Free To Air.

Xenophile

I fully support the motion.

On Monday night the Kerry County Board passed a motion calling on all games to be kept on free-to-air, non-subscription stations.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2015/1208/752132-kerry-backs-call-for-free-to-air-television-games/

Fr Tod Umptious

The last year of the current deal is 2016.

So next year or early 2017 we will know about who is carrying from 2017 onwards.

Sky will not continue if they are not seeing the expected increase in subs and the GAA may not be willing to sell to Sky for more or less the same price as TV3 if they are not seeing an increase in UK interest.

Dirty Dingus McGee

RTE cost €160 per year so they don't really count as Free To Air either.

Don't see the big fuss about having games on subscription stations. You have to pay to go to matches so why the massive objection if a game happens to be on a TV channel you have to pay for.

kneemos

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

RTE cost €160 per year so they don't really count as Free To Air either.

Don't see the big fuss about having games on subscription stations. You have to pay to go to matches so why the massive objection if a game happens to be on a TV channel you have to pay for.

Because it's an amateur game.
Countless volunteers give their time free of charge to maintain the organisation.
Putting it on a subscription channel would be a kick in the arse for these people and loyal supporters.

If they do go the Sky route I can't see how the players could continue without a cut.

Fr Tod Umptious

kneemos wrote: »

Because it's an amateur game.
Countless volunteers give their time free of charge to maintain the organisation.
Putting it on a subscription channel would be a kick in the arse for these people and loyal supporters.

If they do go the Sky route I can't see how the players could continue without a cut.

If they do go the Sky route ?

Wake up, its 2015, they have already been on Sky for 2 seasons.

And the old "its an amature game" line is the most senseless argument around this whole thing.
You have to pay to entry, programs, merchandise etc don't you ?
Just cos its amature does not mean that it can be free.

Gaygooner

RTE don't get the €160 - that's a government charge for owning a device capable of receiving a TV signal


It's FTA on RTE/TV3/TG4 or UTV Ireland

kneemos

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

If they do go the Sky route ?

Wake up, its 2015, they have already been on Sky for 2 seasons.

And the old "its an amature game" line is the most senseless argument around this whole thing.
You have to pay to entry, programs, merchandise etc don't you ?
Just cos its amature does not mean that it can be free.

You don't see anything wrong with an organisation like Sky asking people to pay to see something that is the heart and soul of many communities,played by unpaid players and run by volunteers?
If not I suggest you examine your priorities.

ProudDUB

Gaygooner wrote: »

RTE don't get the €160 - that's a government charge for owning a device capable of receiving a TV signal


It's FTA on RTE/TV3/TG4 or UTV Ireland

RTE do get the bulk of the license fee. They make a quare few bob from selling advertising on their shows, show promotions etc etc, but most of their funding comes from the license fee.

I'd very surprised if the Sky deal is renewed. The current contract will probably be allowed die a slow death & won't be renewed without much fanfare. The GAA were never going to admit they made a mistake, when the first year proved to be so controversial. The powers that be in HQ, are much too arrogant for that.

If the Sky deal was a massive success, both in terms of revenue generated for the GAA (which could be filtered down to the grass roots,) or if it built a large overseas viewing base, I could see a case for keeping it. But it hasn't done either one, so what's the point of keeping it any longer?

Initially, I was semi in favour it. I hoped that a new kid on the block broadcasting rival may shake the tired RTE set up up a bit. But we are still stuck with the Three Stooges, having the same old arguments on the Sunday Game. We are still stuck with the old fart brigade of the Ger Cannings and the Martin Carneys doing the match commentary, so not much change there either.

Dirty Dingus McGee

kneemos wrote: »

You don't see anything wrong with an organisation like Sky asking people to pay to see something that is the heart and soul of many communities,played by unpaid players and run by volunteers?
If not I suggest you examine your priorities.

But the organisation itself asks you to pay to see the games so why is it any different if Sky do it.

Only a very small percentage of games are on sky and we've had league matches on Setanta for years but nobody complained about it.

