Should RTE show international sports that have nothing to do with Ireland.

Why wouldn't a national broadcaster show international sports? And not just any international sport - but literally the pinnacle of the more/most popular sports in the world.

By that logic, why report international news, why broadcast international entertainment, and so on? To do the reverse would be insular and the manner of somewhere like Belarus or North Korea, to use hyperbole; keep it local.

But interest IS relevance; you can't divorce the two, it becomes relevant by dint of there being a presumed, or actual audience who want to watch the thing. If the Champion's League wasn't such a huge draw, it wouldn't be shown. Same with other items like international news, international media and so on. People are interested in it.

It's not so simple as to say there should be More Domestic Sport; literally the biggest domestic sport in the country (notwithstanding the quibbling over participation numbers, clubs or whatnot) gets blanket national coverage - the GAA; though IIRC some of it left RTÉ? I can't remember.

And if anything, RTÉ used to show more international sport, it's only that they have slowly struggled to keep parity with the kind of blank cheques Sky, Virgin Media et al can sign to get the rights to show the bigger tournaments. If some weren't literally written into law as being "free to air" I daresay they'd have left RTÉ years ago.

I don't disagree with the theory; yes RTÉ should show more national sport & tournaments, and it's a similar discussion to that of women's sport. The usual types trotting out the 'aul "why cover women's sports? Nobody watches it". Why cover cricket, when 'nobody' watches it. It's a chicken and egg scenario; nobody watches it so it's not shown, but more might watch it if it was and thus cause more participation and interest.

If fitness and physical prowess are the benchmarks to consider something as a sport, then "Flying a Fighter Jet" would become a Sport.