League Sunday Hurling Coverage

blue note

They showed one game FFS! The viewership figures for hurling are higher than any other sport on RTE, we have a severe lack of top quality games and when we have a full set of fixtures they show just one measly game that had already been shown that day anyway!

That's incredibly poor. I just don't understand it. I don't watch the Monday Night Soccer show they do - do they show a similar number of games? :mad:

KevIRL

blue note wrote: »

They showed one game FFS! The viewership figures for hurling are higher than any other sport on RTE, we have a severe lack of top quality games and when we have a full set of fixtures they show just one measly game that had already been shown that day anyway!

That's incredibly poor. I just don't understand it. I don't watch the Monday Night Soccer show they do - do they show a similar number of games? :mad:

Not only just showing one game, but no hurling analysis whatsoever, very poor stuff from RTE.

ProudDUB

blue note wrote: »

The viewership figures for hurling are higher than any other sport on RTE

Really? Hurling gets higher viewership figures than football, soccer and rugby? I seriously doubt that. More counties would have an interest in and would participate in football more than they would the hurling, so that is why they show more football games I'd imagine.

dartsfan

Have found the coverage a bit light this year. For example, they will have an analyst in the venue commenting on a game in another venue that they clearly didn't see. The end result is a bit of waffle before they move onto the next game.

randd1

What would you expect with that Mod Snip Ryle Nugent as head of RTE Sport? Surely you know women's rugby the Pro12 series is far more important and draws in absolutely massive viewing figures? It seems that's the way he thinks anyway.

Until the GAA grow a pair of balls and say to RTE "if you don't treat our league games with better respect, and have a minimum 1 hour highlights programme per sport, you lose a lot of your rights to the championship matches", that's the way its going to be.

The GAA have the power, through TV3 and TG4 as alternatives, to force RTE to have a decent highlights package. If only they'd use it.

KevIRL

To be fair when it comes to TV coverage the GAA shoot themselves in the foot also. The ridiculous changes made to live coverage of the qualifiers for example - only 1 game per qualifier round can be shown live, thats 1 game from both codes each round, not a game from each codes. So just when the games are actually knock out they decide to limit the coverage, even though loads of provincial games which arent end of the road knock out get shown live.

They say its to boost attendances but I would argue the the more games on TV the better the exposure and therefore better attendance.

KevIRL

randd1 wrote: »

The GAA have the power, through TV3 and TG4 as alternatives, to force RTE to have a decent highlights package. If only they'd use it.

Shudder

randd1

KevIRL wrote: »

Shudder

Shudder it may be, but if they were offering highlights of three games with analysis and a quick round-up of the score in three other games in an hour long program compared to RTE's 6/7 highlights minutes of one game with no analysis, then I'll happily shudder.

yknaa

Twitter says:

Due to a technical issue in Galway, the report from Galway v Cork did not make last night's show. Available here now http://www.rte.ie/sport/player/809/378272/ …

Fr Tod Umptious

Well OP you are incorrect if you think hurling is more popular than football, it's not.
So on a week where you have both football and hurling on you will get more football than hurling on TV

The League Sunday show on RTE is a bit like the league itself, not taken as serious as the championship.

What RTE seem to do is have a camera at one game and then take highlights from the other games that were covered on TV over the weekend by Setanta and TG4

redlead

Football is the more popular sport of the two, but the high profile hurling games consistently get higher TV viewerships than high profile football games. I don't know the reason for it but it's true. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that hurling fans are more likely to watch games not involving their own county than the average football fan. Football fans are also more likely to watch a hurling a match than a hurling fan is of watching a football match (the hurling snob factor etc.). They are mass generalisations of course.

In summary, Ryle Nugent is a d***

Nonoperational

Very disappointed not to have decent hilights from the Cork game.

Morte

I'm open to correction but I hazily recall the papers reporting that the FAI took a lower figure for the international matches in order to insist on better coverage for the League of Ireland. The GAA seemed to go the opposite way and actively reduced the number of matches shown, believing this would boost attendances. Their call but I'd obviously prefer the GAA to promote the games on tv. There should also be scope for matches to be shown on the internet that aren't on tv. TG4 or Setanta might also be interested in showing lower profile matches deferred to later in the week to fill out their schedule.

Obviously it is the hight of laziness what RTE are doing at the moment just repeating the earlier matches and not showing any footage from games that were recorded.

ProudDUB

redlead wrote: »

Football is the more popular sport of the two, but the high profile hurling games consistently get higher TV viewerships than high profile football games. I don't know the reason for it but it's true.

I'd love to see some sort of factual proof to back that up. The 2011 All Ireland Final between Dublin and Kerry got the second biggest viewership numbers of the year, not just in sporting programs, but in all programs. Only the Late Late Toy Show got more viewers. The hurling final didn't even come close.

High profile hurling games involving Kilkenny or Tipp may get high ratings, but how many games involving the other counties do? Football has far more high profile counties (Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo, Kildare, Tyrone etc etc) playing games, games that a neutral fan will tune in to watch, as well as the fans from that particular county, more than hurling does imo.

feargale

randd1 wrote: »

What would you expect with that Mod Snip Ryle Nugent as head of RTE Sport? Surely you know women's rugby the Pro12 series is far more important and draws in absolutely massive viewing figures? It seems that's the way he thinks anyway.

I view and attend more hurling than any other sport, but fair is fair. The Irish womens' rugby team did us proud - and had just one game of their successful grand slam bid, the last one, televised live. To my knowledge that was the first ever women's rugby match televised live here. Is that too much? Furthermore, it looks like they have put a women's sevens team firmly on the agenda for Rio 2016.

Mountainlad

https://twitter.com/GAAJustPlay Just saw this. Maybe it's the answer to our prayers?

adrian522

Agree with the OP the hurling coverage on league Sunday has been awful. What was wrong with a couple of analysts in the studio analysing all the matches?

I mean there are only 3 division 1A games per week.

There is one round of games left, 2 points separate top from bottom yet no mention was made of the fact that we are in for a thrilling finish next weekend.

The guy they had doing the results section actually said The hurling league is starting to taker shape.

Really starting to take shape? Thank God the lads in RTE are paying attention, I never could have figured out it would be starting to take shape going into the last weekend.

At least next week there will be no football so no excuse really not to show highlights from all the games.

cleaboy boy

Below is a response I received from RTE.


Rory O’Neill is my name.
I’m the Programme Editor for League Sunday.

It’s incumbent upon me to firstly point out a few things.

RTE do not have the rights to the league.
Our rights entitle us to show highlights only.

Unfortunately we do not have the resources at THIS TIME of the year to cover everything.
Over the weekend there was 34 matches in hurling and football in the Allianz Leagues.

It's simply not realistic to think ANY broadcaster could achieve that level of coverage.
So someone will always be left out.


As a result we have to pick the games we CAN cover bearing in mind a number of criteria

- 1. What we think the viewer will want to see
- 2. Logistics AND cost in getting the footage back to base, edited and turned around for an 8pm slot.

Walsh Park in Waterford is an especially difficult place and presents a special set of problems with the second point.


We made a valiant effort to get the Galway V Cork match turned around in time but failed.
For that I have already issued an apology.
The report is now online if you want to have a look.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/player/809/378272/



We have very limited budgets, very limited time and very limited resources at this time of the year and have to pick and choose carefully what we do.

This week our entire programme will be devoted to hurling and will include action from all three crunch Division 1A matches.
And while I understand your frustrations all I can do is assure you we are doing our level best with the limited budgets available.

Thanks
Rory O’Neill
Series Editor
League Sunday