Fr Tod Umptious

kneemos wrote: »

You don't see anything wrong with an organisation like Sky asking people to pay to see something that is the heart and soul of many communities,played by unpaid players and run by volunteers?
If not I suggest you examine your priorities.

As I already said the amateur argument only makes the people who make that argument look silly.

While we are here do you see anything wrong with Setanta asking people to pay to see something for the last 14 years that is the heart and soul of many communities,played by unpaid players and run by volunteers ?

If you have, where have you been since 2003 ?.

Xenophile

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

RTE cost €160 per year so they don't really count as Free To Air either.

Don't see the big fuss about having games on subscription stations. You have to pay to go to matches so why the massive objection if a game happens to be on a TV channel you have to pay for.

Your argument is lame, the licence fee in the main goes to make programmes like RTE Investigates, for example as we saw this week on bribery and corruption.

The licence fee should not be shared with any other station. Virgin Media has just bought TV3, good luck to them, let them run it under their own steam.

Xenophile

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

While we are here do you see anything wrong with Setanta asking people to pay to see something for the last 14 years that is the heart and soul of many communities,played by unpaid players and run by volunteers ?

Yes I do, if Setanta cannot generate the necessary revenue through advertising let them stay out of it. Take a trip trough rural Ireland, the heartland of the GAA, you will knock on many doors before you will find a household with Setanta. In fact you will not even find it in 95% of Public Houses.

Fr Tod Umptious

Xenophile wrote: »

Yes I do, if Setanta cannot generate the necessary revenue through advertising let them stay out of it. Take a trip trough rural Ireland, the heartland of the GAA, you will knock on many doors before you will find a household with Setanta. In fact you will not even find it in 95% of Public Houses.

So you totally disagree with the subscription sports model.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Xenophile wrote: »

Your argument is lame, the licence fee in the main goes to make programmes like RTE Investigates, for example as we saw this week on bribery and corruption.

The licence fee should not be shared with any other station. Virgin Media has just bought TV3, good luck to them, let them run it under their own steam.

How do you know it in the main goes to produces programmes like RTE Investigates?

If RTE want to use the "we produce quality home prroduced programmes" as an argument for the license fee then they should become a proper public service station and have no more british ,soaps american comedies and drams on it anymore.What's the point of RTE showing Homeland, The Big Bang Theory etc and using tax payers money when they can easily be got elsewhere.

The people of this county are forced to pay a charge in other for RTE to be operating.At least with sky you have a choice.

Xenophile

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

The people of this county are forced to pay a charge in other for RTE to be operating.At least with sky you have a choice.

Whether you put money into Rupert Murdoch's pocket or not.

Xenophile

Well Dirty Dingus McGee,

Do you support the Kerry Motion as in the opening post ?

paddy no 11

Hope this goes through - the head of GAA threatening to further whore themselves out to sky if RTE didnt stop criticising football was absolutely sickening. Should be kept on terrestial television

ProudDUB

Xenophile wrote: »

Whether you put money into Rupert Murdoch's pocket or not.

If you are a UPC customer (or whatever they are calling themselves these days,) you are already putting money into Rupert Murdoch's pockets, as Sky News and Sky Sports News come as part of their basic package. As UPC are in over a million Irish homes, the vast majority of us already are giving Rups a good few bob every year. So it's just a question of your choosing to give him even more of your money. Or not.

Xenophile

ProudDUB wrote: »

If you are a UPC customer (or whatever they are calling themselves these days,) you are already putting money into Rupert Murdoch's pockets, as Sky News and Sky Sports News come as part of their basic package. As UPC are in over a million Irish homes, the vast majority of us already are giving Rups a good few bob every year. So it's just a question of your choosing to give him even more of your money. Or not.

Just for the record UPC are now Virgin Media, controlled by Richard Branson ! So you have at least three choices RTE, Richard Branson or Rupert Murdoch.

ProudDUB

Xenophile wrote: »

Just for the record UPC are now Virgin Media, controlled by Richard Branson ! So you have at least three choices RTE, Richard Branson or Rupert Murdoch.

I know about the UPC/Virgin thing. Their bloody ads are all over the telly. :rolleyes:

The television cable/satellite companies (such as UPC and Sky) pay tv stations to broadcast them on their network. Sometimes it is a flat fee. Some times it is a share of their advertizing revenue. Sometimes its a combination of the two.

