Article: TV blackout a big own goal

Peace

www.independant.ie wrote:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/tv-blackout-a-big-own-goal-2501793.html
By MARTIN BREHENY

Wednesday January 19 2011

TG4 resumed live GAA coverage last Sunday, taking their cameras to Drogheda for the Louth-Wicklow O'Byrne Cup game, and will continue over the coming months with AIB club championship and National League action.

It's an excellent service from a station that has always been good at spotting an opening and been smart enough to negotiate its way through it. The only downside is that since the majority of viewers have only a sketchy knowledge of the Irish language, they can't enjoy the coverage as much as if the commentaries were in English. And in fairness, that's quite a drawback.

Still, it's not TG4's problem since their brief is essentially as an Irish language station. They will share live league coverage with Setanta before RTE, TV3 and BBC take over for the senior provincial and All-Ireland championships.

Croke Park is delighted with the arrangement, as it spreads coverage across several stations, thereby increasing competitiveness and strengthening bargaining power.

So it's a good deal all round then? Absolutely not.

However neat the arrangement might look, the reality is that there are no live GAA games universally available on terrestrial English-speaking stations between the end of September and mid-May. That's almost eight months when the GAA concedes the main TV channels to other sports, principally soccer and rugby.

blitz

Soccer coverage is spread across the entire week while rugby is concentrated on Friday/ Saturday/Sunday. It's a double blitz that dominates the TV sports schedules, leaving the GAA very much in the shadows, with their games shown live on an Irish language station and a subscription channel.

Out of sight is out of mind but, for some inexplicable reason, the GAA seems quite happy to allow its main rivals to dominate mainline TV coverage for two-thirds of the year.

Surely, they should have insisted in their negotiations with RTE that they showed some league games live? The GAA created the packages so they could break them up anyway they wanted, in which case the aim should have been to increase the spread of live coverage on RTE/TV3 beyond the May-September period.

An autumn start to the leagues would have been helpful in that regard.

The championship is the big prize pursued by all channels so it's not as if the GAA have no bargaining power.

Note how domestic soccer has its own Monday night magazine programme on RTE during the League of Ireland season, yet there's nothing similar for GAA, even during the championship. Given that all championship games are played on Saturday/Sunday, there's a clear need for a weekday magazine programme, yet there hasn't been one for a few years.

The GAA appears to be blissfully unconcerned about having no regular GAA programme on RTE television between early October and February; nor do they regard it as important to have any live coverage on the national broadcaster between early October and mid-May. Then, it's into overdrive (probably even overkill) for the summer months before heading back into the drought.

With soccer and rugby available from all parts of the globe on a 52-week basis, it's extraordinary how the GAA are happy to have such long gaps in its coverage.

With a little more imaginative fixture planning, there's no reason why Friday night games couldn't be introduced to the league programme. Even one game per week -- carefully selected between counties who are close to each other -- would suffice for live TV.

Croke Park contends that it's necessary to close down the inter-county scene for several months to leave room for club activity, but there are risks in leaving the landscape clear for rival sports to dominate the TV schedules.

Besides, many players are not involved in club action in October and November but they have no other outlet either unless, of course, they turn to soccer and/or rugby.

RTE showed 5hrs 15mins of soccer and rugby highlights last Saturday and Sunday night, while continuing with live coverage on a regular basis throughout most of the year. Meanwhile, the first live GAA action on RTE isn't until May. As indigenous sports, played in a small country on the western rim of Europe, Gaelic football and hurling need consistent TV exposure to compete with global brands. That should include the GAA insisting in their TV deals that RTE, in particular, spreads the coverage more evenly than their current contracts stipulates.

Instead, they leave the October-May period to an Irish language station and a subscription channel. Big mistake.

Personally i appluad TG4 for their coverage of the NHL, NFL and the club championship. Hell even the schools and colleges get covered towards the end. Also their monday night GAA Beo is a good watch to get and idea of the matches that don't get broadcast.

