The official Sky Sports GAA Thread!

threeball

Undecided

Pure luck that it landed on an internationals weekend rather than a premier**** one

Kermit.de.frog

Not sure really where to put this but good article on the GAA

http://www.newstatesman.com/sport/2014/09/inflexible-nationalism-sky-sports-ireland-s-gaelic-games-have-come-long-way

Big Wex fan

No

Any idea of UK viewership figures today on sky for the hurling final?
What a game! - best ad possible to promote the game!

emmetlego

No

Can't find it now, but there was a great picture of a heap of reactions on twitter from the British audience…. All in awe of the game today!

Brian017

emmetlego wrote: »

Can't find it now, but there was a great picture of a heap of reactions on twitter from the British audience…. All in awe of the game today!

http://twitter.com/MikeHogan4FM/status/508632988142563329

emmetlego

No

That's the one… Thanks a chara

dastardly00

No

I heard Jamesie O'Connor on Newstalk after the match and he said that a few of the big-wigs from Sky were in Croke Park for the final. He said they were absolutely blown away watching the match.

Roquentin

No

dastardly00 wrote: »

I heard Jamesie O'Connor on Newstalk after the match and he said that a few of the big-wigs from Sky were in Croke Park for the final. He said they were absolutely blown away watching the match.

Just imagine: The Barclays GAA Hurling Championship: pac:

Roquentin

No

dastardly00 wrote: »

I heard Jamesie O'Connor on Newstalk after the match and he said that a few of the big-wigs from Sky were in Croke Park for the final. He said they were absolutely blown away watching the match.

they couldnt have picked a better game.

threeball

Undecided

dastardly00 wrote: »

I heard Jamesie O'Connor on Newstalk after the match and he said that a few of the big-wigs from Sky were in Croke Park for the final. He said they were absolutely blown away watching the match.

Surely they would be fairly well clued in before they bought the rights, its not like they rocked up and thought "holy sh*t look what we bought"

RoyalCelt

No

threeball wrote: »

Surely they would be fairly well clued in before they bought the rights, its not like they rocked up and thought "holy sh*t look what we bought"

In fairness it would have been their Irish born management and advisor that would have advised on the move to buy the GAA rights.

They would have did it from an Irish subscriber point of view but after the UK reception (for hurling mainly) they can see it being good on both sides of the water whether it be British or Irish people living in the UK.

Delighted they got an exceptional final because I was saying a few months ago it's a pity they didn't start last year or the year before for the other drawn finals. But this completely makes up for it and is on par with the cork/clare final.

And on the tweets apart from a few loyalist bigots when the deal was announced I've seen nothing but positive/funny comments from the brits.

RoyalCelt

No

It's also nice to have a formal/professional to RTE's panel. It gets a bit tiring at times and you can only listen to marty blow his load so many times. I still love RTE but you have to be in a good mood to listen to their panel especially the football side of things.

RoyalCelt

No

threeball wrote: »

Surely they would be fairly well clued in before they bought the rights, its not like they rocked up and thought "holy sh*t look what we bought"

In fairness it would have been their Irish born management and advisor that would have advised on the move to buy the GAA rights.

They would have did it from an Irish subscriber point of view but after the UK reception (for hurling mainly) they can see it being good on both sides of the water whether it be British or Irish people living in the UK.

Delighted they got an exceptional final because I was saying a few months ago it's a pity they didn't start last year or the year before for the other drawn finals. But this completely makes up for it and is on par with the cork/clare final.

And on the tweets apart from a few loyalist bigots when the deal was announced I've seen nothing but positive/funny comments from the brits.

dastardly00

No

threeball wrote: »

Surely they would be fairly well clued in before they bought the rights, its not like they rocked up and thought "holy sh*t look what we bought"

Huh? What do you mean?

RoyalCelt

No

dastardly00 wrote: »

Huh? What do you mean?

he's basically saying that they would have known about hurling before they bought the rights. it's not like they just went "looks like the irish like hurling let's buy that" and then just found out today that it was actually good.

munchkin_utd

No

just looking at the schedules and the GAA final stages seem to be getting a more prominent position all right.
Re-showing of the game is at 3pm on sky 2 today, and the highlights show then for an hour on sky sports 2 on Wednesday at 7pm (and again at 10pm on SS3)

Kermit.de.frog

I wonder do sky do well out of the replays or would they rather not have replays given it must be expensive enough showing just one game?


Anyone any thoughts on that?

Boom__Boom

No

RoyalCelt wrote: »

It's also nice to have a formal/professional to RTE's panel. It gets a bit tiring at times and you can only listen to marty blow his load so many times. I still love RTE but you have to be in a good mood to listen to their panel especially the football side of things.

yeah it's great to have more of a choice - the Brolly and Spillane Punch and Judy show can get very boring with the lads more interested in scoring points and stroking their egos than giving actual insights.

Rebus2013

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

I wonder do sky do well out of the replays or would they rather not have replays given it must be expensive enough showing just one game?


Anyone any thoughts on that?

Considering they spent 1.6billion on new premiership deal, I'd say its non issue.

Boom__Boom

No

RoyalCelt wrote: »

he's basically saying that they would have known about hurling before they bought the rights. it's not like they just went "looks like the irish like hurling let's buy that" and then just found out today that it was actually good.

I'd imagine that seeing the whole atmosphere and the buzz about the final and being around Croker in person for the first time and seeing two such decent games is a completely different kettle of fish compared to just reading some report about likely viewership and percentage of marker share.

