call him up, Drive down, pick him up, bring up to your house, cook some dinner and give him a couple of bottles if he so wishes and drop him hom eafter

Alternatively, maybe bring him down the pub

me getting a bit worried as I am kinda in agreement with you two and I think this happened twice today....
anyway me thinks we should give the tv licence money to the players then we could all go to the games for free...
because me getting closer to being one of the auld bucks you mention maybe santa would bring me a wireless and save all this hassle...

I am listening to a` song at the moment "whistling past the graveyard"
should I be worried for me or gaa...

lovelypoint

Reading Liam O'Neill's words today, it would seem all reference to this deal about this deal being for the diaspora was simply spin, and the real reason for this deal was instead to stir/ kick/ punish RTE.

ProudDUB

prospect wrote: »

Lets not forget, it is over €750 a year to subscribe to Sky and get sports for 12 months, so it is highly naive for anyone to play down the cost, this is a huge expense.

Now there is a Sky mobile app, but that is €14 a month (there is a cheaper one, but that doesn't include SS3 & SS4, which i believe the GAA will be shown on), but that requires a good broadband connection and an Apple iPhone or iPad.

That is nonsense. You don't have to sign up for a whole years just to get Sky Sports. Why on earth would someone pay for a years service, when Sky are only broadcasting GAA games in the summer?

I have UPC. I just have their basic package that does not include any Sky Sports or Movie channels. Last summer, I rang UPC and added Sky Sports to my account, for the two months that the Lions rugby tour was on. When the tour was over, I rang them back and took Sky off. I paid 24.99 per month for the two months that I had Sky Sports.

Having Sky Sports for 2 months cost me a whopping fifty quid. Why can't all those impoverished old geezers out there, do what I did? Surely a lot of them have service with a company such as UPC? Fifty euros is not a lot of money really. If someone just puts aside the money for one pint, just one, once a month, they would have next years Sky money all sorted before the season even kicks off. Seriously, how hard is that?

If they got Sky Sports in early June & kept it for just 2 months, that would get them the early champo games, the qualifier games and the two early August quarter finals, that Sky will be showing. They could drop Sky then, as RTE have all the games from the quarter finals onwards. Easy peasy.

I am aware that UPC are not nationwide & that not every one has them. If you have a Saorview box, I don't think that you can do what I did. But UPC are in nearly a million homes (or maybe it is a million customers, I forget which.) They are certainly capable of bringing Sky Sports to a truck load of people, for just the time frame that they are broadcasting GAA games & for relatively small amount of money. Whether or not those people chose to avail of it, is up to them. But it is no way the financial doom and gloom that some people are making it out to be.

Mr Tibbs

I know a great word for this disgraceful carry-on. Boycott.

RoyalCelt

lovelypoint wrote: »

Reading Liam O'Neill's words today, it would seem all reference to this deal about this deal being for the diaspora was simply spin, and the real reason for this deal was instead to stir/ kick/ punish RTE.

RTE keep their 31 matches so I don't think it was for that. The GAA I imagine will be hoping they can get a good viewer base in the UK between Irish and non Irish and sky come back looking to renew possible at a higher price due to BT also showing an interest. In the meantime the number of GAA clubs in England has increased by 50%. I'd imagine the GAA would be hoping for that more than to kick/stir/punish RTE.

Having said that RTE might show a bit of respect to the GAA by doing a proper 2 hour highlights show for the league and actually analysing the matches properly instead of hiring O'Rourke to ref a boxing match between Brolly and Spillane. They constantly go about our matches in a negative fashion and have shown no interest in promoting the sports which Sky I imagine will do brilliantly. The announcement alone has given the GAA loads of airtime considering the biggest club rugby and soccer matches of the year are coming up.

RoyalCelt

prospect wrote: »

Lets not forget, it is over €750 a year to subscribe to Sky and get sports for 12 months, so it is highly naive for anyone to play down the cost, this is a huge expense.