So UPC pay the likes of RTE, BBC, Channel 4, UTV, Dave, Sky News, Discovery, E, CNN etc etc to broadcast their stations on their cable network.

Likewise, SKY pay RTE, Channel 4, UTV, Channel 4, Dave, Discovery, E, CNN etc etc to broadcast their stations on their network. Obviously, they don't pay themselves to broadcast their own stations.

So even if you are a basic UPC cable subscriber, RM is still getting your money, as every time you pay your UPC bill, some of it goes towards UPC paying for the "free" Sky channels that you get. It's up to you, whether you decide to pay for the additional sports and movie ones.

randd1

Personally, I don't care as long as more games are shown.

There's scope in the summer months with the long evenings to have two Saturday games and three Sunday games on TV. There's a big opportunity to show some of the lesser lights as well who often go barely noticed.

As it is the coverage of the GAA championships are terrible and limited.

What's sickening is that there is rarely anything decent on terrestrial TV before 8, so give them something to show and promote the games.

But of course the GAA will limit the number of games, and some will be not available to terrestrial TV, further limiting exposure.

Basically, I'd prefer games to be shown first, then on terrestrial TV second.

munchkin_utd

again a lot here are COMPLETELY missing the point. There is lots of GAA on TV, arguably too much.
This from Pauric Duffy from the congress last spring (and this is something that has been bubbling in the background from County and provinicial people for years)

He concluded his comments however by asking whether there were now too many matches being televised at a time when attendances at matches were suffering. It was , he suggested, a more important issue than the Sky deal.
Wrong issue
“We’re debating the wrong issue. The number of games on Sky is not significant. The debate needs a different direction. Is 100 live games the way to go? Attendances are less than they were 10 years ago, significantly less. We have managed to address the decline in recent years and crowds were slightly up in 2014.

“Is broadcast policy impacting on attendances and club games? We’re showing two live games every Sunday throughout the summer.

“The experience in other sports is that as TV gets better and better the idea of watching games at home becomes more and more attractive. The question becomes ‘will I go to the match, travel to the venue and buy tickets when I can sit down and watch two games on television?’

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-congress-p%C3%A1raic-duffy-says-number-of-televised-games-now-an-issue-1.2120865

I have said it before and you can read it from the comments above, if the sky deal gets the chop I would not be surprised in the least if the pay TV games simply get the chop and you go from 40FTA + 10 or so pay tv championship games to simply 40 FTA games, with a tendency over the next few packages to have less championship games on TV
People presume that if sky goes that there would be then 25% more games on FTA. I dont think that can be taken as a given.

Theres a certain beauty about the sky deal in that coverage on a Saturday evening is still there, but limited, which then means less effect on Saturday evening club games compared to having the 7pm games on RTE/ Tv3

Quackster

Xenophile wrote: »

Just for the record UPC are now Virgin Media, controlled by Richard Branson ! So you have at least three choices RTE, Richard Branson or Rupert Murdoch.

Virgin Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Global, a multinational cable company controlled by Irish-American billionaire John Malone. Prior to being bought by Liberty Global, Richard Branson had a 2% share in Virgin Media.

Liberty licences the Virgin brand from Virgin Group and, therefore, uses Richard Branson as its public face.

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has a 39% share in Sky PLC. He was recently blocked from taking full ownership of Sky.

Quackster

With TV3 now owned by Virgin Media, and UTV and Setanta shortly by ITV and Eir respectively, I think the GAA and the other major Irish sports will be in a much stronger position next time out to sell their content on a free-to-air basis for good money and not have to rely on Sky to compete with RTE for the rights.

I think we can be fairly certain that from here on in, RTE will no longer be getting things their own way.

So it would be win-win for the GAA to adopt this motion from Kerry CB, reap the positive PR and suffer little or no financial loss as a consequence.

iDave

Why wasn't this motion raised when it was first sold to Setantas paywall?