Rebus2013

threeball wrote: »

Surely they would be fairly well clued in before they bought the rights, its not like they rocked up and thought "holy sh*t look what we bought"

I think they'd have had some awareness, more likely from business perspective.
From being there first hand and appreciating it as a sport, I'd assume they'd have been blow away like most foreign first timers. Will help no doubt in future years as sky GAA dept look for bigger promo spend and greater prominence on SS1 etc.
As a spectacle, it offers a new sport of highest calibre to sell subscriptions.
Long term, I see hurling being a signifigant tourist attraction.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Rebus2013 wrote: »

I think they'd have had some awareness, more likely from business perspective.
From being there first hand and appreciating it as a sport, I'd assume they'd have been blow away like most foreign first timers. Will help no doubt in future years as sky GAA dept look for bigger promo spend and greater prominence on SS1 etc.
As a spectacle, it offers a new sport of highest calibre to sell subscriptions.
Long term, I see hurling being a signifigant tourist attraction.

Are there enough big games for hurling for it to be a big tourist attraction.There would need to be a complete structure change which will take donkeys years to happen.

I can see how pro soccer and big sports in America can be good tourist attractions but I don't think many people will want to go to a half filled Croke Park/Thurles for early round matches.Sport as a way of attracting tourists is as much about the occasion as the quality of the sport on display.

dastardly00

No

RoyalCelt wrote: »

he's basically saying that they would have known about hurling before they bought the rights. it's not like they just went "looks like the irish like hurling let's buy that" and then just found out today that it was actually good.

What I took from what Jamesie O'Connor said was that the Sky chiefs were blown away by the particular quality of yesterday's match (just like all of us). Not the fact that it was a hurling match and they were watching it for the first time.

kksaints

munchkin_utd wrote: »

just looking at the schedules and the GAA final stages seem to be getting a more prominent position all right.
Re-showing of the game is at 3pm on sky 2 today, and the highlights show then for an hour on sky sports 2 on Wednesday at 7pm (and again at 10pm on SS3)

Thats possibly because of the international football weekend and the fact that the English cricket team's season has just finished so there is less replays or highlights of both to be shown also with 5 sky sport channels now and at least with Sky Sports 5 dedicated to international football there is somewhat less competition for the GAA sports at the moment.

Kermit.de.frog

Would I be overly cynical in suggesting that Sky feel the hurling is the most likely sport to gain a following in the UK? Gaelic football is good but they have soccer whereas hurling is something completely new and more exciting in my opinion. I love Gaelic football too btw.

Basically they might feel they will take low enough UK viewers for a couple of seasons but know instinctively it's a sport that could gain traction there with exposure. I wouldn't be too sure about the football in comparison.

GerB40

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Would I be overly cynical in suggesting that Sky feel the hurling is the most likely sport to gain a following in the UK? Gaelic football is good but they have soccer whereas hurling is something completely new and more exciting in my opinion. I love Gaelic football too btw.

Basically they might feel they will take low enough UK viewers for a couple of seasons but know instinctively it's a sport that could gain traction there with exposure. I wouldn't be too sure about the football in comparison.

When the Sky/GAA deal was made I assumed gaelic football would be the sport to take off across the Irish sea, due to their obvious football (soccer) history.. I'm pleasantly surprised hurling has become somewhat popular in the U.K. and I think this is down to two things..


1: Novelty. The truth is that a lot of people outside of Ireland have never seen anything like hurling. When people hear "It's like mixing hockey and (murder/rioting/whatever) their initial reaction would be to think of hockey. An alright sport on ice but nothing particularly special. Lots of people 'cross the pond just stumbled upon hurling and, with no great expectation, seemed to love it.


2: This season. I'm from a predominantly hurling county so I'll try to be impartial here. This season has been exceptional in both hurling and football and, in my opinion, a better season couldn't be scripted to sell to another country. Will every season be as exciting? I doubt it, but both codes (not forgetting ladies football and camogie) seem to be improving by the year.

I think hurlings success mainly boils down to the novelty of seeing lads pour their heart and soul out on the pitch for nothing more than pride in their jersey. When you consider the vulgar amount footballers get paid weekly this wouldn't be a surprise.
After a couple of years I'd imagine and hurling and football viewership would even itself out.

Edit: I'd also add that most soccer fans would probably feel nostalgic about the days when footballers were tough and would take a hit, give it back and carry on with game rather than roll around the ground like they've been shot.
In that sense, hurling and football both have that 'toughness' that's been lacking in soccer for a while now..

Dirty Dingus McGee

I think if the GAA seriously wanted to get the sports to take off abroad they might have a better chance with football (certainly as a sport to play) as at a basic level it easier to start playing and alot of people will already have indirectly picked up football skills from playing other sports.I think in order for a sport to really become popular people would have to get a love of it from a young age through playing as the novelty can ware off very soon with a new sport and in general long term love of a sport starts with playing it and then turns into to being a spectator.

It would be interesting to know if GAA clubs in the UK have seen an increase in people enquiriing about playing the sports after seeing them on Sky this year.

Also any positive reaction whch both sports seem to have gotten so far should be tempered by realising that Sky has a tiny audience share in the UK and 99% of people probably haven't seen any GAA this year in the UK.

Kermit.de.frog

437,000 watched the hurling final in the UK according to the Irish Independent. Seems decent enough.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

437,000 watched the hurling final in the UK according to the Irish Independent. Seems decent enough.

Thats a veyr good figure.Sky sports 1 obviously has a much bigger viewership than their other channels.The football final won't get anywhere near as many as it won't be on the main channel and there are some big permier leage matches on Sky that day.The hurling final was lucky in that there was nothing clashing with it.

darsheblows

Just to add to the benefits of skys GAA coverage.
I walked up Jones's road after the match on Sunday alongside Rachel Wyse ... I didn't think anything could top my excitement after the game .. I was wrong.