Now there is a Sky mobile app, but that is €14 a month (there is a cheaper one, but that doesn't include SS3 & SS4, which i believe the GAA will be shown on), but that requires a good broadband connection and an Apple iPhone or iPad.

as prouddub said that's just so unnecessary . why not get sky for june, july and august as they are the only months the exclusive GAA matches will be shown. and if you really like their coverage sure why not throw september in too for the finals.

some of the things people come out with against the gaa would make you wonder. they do no research on their arguments and don't take in the big picture.

A lot of anti GAA people and some GAA people (who are your typical irish that love something to moan about) trying to stir up a storm in a teacup and thankfully the anti gaa campaign never got off the ground.

3 years time I'd imagine this will have been a success and the GAA will be in rude health having come through the worst recession ever. Hopefully RTE start to show they are doing the best with our sports and deserve their next package on merit rather than the fact they are our national broadcaster.

For what my opinion is worth I'd be in favour of sky getting a marginal increase in 3 years if they do a fantastic job. Show maybe give them some non exclusive munster championship matches, and throw 1 or 2 more games that we're going to be shown anyway. Even 1 league match a week in the hurling and football too as rte don't have any interest in showing that live anyway. But that would be the limit and would not like to see it ever going further than that.

lertsnim

RoyalCelt wrote: »

as prouddub said that's just so unnecessary . why not get sky for june, july and august as they are the only months the exclusive GAA matches will be shown. and if you really like their coverage sure why not throw september in too for the finals.

Sign up for just the summer months to Sky? Assuming you don't already have Sky then that is a 12 month contract.

nice_guy80

Was there this much uproar when sky got the live rugby games?

ALL European cup rugby games.

Necro

lertsnim wrote: »

Sign up for just the summer months to Sky? Assuming you don't already have Sky then that is a 12 month contract.

Wrong. You can sign up for their basic package and add sports. Then simply downgrade end of August and no further charges for sports. Their basic package is €28 which you would be signing up to for 12 months but the total cost is nowhere near the nonsensical figures spouted by the misinformed naysayers on this thread.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Necrominus wrote: »

Wrong. You can sign up for their basic package and add sports. Then simply downgrade end of August and no further charges for sports. Their basic package is €28 which you would be signing up to for 12 months but the total cost is nowhere near the nonsensical figures spouted by the misinformed naysayers on this thread.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good uproar

frostyjacks

I've had two missed calls from a sky salesman already since the deal was announced. If they do one of their half price deals for three months I might take them up on it. I'm assuming sky will get first pick of the qualifiers, some of the best matches in recent years have been the Saturday night fixtures.

tommy2bad

Necrominus wrote: »

Wrong. You can sign up for their basic package and add sports. Then simply downgrade end of August and no further charges for sports. Their basic package is €28 which you would be signing up to for 12 months but the total cost is nowhere near the nonsensical figures spouted by the misinformed naysayers on this thread.

Yep you can get a basic Sky package for 28 euro and add sky sports later but it will be for 12 months not 3 months unless you are getting an offer. As to the poor ould fella getting UPC, Proud dub, well that's obvious as outside of urban areas UPC 's not available. It's saorview or sky. Their are no other options.

bruschi

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Was there this much uproar when sky got the live rugby games?

ALL European cup rugby games.

I remember there was in some areas anyway, mainly RTE driven. George Hook wearing a black armband at the last broadcast on RTE. Figures being published showing the decline in viewership from 2006 to 2007 are still being used as proof it has failed. I have tried search for current viewing figures, but can not find them anywhere. can find a load of stats on the drop off between 2006 to 2007 though, which shows the ease at which stats are used to force an agenda, and still being used in this situation 7 years later.

keeponhurling

bruschi wrote: »

George Hook wearing a black armband at the last broadcast on RTE. .

really? What a muppet

scruffy66

tommy2bad wrote: »

Yep you can get a basic Sky package for 28 euro and add sky sports later but it will be for 12 months not 3 months unless you are getting an offer. As to the poor ould fella getting UPC, Proud dub, well that's obvious as outside of urban areas UPC 's not available. It's saorview or sky. Their are no other options.

If this all about getting people in the UK to watch GAA matches , then why not sell the matches to SKY on the basis that they block us seeing it on that channel.We can then still watch all the matches on Saorview or SKY Ireland if we have a subscription.

