GAA TV Deal Renewal

BonnieSituation

Sean Cunniffe on The Last Word moaning for the man up the mountain.

3 year deal is up now.

What do we think?

I hope Sky keep it up.

Grueller

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Sean Cunniffe on The Last Word moaning for the man up the mountain.

3 year deal is up now.

What do we think?

I hope Sky keep it up.

I hope not. Many people like myself do not have a sky subscription and can't see some matches. The GAA has a volunteer ethos, I sell tickets, play hurling and football, coach under 6 & 8 teams, am PRO of my club and feel that anyone like myself who cannot afford a €700 per year subscription has been let down by the sky deal regardless of the quality of punditry offered.

Fr Tod Umptious

All depends on Sky's subscription numbers.

If they meet their targets they will bid again if not they wonty

BonnieSituation

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

All depends on Sky's subscription numbers.

If they meet their targets they will bid again if not they wonty

True enough.

But disregarding this, I hope they stay.

Especially cos I can't get Eir broadband where I live.

BonnieSituation

Grueller wrote: »

I hope not. Many people like myself do not have a sky subscription and can't see some matches. The GAA has a volunteer ethos, I sell tickets, play hurling and football, coach under 6 & 8 teams, am PRO of my club and feel that anyone like myself who cannot afford a €700 per year subscription has been let down by the sky deal regardless of the quality of punditry offered.

This poor mouth spiel is fierce grating.

MORE games are on TV now as a result of the Sky deal.

There are games being shown that you wouldn't have been on TV anyway. Namely qualifiers. The argument is brutal to be honest. And sure, travel to the games if they're so precious.

threeball

BonnieSituation wrote: »

This poor mouth spiel is fierce grating.

MORE games are on TV now as a result of the Sky deal.

There are games being shown that you wouldn't have been on TV anyway. Namely qualifiers. The argument is brutal to be honest. And sure, travel to the games if they're so precious.

That's simply not true. Those games were already being shown by tv3 and would be shown by whom ever won the rights to the second package. Sky have zero in influence on how many games are shown, that's already decided before bidding even starts.

PTH2009

Id love if everyone got piece

RTE the main provider

Sky 2nd biggest provider

Tv3 and Tg4 to get a few matches. Early round Qualifers etc.

I think the league should get more tv time with RTE maybe showing a live game every weekend alongside TG4 (who are excellent with there coverage)

Virgin customers are rightly being ****ed over with BT/Eir sports being gone from the package. No Saturday night league games for us

howiya

Grueller wrote: »

I hope not. Many people like myself do not have a sky subscription and can't see some matches. The GAA has a volunteer ethos, I sell tickets, play hurling and football, coach under 6 & 8 teams, am PRO of my club and feel that anyone like myself who cannot afford a €700 per year subscription has been let down by the sky deal regardless of the quality of punditry offered.

That's nonsense to be fair. People did all of those things for their clubs before matches were widely available on TV.

Why do you expect free TV coverage in return? Why do you not look for free intercounty jerseys, match tickets etc? Why is it the TV coverage that you feel should be free?

Mantis Toboggan

Aren't all the gaa matches on Sky now on the free channel?

bruschi

Grueller wrote: »

I hope not. Many people like myself do not have a sky subscription and can't see some matches. The GAA has a volunteer ethos, I sell tickets, play hurling and football, coach under 6 & 8 teams, am PRO of my club and feel that anyone like myself who cannot afford a €700 per year subscription has been let down by the sky deal regardless of the quality of punditry offered.

you do not have to spend €700 per year to get the games. You can get special subscriptions for monthly periods or even online.

To be honest, I hate the whole "volunteer so I should get it for free" thing. Sure why should we pay into games if that is the case? things cost money, we pay for a TV license fee as well.

I think it goes into a whole social effect in Ireland of a real sense of entitlement to things. Up to 20 years ago, the only games on live were All Ireland semi finals and finals with some provincial finals too. If there are 8 games or whatever it is on sky, then is it that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things? the whole poor mouth and think of the 80 year old man out in the mountains spiel that we are getting is really nonsense.

Just as an aside, I do not have a sky subscription.

And also, the standard of RTE's productions are getting worse. The quality of the punditry is awful, commentating, choice of games and the sunday game highlights editing in terms of games being shown and volume of action to talk is all on the wrong side of average. If nothing else, I was hoping that the introduction of sky to the market would improve RTE, it seems to have made not a jot of a difference.

Uncle Ben

bruschi wrote: »

you do not have to spend €700 per year to get the games. You can get special subscriptions for monthly periods or even online.

To be honest, I hate the whole "volunteer so I should get it for free" thing. Sure why should we pay into games if that is the case? things cost money, we pay for a TV license fee as well.

I think it goes into a whole social effect in Ireland of a real sense of entitlement to things. Up to 20 years ago, the only games on live were All Ireland semi finals and finals with some provincial finals too. If there are 8 games or whatever it is on sky, then is it that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things? the whole poor mouth and think of the 80 year old man out in the mountains spiel that we are getting is really nonsense.