ArmaniJeanss

munchkin_utd wrote: »

again a lot here are COMPLETELY missing the point. There is lots of GAA on TV, arguably too much.
This from Pauric Duffy from the congress last spring (and this is something that has been bubbling in the background from County and provinicial people for years)


http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-congress-p%C3%A1raic-duffy-says-number-of-televised-games-now-an-issue-1.2120865

I have said it before and you can read it from the comments above, if the sky deal gets the chop I would not be surprised in the least if the pay TV games simply get the chop and you go from 40FTA + 10 or so pay tv championship games to simply 40 FTA games, with a tendency over the next few packages to have less championship games on TV
People presume that if sky goes that there would be then 25% more games on FTA. I dont think that can be taken as a given.

Theres a certain beauty about the sky deal in that coverage on a Saturday evening is still there, but limited, which then means less effect on Saturday evening club games compared to having the 7pm games on RTE/ Tv3

Yep, Skys exclusive game were largely comprised of Saturday qualifiers, often double headers, which weren't shown at all (or very little) in the previous packages.

If those games get totally taken off air then it'll be no victory for the fta people, though they'll doubtless claim it as such.

howiya

iDave wrote: »

Why wasn't this motion raised when it was first sold to Setantas paywall?

Your man in Kerry already had Setanta

howiya

Heard that tonight's Dublin convention passed a similar motion

Xenophile

howiya wrote: »

Heard that tonight's Dublin convention passed a similar motion

That's good news.

Xenophile

Of course gaago should be allowed to continue for world wide viewers. Gaago is a good idea and I have no problem with the GAA raising revenue in this manner.

https://gaago.rte.ie/

munchkin_utd

(interview with GAA President)

Commenting on a Kerry call for all championship games to be shown free-to-air (effectively ending the deal with Sky at the end of next year), ó Fearghail said that he didn't think it would be an issue for Congress and would instead be dealt with by Central Council.

"One thing is certain. There certainly won't be more games shown on TV than is currently the case because our clubs would be seriously affected. I think we have the balance about right.

"TV coverage is very important but we have to decide what's the right amount. I'd be happy enough we're doing that.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/counties-step-up-fight-to-keep-u21-championship-34287349.html

howiya

Xenophile wrote: »

Of course gaago should be allowed to continue for world wide viewers. Gaago is a good idea and I have no problem with the GAA raising revenue in this manner.

https://gaago.rte.ie/

That would contradict the wording of the motion

adrian522

Xenophile wrote: »

Of course gaago should be allowed to continue for world wide viewers. Gaago is a good idea and I have no problem with the GAA raising revenue in this manner.

https://gaago.rte.ie/

Why the big problem with Sky if you have no problem with GAA Go? Essentially the same thing, pay a subscription to watch the games.

Fr Tod Umptious

adrian522 wrote: »

Why the big problem with Sky if you have no problem with GAA Go? Essentially the same thing, pay a subscription to watch the games.

The difference is territory.

GAAGo is not available in Ireland (or in the UK for Sky games) as the rights for coverage are already covered by TV stations.

But where no TV contract is in place GAAGO is available on a paid basis.

The problem people have is with having to pay within Ireland.

That being said I did not read the motion so I don't know if there is a conflict there.

The idea of free TV coverage within Ireland is fine, but it would not be feasible to force that policy on a world wide basis.

Xenophile

adrian522 wrote: »

Why the big problem with Sky if you have no problem with GAA Go? Essentially the same thing, pay a subscription to watch the games.

Not the same thing see the above post!

adrian522

I don't think its feasible to force it here either, the GAA should be allowed be raise money any way they please. There is enough sport on FTA as it is. If people want to watch every possible game I think they should cough up the cash.

Huntergonzo

The canvassing against Gaa's Sky deal is starting early and I find it very shortsighted and unambitious. While I like to see as many games as possible on free to air tv, subscription channels do a far better job at promoting the games and getting them out to new audiences.

Anything that could potentially bring in extra revenue for the Gaa should be welcomed not avoided like the plague. The world is forever changing, there's a hell of a lot more competition from other sports out there these days and the Gaa should do their best to stay in the race, this isn't the 1970s or 1980s where there was basically nothing else to look at on a Sunday than Gaa on RTE!

munchkin_utd

Huntergonzo wrote: »

<snip>Gaa should do their best to stay in the race, this isn't the 1970s or 1980s where there was basically nothing else to look at on a Sunday than Gaa on RTE!