The real reason SKY are doing this is to try and claw back those people who have switched in their thousands to Saorview/freetoair and are not paying any monthly subscriptions.

Hidalgo

bruschi wrote: »

I remember there was in some areas anyway, mainly RTE driven. George Hook wearing a black armband at the last broadcast on RTE. Figures being published showing the decline in viewership from 2006 to 2007 are still being used as proof it has failed. I have tried search for current viewing figures, but can not find them anywhere. can find a load of stats on the drop off between 2006 to 2007 though, which shows the ease at which stats are used to force an agenda, and still being used in this situation 7 years later.

Whilst the figures are outdated, they at least are concrete figures.
I havn't seen hard numbers to showcase that viewership went way up.

The biggest difference between 2006-7 figures and today I think would be that more households have Sky today than 7 years ago, but I'm only guessing.

At times, even if a person is uneasy about this deal, its assumed that they are part of the 'scaremongering'/the world is going to end.

Yes some people are going way over the top, but at the same time people have a genuine right to be wary/borderline curious as to where this will lead.

Hidalgo

The GAA Sky deal is a big change of policy in just 12 months, there's an article in today's Irish Times highlighting Paraic Duffy's comments to Michael Moynihan last year in the Irish Examiner's journalist's book, GAAconomics

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/social-price-paid-for-new-sky-deal-may-prove-costly-to-the-gaa-1.1749265

Interesting to see whether there was one specific event that changed GAA hierarchy minds or if it was more a gradual process

bruschi

Hidalgo wrote: »

Whilst the figures are outdated, they at least are concrete figures.
I havn't seen hard numbers to showcase that viewership went way up.

The biggest difference between 2006-7 figures and today I think would be that more households have Sky today than 7 years ago, but I'm only guessing.

At times, even if a person is uneasy about this deal, its assumed that they are part of the 'scaremongering'/the world is going to end.

Yes some people are going way over the top, but at the same time people have a genuine right to be wary/borderline curious as to where this will lead.

absolutely people have a right and to have a genuine concern. I do too, to a very little extent, but I'd prefer and wait until it coverage started and not be worrying about something that mya or may not happen in 3 years before I get worked up over it.

agree with you that more would have sky now too, hence why I think those figures being outdated are a very poor indicator of the drop off. there will obviously be a big drop off this year, and people will try compare it to RTE figures, but the reality is there was also a drop off in all of TV3s coverage as compared to RTEs too, so it might not be as big as expected, and certainly not to the scale of the Heneiken cup situation. I was wanting to find recent figures of the viewership of Heneiken cup on sky, as it seems no one has any issue any more over it being on sky.

Hidalgo wrote: »

The GAA Sky deal is a big change of policy in just 12 months, there's an article in today's Irish Times highlighting Paraic Duffy's comments to Michael Moynihan last year in the Irish Examiner's journalist's book, GAAconomics

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/social-price-paid-for-new-sky-deal-may-prove-costly-to-the-gaa-1.1749265

Interesting to see whether there was one specific event that changed GAA hierarchy minds or if it was more a gradual process

that seems that he is talking about sole rights to the whole championship, not just 14 games

O Riain

stoneill wrote: »

I'm not convinced with the GAA argument that this deal with SKY was not to do with money but to bring the game to wider audiences.
If that were the case, why can't the games be simulcast on RTE and SKY? Why did BBC not get a look in? How come the all games are available in Australia? GAA said the deal will bring the Game to 10,000,000 subscribers in the UK. How many people would would able to see the games if it was given to BBC or ITV?
Doubtless SKY will bring all their camera, technology and experience to make the build up, coverage and analysis completely different from what we once knew, but to what end? Will it improve the game in any way?

The way a game is presented is half the battle in making a sport more attractive to people who are generally unaware of it.

One thing that annoys me beyond belief about some GAA game is that they will point the camera towards a stand which is almost completely empty and make it look like there is absolutely nobody at a game, all the while there is a stand directly underneath the camera which is near capacity. This to anyone not there makes the games look severely under supported.