Just as an aside, I do not have a sky subscription.

And also, the standard of RTE's productions are getting worse. The quality of the punditry is awful, commentating, choice of games and the sunday game highlights editing in terms of games being shown and volume of action to talk is all on the wrong side of average. If nothing else, I was hoping that the introduction of sky to the market would improve RTE, it seems to have made not a jot of a difference.

The punditry on both Rte and Sky are equally sh1te.

shmeee

bruschi wrote: »

you do not have to spend €700 per year to get the games. You can get special subscriptions for monthly periods or even online.

To be honest, I hate the whole "volunteer so I should get it for free" thing. Sure why should we pay into games if that is the case? things cost money, we pay for a TV license fee as well.

I think it goes into a whole social effect in Ireland of a real sense of entitlement to things. Up to 20 years ago, the only games on live were All Ireland semi finals and finals with some provincial finals too. If there are 8 games or whatever it is on sky, then is it that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things? the whole poor mouth and think of the 80 year old man out in the mountains spiel that we are getting is really nonsense.

Fully agree.

Only until recently not many games were shown on TV.

I hate this bull**** that we should get the games for free. Why should we?

I heard no one complaining about Setanta having the League games for years, only when sky entered the market, the regular Joe kicked up a stink.

And if you want to see the games on sky bad enough it ain't rocket science to find a link to them online.

BonnieSituation

Wahey. I'm not alone.

nice_guy80

I don't like having to go to the pub on a Saturday to watch a game

Only problem is, the money from the deal helps the GAA at every level

adrian522

Can you get an online pass for €10 or something like that if you really want to watch the game? I'm sure you could also get a sub for June and July if you really wanted to see every game possible (but without actually going to the games).

klairondavis

I can understand the reasons people have for opposing the Sky deal but I have to admit that their gaelic games output is way better than RTÉ who seem to treat GAA coverage as an inconvenience. This year we've had The Sunday Game switched to RTÉ 1 with half time analysis interrupted by the Nuacht and the News for the Deaf. On several occasions they've cut back to the match for the start of the second half and the ball has already been thrown in. I can't ever imagine RTÉ doing this for a Six Nations match.

The RTÉ analysis of football moreso than hurling has become increasingly stale and at times tabloid (Brolly!). The main commentators are poor with the exception of Maloney and don't get me started on Martin Carney and Tommy Carr's contributions. The Sky deal should have been the kick up the backside RTÉ needed to improve their coverage but if anything it has gotten worse.

TG4 do a fantastic job on a limited budget.

The Lost Sheep

Grueller wrote: »

I hope not. Many people like myself do not have a sky subscription and can't see some matches. The GAA has a volunteer ethos, I sell tickets, play hurling and football, coach under 6 & 8 teams, am PRO of my club and feel that anyone like myself who cannot afford a €700 per year subscription has been let down by the sky deal regardless of the quality of punditry offered.

All sports have a volunteer ethos to a large extent but that doesn't mean sporting organisations can turn down companies who are willing to pay for covering games because they are a satellite subscription service.
That is great for you that you do all those things but you don't have to pay €700 or anything near that to watch sky

BonnieSituation wrote: »

This poor mouth spiel is fierce grating.

MORE games are on TV now as a result of the Sky deal.

There are games being shown that you wouldn't have been on TV anyway. Namely qualifiers. The argument is brutal to be honest. And sure, travel to the games if they're so precious.

There isn't more games though isn't it the same package as TV3 had???

PTH2009 wrote: »

Id love if everyone got piece

RTE the main provider

Sky 2nd biggest provider

Tv3 and Tg4 to get a few matches. Early round Qualifers etc.

I think the league should get more tv time with RTE maybe showing a live game every weekend alongside TG4 (who are excellent with there coverage)

Virgin customers are rightly being ****ed over with BT/Eir sports being gone from the package. No Saturday night league games for us

I don't think that will happen and will RTE want to show the league considering they already have a lot of sport during large parts of the league with rugby and 6Ns and don't want morel.

ArmaniJeanss

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

There isn't more games though isn't it the same package as TV3 had???

Its a very different package. There were very few qualifiers shown in the previous TV deals, one year in the first two rounds of qualifiers there was only one game (out of the total of 16) shown live on TV3&RTE combined. The Sky package fixed this hole with them showing a game in nearly every qualifier gameweek (from both A and B sides of the draw) and sometimes double headers.
Also noteworthy that Sky get shared coverage of the AI semifinals and finals which wasn't part of the previous deal, TV3 was finished for the season once their two exclusive football quarter finals had ended.

shockframe

bruschi wrote: »

If there are 8 games or whatever it is on sky, then is it that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things? the whole poor mouth and think of the 80 year old man out in the mountains spiel that we are getting is really nonsense.

I wonder would the same man who was 55 in 1991 be happy with the 9/10 games on live back then than the 50+ games on this year?