The only downside i find with the coverage provided by TG4 is that i don't speak irish and can only understand about 10% of what is being said by the commentators.

timogen

I Cant speak irish,but thanks to tg4 showing games i've picked up a little.Once the camera man/woman can keep up with the sliotar or ball i have no issue with them showing games.
Maybe for some it's an incentive to learn the language.

Minstrel27

What odds of them providing an English commentary similar to how S4C do with live sport in Wales.

Clareman

Personally I think it's a great thing, it encourages Irish as a language, it's amazing how intune you will get with the commentry after a few minutes and I think it's better to listen to someone speak Irish than all of RTÉ television commentators, why should TG4 put investment into putting English as an option? They are an Irish language channel not a GAA channel

Starie1975

Is gaelgoir as Conamara me!

The whole point of doing this is for people to pick the language or try to improve it, TG4 do fantasic work with Great coverage.

What I don't like are people who call it TG-four :mad:!

Martin Breheny - If you read this mail me and I'll set up some free Irish lessons for you.

megadodge

Lads, calm down.

It's that time of year again - when Martin Breheny has nothing to write about so he comes up with yet another area where the GAA is "in trouble".

I am not exaggerating when I say he has been doing this each and every year since his Sunday Press days over 20 years ago.

In that time none of his hare-brained suggestions have ever been taken on and the GAA has gone from strength to strength!

I'm surprised he hasn't come up with his "4 points for a goal" sh!te yet again.

megadodge

I forgot also to compliment TG4 on their top-notch year-round GAA coverage.

The language is not a problem, if you've any interest at all in the game.

Diabhal Beag

TG4 have been great for coverage and you wouldn't believe how easy it us to pick up the language from watching the matches.

Setanta always use their transmissions too.

gooch2k9

I've seen in Spain you get stations where they broadcast the same video but with two different audio streams, mostly one spanish the other german or english. TnaG could could do this for games, Irish and English audio streams. More than likely TnaG would have to go digital for this to be achieved(not certain on the mechanics), but would be a good idea for boosting the profile of the league, as a lot of people just aren't interested in Irish. Gives the viewers a choice, and more than likely TnaG would get plenty more viewers.

Clareman

It's not TG4's remit to promote the GAA or to get more viewers who are only interest in English, it's to promote the Irish language

ShamoBuc

TG4 is SAVAGE for GAA - I simply love sundays in front of the box!
My Dad also loves it - 84 and he has picked up alot of wordsfrom watching the games- how bad! Being a fairly fluent Irish speaker I must say I really enjoy the commentary. They do so much for the Irish language - a quality TV channel!
I sometimes show a cartoon from the TG4 website in class and the kids love it and race to explain first what was happening - Garfield was a blast today!
Long may TG4 continue showing the way for top quality television - including top quality GAA coverage.

ShamoBuc

gooch2k9 wrote: »

I've seen in Spain you get stations where they broadcast the same video but with two different audio streams, mostly one spanish the other german or english. TnaG could could do this for games, Irish and English audio streams. More than likely TnaG would have to go digital for this to be achieved(not certain on the mechanics), but would be a good idea for boosting the profile of the league, as a lot of people just aren't interested in Irish. Gives the viewers a choice, and more than likely TnaG would get plenty more viewers.

They are already broadcasting digital as part of Saorview - Irelands digital version of the analogue channels.

gooch2k9

ShamoBuc wrote: »

They are already broadcasting digital as part of Saorview - Irelands digital version of the analogue channels.

Ah I see, didn't think that was up and running yet.

ShamoBuc

gooch2k9 wrote: »

Ah I see, didn't think that was up and running yet.

Yeah it is, my tg4 and tv3 were never really good quality - but now.... a transformation! Also 3e, an Rte news channel, and Net 2 is going out out in HD - more to follow in a year or two.

ardmacha

This stuff about TG4 commentary putting people off is largely nonsense. You want to see a game, if you were at the game you'd have no commentary at all. Fairly simple Irish gets you most of the commentary, perhaps the analysis is a bit trickier. But you mostly want the names of the players and you have that.

A lot of people aren't interested in Irish, but most of these aren't interested in the GAA either, so they can watch Coronation St on some other channel.
Breheny is filling space, yet again.