Little things like this make the games look more unattractive then they actually are. We have two very good sports within hurling and football, they should be marketed to the best of the GAAs ability and made look as high profile as possible.

Personally I think RTE have done an abysmal job, their commentary and analysis is horrendous and I would be 100% willing to pay to watch a game as long as it was presented better. Simple as.

Prop Joe

bruschi wrote: »

I was wanting to find recent figures of the viewership of Heneiken cup on sky, as it seems no one has any issue any more over it being on sky.

765,000 people watched Leinster v Munster on TG4 last Saturday,Doubt Sky had even 100,000 viewers

maestroamado

Mr Tibbs wrote: »

I know a great word for this disgraceful carry-on. Boycott.

as with all consumer goods people choose to buy the product that is best value and most suitable for their needs....
even though I am pretty close to qualify as the rural people mentioned in the post... I am all for it if the money is in some way transferred to the owners of the game "the players" in some fashion...
what really pisses me off is administrators getting hundreds of thousands of €€ and the entertainers getting very little... I am guessing that some of the heads are on more than 100k and maybe as much as barrack......
to me its akin to paul mc Guinness getting all the money and poor bono and the lads getting nothing...
I have being saying this for years and as usual no one listens to me and that is unlikely to change but now the gaa has changed its ethos its a totally different ballgame and a whole new debate...
to me this is a tremengous opportunity to develop our great games but if we are to succeed there will have to be more changes....

keeponhurling

Hidalgo wrote: »

The GAA Sky deal is a big change of policy in just 12 months, there's an article in today's Irish Times highlighting Paraic Duffy's comments to Michael Moynihan last year in the Irish Examiner's journalist's book, GAAconomics

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/social-price-paid-for-new-sky-deal-may-prove-costly-to-the-gaa-1.1749265

Interesting to see whether there was one specific event that changed GAA hierarchy minds or if it was more a gradual process

like this bit

Back in 1997, at a time when the GAA had already begun to relax its rules on the sponsorship and broadcasting of its competitions, then president, Jack Boothman, told delegates to Annual Congress that “the GAA can never in conscience decide to sell television rights to any media provider who will be widely available throughout the country and which will not be national in character. We are not going to sell our people down the river for money”.

nice_guy80

keeponhurling wrote: »

like this bit

Back in 1997, at a time when the GAA had already begun to relax its rules on the sponsorship and broadcasting of its competitions, then president, Jack Boothman, told delegates to Annual Congress that “the GAA can never in conscience decide to sell television rights to any media provider who will be widely available throughout the country and which will not be national in character. We are not going to sell our people down the river for money”.

Boothman was one of the most conservative presidents in the last 50 years of the GAA.

Prop Joe

ProudDUB wrote: »

I am aware that UPC are not nationwide & that not every one has them. If you have a Saorview box, I don't think that you can do what I did. But UPC are in nearly a million homes (or maybe it is a million customers, I forget which.) They are certainly capable of bringing Sky Sports to a truck load of people, for just the time frame that they are broadcasting GAA games & for relatively small amount of money. Whether or not those people chose to avail of it, is up to them. But it is no way the financial doom and gloom that some people are making it out to be.

UPC have about 300k TV customers.

bruschi

Prop Joe wrote: »

765,000 people watched Leinster v Munster on TG4 last Saturday,Doubt Sky had even 100,000 viewers

you doubt sky had even 100,000 viewers for what? and where are you taking that figure from? just plucking it from the sky (no pun intended) or do you actually have figures that show skys viewership of Heneiken cup rugby in Ireland.

I just checked your TG4 figures there too, the figure of viewership that goes on record for that game is the average of 308,000. it peaked at 509,000 and for some reason they say it reached 765,000, so I'm not sure what they are saying in their press release.

Necro

tommy2bad wrote: »

Yep you can get a basic Sky package for 28 euro and add sky sports later but it will be for 12 months not 3 months unless you are getting an offer. As to the poor ould fella getting UPC, Proud dub, well that's obvious as outside of urban areas UPC 's not available. It's saorview or sky. Their are no other options.

