Free to air Gaa

miseeire

A former president of the Gaa has spoken of the need to show gaelic sports on a free to air channel,maybe in conjunction with Tourism Ireland.He speaks of people in the U.S.being unable to view games.I think this is something the powers that be should seriously consider and put in place for the start of next years championship.Lets not exclude Britain in this scenario either.

deisedude

I think its a great idea personally but don't see it happening. It was a pain in the arse trying to watch games where i was last year in the States

An Citeog

I'd like to see it aswell but Setanta seem to have had the rights wrapped up for the last number of years. Paying $20 into a pub just to watch a game on tv is a pain in the hole!

jimthemental

Badly needs to be sorted. I had to pay $20 into pubs, and there were just a couple showing, to watch matches a couple of years ago in Chicago. It is some rip off. Anyone know what it was costing the pubs?

Clareman

I believe that most pay per view companies will review the market where the event will be shown and do up a quote depending on the area, so it would vary from place to place.

IMVHO, the problem with TV is that each market would need to be sold separately and I don't think any FTA stations would be interested in showing the games, they wouldn't have the market for it. The GAA should concentrate on selling/giving away their matches on line, IPTV is the way forward and they would be able to re-coup the revenue very easily and control the distribution of same.

Fr Tod Umptious

Clareman wrote: »

I believe that most pay per view companies will review the market where the event will be shown and do up a quote depending on the area, so it would vary from place to place.

IMVHO, the problem with TV is that each market would need to be sold separately and I don't think any FTA stations would be interested in showing the games, they wouldn't have the market for it. The GAA should concentrate on selling/giving away their matches on line, IPTV is the way forward and they would be able to re-coup the revenue very easily and control the distribution of same.

Very good point.

In places like the US where there is good high speed broadband penetration IPTV could be a winner.

I lived in the US for a number of years in the late '90s and heading down to a packed pub on a Sunday morning to pay $20 to watch a game was not always that appealing.

It would have been much easier to watch a game on a PC (connected to the TV) at home.

It would also possibly get the younger (American) children of Irish people interested in the games as they would get a chance to watch them at home.

FatherTed

Just have them tell RTE to unblock IP's outside of Ireland when they show matches. Then we can all watch online instead of forking over $20 every time to PremiumSports aka Setanta here in the US.

Fr Tod Umptious

FatherTed wrote: »

Just have them tell RTE to unblock IP's outside of Ireland when they show matches. Then we can all watch online instead of forking over $20 every time to PremiumSports aka Setanta here in the US.

Well it would be a bit more complicated than that.

Blocking access outside of Ireland means that RTE do not hold the rights to broadcast games on the web outside of Ireland.

I do not know who owns those rights or whether they even exist.

RTE or some other bodywould have to bid for those rights from the GAA before they could legally be broadcast.

Clareman

In fairness to the GAA I would imagine that IPTV would be very complicated to work out. I've the Late Late Show on on another tab (to see the Rubberbandits) and they are blanking out the ads, that Late Late is a world wide show that RTÉ recoup every penny from without having to spend any money on (minus production costs of course)

Pappy o' daniel

This is another sign of the shortsightedness of the GAA.

Every foreigner I have introduced to hurling have loved it at first sight, their first response is, why haven't I heard of this before.

Imagine the following the game would get if it was freely available to millions of people, and the knock on effects of this.

And after a few years and a following is gained, then we can start charging!

Fr Tod Umptious

Pappy o' daniel wrote: »

This is another sign of the shortsightedness of the GAA.

Every foreigner I have introduced to hurling have loved it at first sight, their first response is, why haven't I heard of this before.

Imagine the following the game would get if it was freely available to millions of people, and the knock on effects of this.

And after a few years and a following is gained, then we can start charging!

Well it would take a lot more marketing that just IPTV to extend GAA penetration into foreign countries.

Even in a place like the US it's really only the Irish born people and to a smaller extent their children that have any idea that the sport even exists

Clareman

Did you see when they had hurling on CSI:New York? That was funny.

Anyway, of course they have a lot more to do, but why not start it off internet based and let it go from there? If a facebook page can get Rage Against The Machines to Christmas number 1, why can't hurling get a few more fans over the internet?

rockonollie

jimthemental wrote: »

Badly needs to be sorted. I had to pay $20 into pubs, and there were just a couple showing, to watch matches a couple of years ago in Chicago. It is some rip off. Anyone know what it was costing the pubs?

Unfortunately it isn't that much of a rip off. One of our club mates here in the US manages an irish bar and games at the end of the season (semi-final and final) cost them several hundred dollars to get in. Without charging on the door they'd lose serious money.