I'd remind the young and vociferous that until the 90s, despite there being no technical reasons for it, the only live games on TV were the all ireland semi finals and finals.
This was to "protect the gate reciepts"

Now theres 40or so FTA and 13 or so Sky championship games, plus TG4 having many dozens of games over the year in league and club plus setanta having Saturday night league games

So from 6 live games --> 100+ FTA games and a couple of dozen pay TV games over the year

Again, to repeat the bleedin obvious, theres HEAPS of GAA on FTA TV over the year, and the only controversy over something like 60 or 70 pay TV games over the past 2 years was the quarter final, and that mainly from Donegal people, and that from a county that had no issues with their Ulster Semi Final c couple of months previously being on pay tv (and from the attendance, not all that many decided to go either despite it being only a tenner admission)

ProudDUB

Huntergonzo wrote: »

The canvassing against Gaa's Sky deal is starting early and I find it very shortsighted and unambitious. While I like to see as many games as possible on free to air tv, subscription channels do a far better job at promoting the games and getting them out to new audiences.

Anything that could potentially bring in extra revenue for the Gaa should be welcomed not avoided like the plague. The world is forever changing, there's a hell of a lot more competition from other sports out there these days and the Gaa should do their best to stay in the race, this isn't the 1970s or 1980s where there was basically nothing else to look at on a Sunday than Gaa on RTE!

I agree with a lot of this in principle. Time and tide waits for no man and all that. But as to the highlighted bits, you have to look at the specifics of the deal & not just say that all progress is good, full stop.

1. Where is the new revenue? The old broadcasting deal before Sky came on board, brought in pretty much the same amount of revenue, as the new one with Sky. The GAA release their accounts every year. The total monies paid for broadcasting rights overall, is pretty much the same, as it was pre Sky.

So unless there is a substantial increase in revenue, I think questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping on Sky as a broadcast partner, especially when it is so unpopular amongst the grass roots of the organisation. I roll my eyes as much as the next person, at the "but what about the aul lad up the side of a mountain?" brigade. But they are still the grass roots of the organisation. They are its life blood & they deserve to have a voice at the table imo.

2. What are Sky doing to promote gaelic games, either here or the UK? Not much that I can see. Their viewing numbers are dropping yearly. After just a couple of years, I wouldn't expect people all across the UK, to be flocking in droves to participate in gaelic games, or to watch them. But considering Sky's very deep pockets & marketing ability, I would be expecting some sort of progress on that score. To date there is very little. So if marketing and promoting GAA games is a criteria, again, questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping Sky on.

Fr Tod Umptious

ProudDUB wrote: »

I agree with a lot of this in principle. Time and tide waits for no man and all that. But as to the highlighted bits, you have to look at the specifics of the deal & not just say that all progress is good, full stop.

1. Where is the new revenue? The old broadcasting deal before Sky came on board, brought in pretty much the same amount of revenue, as the new one with Sky. The GAA release their accounts every year. The total monies paid for broadcasting rights overall, is pretty much the same, as it was pre Sky.

So unless there is a substantial increase in revenue, I think questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping on Sky as a broadcast partner, especially when it is so unpopular amongst the grass roots of the organisation. I roll my eyes as much as the next person, at the "but what about the aul lad up the side of a mountain?" brigade. But they are still the grass roots of the organisation. They are its life blood & they deserve to have a voice at the table imo.

2. What are Sky doing to promote gaelic games, either here or the UK? Not much that I can see. Their viewing numbers are dropping yearly. After just a couple of years, I wouldn't expect people all across the UK, to be flocking in droves to participate in gaelic games, or to watch them. But considering Sky's very deep pockets & marketing ability, I would be expecting some sort of progress on that score. To date there is very little. So if marketing and promoting GAA games is a criteria, again, questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping Sky on.

With regard to all of that I think the Sky deal will not be renewed.