Again wrong. The 12 month contract with sky is for the basic package. To upgrade all you do is go online or call them up. To cancel sports as I already said, you have to give 31 days notice and your package will revert to the normal price after this point.
How do I know this? I'm a sky customer. I'm constantly upgrading/downgrading my package depending on offers/ time of year. The basic package is the only requirement for a 12 month contract. Anything extra can be removed with 31 days notice at any point within the 12 months.
All of this is in their T&Cs, how clearer do I have to be? To sign up to sky now (not counting offers and promotions and including 3 months of sports) would cost a total of €444 for the 12 months. Not cheap I accept but a lot less than the ridiculous figures being bandied about on this thread.

Prop Joe

bruschi wrote: »

you doubt sky had even 100,000 viewers for what? and where are you taking that figure from? just plucking it from the sky (no pun intended) or do you actually have figures that show skys viewership of Heneiken cup rugby in Ireland.

Well 900,000 watched the Hurling All Ireland last year and i highly doubt that Munster v Leinster game surpassed that.

So if TG4 had 765,000 it's easy do the maths

Necro

Prop Joe wrote: »

Well 900,000 watched the Hurling All Ireland last year and i highly doubt that Munster v Leinster game surpassed that.

So if TG4 had 765,000 it's easy do the maths

Hang on now, the All Ireland finals are still 'free to air' so I don't think that can be added to your argument. The sky deal can only increase the numbers watching. Those without sky aren't simply going to tune out of both the football and hurling All Ireland Finals just because of 14 exclusive games.

Prop Joe

Necrominus wrote: »

Hang on now, the All Ireland finals are still 'free to air' so I don't think that can be added to your argument. The sky deal can only increase the numbers watching. Those without sky aren't simply going to tune out of both the football and hurling All Ireland Finals just because of 14 exclusive games.

Hold your horses now,What i am saying is the amount of people who watched Munster v Leinster last weekend on Free to Air was 750,000.

The amount that watched on SKY was less than 10% of that number.

Is it not better that over 800k people can watch a game than 80k ?

bruschi

Prop Joe wrote: »

Hold your horses now,What i am saying is the amount of people who watched Munster v Leinster last weekend on Free to Air was 750,000.

The amount that watched on SKY was less than 10% of that number.

Is it not better that over 800k people can watch a game than 80k ?

what are you talking about when you say the amount that watched on sky was less than 10%.

nice_guy80

Were sky showing pro 12 games?

Mr Simpson

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Were sky showing pro 12 games?

Not until next season

Necro

Prop Joe wrote: »

Hold your horses now,What i am saying is the amount of people who watched Munster v Leinster last weekend on Free to Air was 750,000.

The amount that watched on SKY was less than 10% of that number.

Is it not better that over 800k people can watch a game than 80k ?

You quoted the Hurling All Ireland as 900k people viewing. Those 900k can still view the Hurling All Ireland this year. In fact sky will probably boost figures viewing to well over 1 million in the UK and Ireland combined. How is that a bad thing that more people get to see the GAA's showpiece?

Prop Joe

bruschi wrote: »

what are you talking about when you say the amount that watched on sky was less than 10%.

How many people do you think watched Munster v Leinster last Friday ?

bruschi

Prop Joe wrote: »

How many people do you think watched Munster v Leinster last Friday ?

I really havent a clue what your argument is here to be honest. you are all over the place talking about TG4, sky and a game that wasnt on last Friday.

Prop Joe

Sorry Saturday,

Yes i think the point was lost somewhere.

Munster v Leinster was on last Saturday,It was shown on both SKY and TG4

TG4 has 750,000 viewers
Sky had a tiny fraction of that

If TG4 were not allowed show that match how many would of watched it?

The SKY GAA deal is going to decrease viewership not increase it

iDave

Prop Joe wrote: »

Sorry Saturday,

Yes i think the point was lost somewhere.

Munster v Leinster was on last Saturday,It was shown on both SKY and TG4

TG4 has 750,000 viewers
Sky had a tiny fraction of that

If TG4 were not allowed show that match how many would of watched it?