Sky are in it for subs, if they are not increaseing or at least holding on to subs during the EPL off season then its not in their interest to be paying for GAA.

The GAA are in it for market reach.
If its not reaching enough of the target market in the UK then you have to question is it viable.

And as others have said, if its not renewed it may not be replaced with an either.
The provincial games and QF that Sky had will go to RTE and other games will be dropped altogether.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Unfortunately it is almost certain to get passed at congress and once again highlights the shortsightedness and pointlessness of congress whereby any real issues get brushed aside and never dealt with whereas populist issues like this will be front and centre and more than likely once again any potential progress in the GAA will be stifled.

The sky deal was very small and there weren't a huge amount of matches covered by it.It was doing no harm to the GAA having the matches on sky as it allowed club matches to be on Saturdays and not have a TV game on RTE clashing with them.Thse sky deal suited the hardcore neutral intercounty fans perfectly and allowed fans who didn't want to pay to watch sky to go to a club match on the day.

Where was the uproar when league matches started being shown on Setanta?

This sky situation is yet another example of people in this country wanting something for nothing.

Stinicker

All GAA Coverage should be FTA and Saturday night league games should be taken away from Setanta also. I have no problem with broadcasters showing these and Sky and Setanta can show them away which is especially great for expats in the UK but they should not have exclusivity in Ireland, let Sky and Setanta show all the GAA they want which is great but the exact same match should be carried by RTE or TG4 terrestrially and FTA so you don't have to pay a subscription to see it here.

howiya

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

With regard to all of that I think the Sky deal will not be renewed.

Sky are in it for subs, if they are not increaseing or at least holding on to subs during the EPL off season then its not in their interest to be paying for GAA.

The GAA are in it for market reach.
If its not reaching enough of the target market in the UK then you have to question is it viable.

And as others have said, if its not renewed it may not be replaced with an either.
The provincial games and QF that Sky had will go to RTE and other games will be dropped altogether.

RTE didn't bid for the second lot of games that Sky got. They were happy with their lot.

Personally I think the structure of the TV deal will be revised for 2017 with an overall reduction in the amount of games but not by a huge percentage.

RTE will lose games unless they bid for the two packages and they won't get away with spending the same again. There will an increase in TV revenue for the GAA out of the next TV deal. Possibly up to twenty percent and for less games.

The GAA essentially had to go with Sky to maintain competition in the TV market otherwise they would have lost money compared to the previous deals. With TV3 almost on its knees at the time the GAA couldn't risk doing a three year deal with them. TG4 didn't have the money and RTE didn't bid for these games either.

Now that TV3 have a new owner they are serious about taking on RTE for sports rights and if Sky choose to remain in the market you could see a three way bidding war or even a five way bidding war depending on what UTV Ireland and Eir want to do.

Personally I have no problem with subscription TV. If I go to Croke Park I don't get to watch the match for free. As someone else said people just want everything for nothing.

howiya

Stinicker wrote: »

All GAA Coverage should be FTA and Saturday night league games should be taken away from Setanta also. I have no problem with broadcasters showing these and Sky and Setanta can show them away which is especially great for expats in the UK but they should not have exclusivity in Ireland, let Sky and Setanta show all the GAA they want which is great but the exact same match should be carried by RTE or TG4 terrestrially and FTA so you don't have to pay a subscription to see it here.

You do realise how things work in the real world? Supposing Sky or Setanta show a match, it costs them money to broadcast it. Now why would they give it to RTE/TG4 for free? Surely they're entitled to recoup their costs?

The reason these games aren't on RTE/TG4 in the first place is because they can't afford to broadcast them. Not because Sky/Setanta are the big bad wolf.

Xenophile

Stinicker wrote: »

All GAA Coverage should be FTA and Saturday night league games should be taken away from Setanta also. I have no problem with broadcasters showing these and Sky and Setanta can show them away which is especially great for expats in the UK but they should not have exclusivity in Ireland, let Sky and Setanta show all the GAA they want which is great but the exact same match should be carried by RTE or TG4 terrestrially and FTA so you don't have to pay a subscription to see it here.

I agree. The amateur ethos of the GAA is slipping away and a halt needs to be put to this slide in the most dramatic fashion! Take the GAA out of the hands of "suits", and give it back to the ordinary people of Ireland!.

Duiske

iDave wrote: »

Why wasn't this motion raised when it was first sold to Setantas paywall?

Because this motion is about championship games.

A motion from Kerry will go before next year’s GAA Annual Convention aimed at returning all live broadcast Championship matches to free-to-air television.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Stinicker wrote: »

All GAA Coverage should be FTA and Saturday night league games should be taken away from Setanta also. I have no problem with broadcasters showing these and Sky and Setanta can show them away which is especially great for expats in the UK but they should not have exclusivity in Ireland, let Sky and Setanta show all the GAA they want which is great but the exact same match should be carried by RTE or TG4 terrestrially and FTA so you don't have to pay a subscription to see it here.

So basically you want to potentially further reduce the TV coverage for the GAA. Thats a great way to promote the games.

RTE ad TG4 weren't exactly beating the door down to show any league matches on Saturday nights and people are continually whinging about TG4 broadcasting in Irish.

Nichard Dixon

This isn't only about live games. More games, or more complete sections of games could be shown during the week. One thing Setanta did do was repeat the weekend games later in the week. With Saorview RTÉ has plenty of capacity with RTÉ+1, RTÉ jr etc and some of this could be use for more coverage, even if not live.

GAAGO is good, but they show no club games at this time of year, although the coverage is available from TG4. SO TG4 is restricted and have geoblocked their service but GAAGO doesn't even allow you pay for it. There should be deals for members to watch these less popular games at a reasonable charge.

DDC1990

Nichard Dixon wrote:

GAAGO is good, but they show no club games at this time of year, although the coverage is available from TG4. SO TG4 is restricted and have geoblocked their service but GAAGO doesn't even allow you pay for it. There should be deals for members to watch these less popular games at a reasonable charge.

I watched GAA games and a rugby game in Canada and London on the TG4 website without any GeoRestrictions. Not saying that all games are open to watch but some clearly are.

iDave

Duiske wrote: »

Because this motion is about championship games.

But why just championship. It's all GAA right?

Huntergonzo

ProudDUB wrote: »

I agree with a lot of this in principle. Time and tide waits for no man and all that. But as to the highlighted bits, you have to look at the specifics of the deal & not just say that all progress is good, full stop.

1. Where is the new revenue? The old broadcasting deal before Sky came on board, brought in pretty much the same amount of revenue, as the new one with Sky. The GAA release their accounts every year. The total monies paid for broadcasting rights overall, is pretty much the same, as it was pre Sky.

So unless there is a substantial increase in revenue, I think questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping on Sky as a broadcast partner, especially when it is so unpopular amongst the grass roots of the organisation. I roll my eyes as much as the next person, at the "but what about the aul lad up the side of a mountain?" brigade. But they are still the grass roots of the organisation. They are its life blood & they deserve to have a voice at the table imo.

I would certainly agree that all progress isn't just good by default and if the Sky deal doesn't work out for either party then it won't be renewed and rightfully so.

As far as I know the Sky deal isn't bringing in extra revenue because they're paying more or less the same as TV3. I would see Sky on board simply as opportunity for growth because they can get our games out to a larger audience, so basically for me it's a punt and there's no harm in trying.

ProudDUB wrote: »

2. What are Sky doing to promote gaelic games, either here or the UK? Not much that I can see. Their viewing numbers are dropping yearly. After just a couple of years, I wouldn't expect people all across the UK, to be flocking in droves to participate in gaelic games, or to watch them. But considering Sky's very deep pockets & marketing ability, I would be expecting some sort of progress on that score. To date there is very little. So if marketing and promoting GAA games is a criteria, again, questions have to be asked about the merits of keeping Sky on.

Viewing numbers dropping yearly? To be fair they've only been showing Gaa matches for 2 years, it's hard to draw definitive conclusions after such a short period of time. I don't watch a huge amount of tv myself but when I have been watching Skysports during the championship, they were at least talking about the games and promoting them with ads, now maybe not to a huge degree but from what I remember they were at least advertising the games.