The SKY GAA deal is going to decrease viewership not increase it

Sky aren't showing Pro12 until next season

Prop Joe

Sorry i'm getting totally confused here

What i meant,I think is SKY wont get anywhere near those figures tomorrow for HCUP QF

The viewership for the All Ireland QF's next year will decrease because of the exclusivity on SKY,Are we on agreement with this?

bruschi

Prop Joe wrote: »

Sorry i'm getting totally confused here

What i meant,I think is SKY wont get anywhere near those figures tomorrow for HCUP QF

The viewership for the All Ireland QF's next year will decrease because of the exclusivity on SKY,Are we on agreement with this?

potentially, yes. But they are also showing an additional 5 games that would not have been on TV at all, so the net result will be an increase. And in Ireland. the viewership for the quarter finals, shown on sky, could well increase if you include those in the UK who will watch it.

sid waddell

If there are so many people unhappy about this deal, they have three years to bring a motion to their club and on to Congress to ring fence a certain number of championship matches for free to air TV.

While I think the GAA have got the balance right with this deal in terms of the free to air/subscription TV split, I would be against any more matches being lost from free to air.

The new UTV Ireland station will likely provide greater competition to RTE for free to air rights in 2017 than TV3 did up to now, thus (hopefully) ensuring that it's not a buyer's market.

The fact that the market for the rights has been a buyer's one up to now has driven complacency in RTE's coverage.

While I think they do a reasonable job in terms of their live coverage, their highlights, magazine shows and general promotion leave a lot to be desired. And they don't bother their holes from September to May, a situation which I find unacceptable for the so-called national broadcaster and which will unfortunately continue under this deal.

keeponhurling

Is TG4 not in some way connected to RTE, so that TG4 does the games Sept-May ?

FreshCoffee

bruschi wrote: »

potentially, yes. But they are also showing an additional 5 games that would not have been on TV at all

These additional 5 games would have been on free to air TV here as TV3 tendered for exactly the same Irish games package that Sky won. This was confirmed earlier in the week on radio by TV3. Basically it's all about money and unfortunately the winners in all this are those that can afford Sky sports and they exhibit little sympathy for those that can't.

Elmo

keeponhurling wrote: »

Is TG4 not in some way connected to RTE, so that TG4 does the games Sept-May ?

TG4 are independent of RTÉ and have been since Apr 07. The were largely independent before that. They get a slice of the licence fee since '11, and TG4 Nuacht from RTÉ.

Dirty Dingus McGee

FreshCoffee wrote: »

These additional 5 games would have been on free to air TV here as TV3 tendered for exactly the same Irish games package that Sky won. This was confirmed earlier in the week on radio by TV3. Basically it's all about money and unfortunately the winners in all this are those that can afford Sky sports and they exhibit little sympathy for those that can't.

TV3 are offering staff voluntary redundancies so they will probably be out of business very soon.I would asume the GAA knew something about this and it's part of the reason they didn't go with them.

It has been reported that Sky did not significantly out bid TV3 so it looks like the GAA are doing this in part to help raise the profile of the games abroad, raise standards of broadcasting, prevent RTe from having a monopoly and entice more peope to attend matches live.

Elmo

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

TV3 are offering staff voluntary redundancies so they will probably be out of business very soon.I would asume the GAA knew something about this and it's part of the reason they didn't go with them.

It has been reported that Sky did not significantly out bid TV3 so it looks like the GAA are doing this in part to help raise the profile of the games abroad, raise standards of broadcasting, prevent RTe from having a monopoly and entice more peope to attend matches live.

TV3 do have problems with the loss of ITV programming and now GAA rights.

I don't usually agree with David McRedmond but he did point out that TV3 employ people in Ireland and pay taxes here. I expect that Sky will provide all of their coverage from Ireland, its unlikely that they will use their existing UK staff.

The GAA could have made a deal with Sky for British Rights only. Sky bought these right because the have lost out to many rights in Britain to BT. Sky want to retain their customers in Ireland, PayTV is valued at €500million each year in Ireland.

TV3 may have the rights to the Rugby World Cup. Even if TV3 do fail at some stage some other broadcaster would take up those rights.