O Riain

I live in the UK and the sky sports deal has been a life saver with regards to watching Garlic Games. People are so narrow minded it's beyond belief, our games are now openly accessible to everyone in the UK and Irish people living abroad.

Also! GAAGO charges 15 for a game but I can get a whole entire day of sky sports for 7.99 with now TV!!

I can watch the game again on GAAGO though...

Atlantic Dawn

adrian522 wrote: »

Can you get an online pass for €10 or something like that if you really want to watch the game? I'm sure you could also get a sub for June and July if you really wanted to see every game possible (but without actually going to the games).

Not in Ireland or the UK as RTÉ have rights for Ireland and Sky have rights for the UK.

howiya

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Not in Ireland or the UK as RTÉ have rights for Ireland and Sky have rights for the UK.

You're confusing GAAGO with the Sky Sports Day Pass

Dyr

I dont have sky and dont intend paying for it just to watch GAA matches, it deffo has restricted the amount of games that I'd watch live. Is there an option to pay for individual games? I dunno

TG4 do a good job for a small outfit in my book


Watching a game for the pundits..bit weird in my book.

seligehgit

Uncle Ben wrote: »

The punditry on both Rte and Sky are equally sh1te.

Can't agree with that,the football punditry on SKY is excellent...I really enjoy McGuinness,Horan and Canavan.

Decent Skin

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Sean Cunniffe on The Last Word moaning for the man up the mountain.

3 year deal is up now.

What do we think?

I hope Sky keep it up.

Sky's coverage of hurling is/was dire, with the cameras incapable of keeping up with the sliothar, and their habit of pushing up their prices until you threaten to leave is ridiculous; they rely on inertia.

It's easy for them to fork out amounts that win contracts when they charge extra for their channels, and even when you subscribe to SS1 & 2 on mobile they move the stuff you want to watch on to 5 and show cricket or some such rubbish on SS1.

If they had the channels split into dedicated channels - like they manage to do for F1 - then I might consider subscribing to one or two, but as it is I've no interest in helping them outbid other channels, as that is counterproductive and reduces the chances of the matches being on a non-premium channel.

Decent Skin

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Aren't all the gaa matches on Sky now on the free channel?

What free channel ???

Kneebreaker

O Riain wrote: »

I live in the UK and the sky sports deal has been a life saver with regards to watching Garlic Games. People are so narrow minded it's beyond belief, our games are now openly accessible to everyone in the UK and Irish people living abroad.

Also! GAAGO charges 15 for a game but I can get a whole entire day of sky sports for 7.99 with now TV!!

I can watch the game again on GAAGO though...

How has the deal been a lifesaver? Premier Sports used to show all the games for a tenner a month. You could watch online or add the channel to your cable package.

GAAGO is a poor service and paying for a day pass on NowTV or a monthly subscription to Sky Sports is in no way an improvement on the substantially cheaper service that was there for years.

If anything I felt the Sky deal was a particular two fingers to UK gaels.

howiya

Kneebreaker wrote: »

How has the deal been a lifesaver? Premier Sports used to show all the games for a tenner a month. You could watch online or add the channel to your cable package.

GAAGO is a poor service and paying for a day pass on NowTV or a monthly subscription to Sky Sports is in no way an improvement on the substantially cheaper service that was there for years.

If anything I felt the Sky deal was a particular two fingers to UK gaels.

Some UK based gaels will actually be saving money in that they already had Sky Sports and now don't require an additional subscription to Premier Sports

Fr Tod Umptious

howiya wrote: »

Some UK based gaels will actually be saving money in that they already had Sky Sports and now don't require an additional subscription to Premier Sports

And that's why Sky got in the game, to get those UK gales (Christ I sound like Brolly now) to hold on to the sports sub during the summer.

I think the Sky free channel the other poster was talking about is a new channel that will be free with any Sky sub that will show sports that are usually on the Sky Sports channels, so the odd EPL game, golf event, F1 race etc.

enricoh

Used to annoy me as I hadn't sky, until I found modbro - now I couldn't care less!

Kneebreaker

howiya wrote: »

Some UK based gaels will actually be saving money in that they already had Sky Sports and now don't require an additional subscription to Premier Sports

How? They also need to pay a subscription to GAAGO or €10 for individual matches not on sky. With Premier Sports every game was a tenner a month.

The cost and value of premier sports for 4 months with every game was substantially less than a GAAGO subscription and a Sky sub (even if you already had Sky)

In what way has accessing football or hurling improved for people in the UK? The Sky deal was sold as a great result for foreign gaels but in fact has just upped the cost with zero improvement in the quality of the service

howiya

Kneebreaker wrote: »

How? They also need to pay a subscription to GAAGO or €10 for individual matches not on sky. With Premier Sports every game was a tenner a month.

The cost and value of premier sports for 4 months with every game was substantially less than a GAAGO subscription and a Sky sub (even if you already had Sky)

In what way has accessing football or hurling improved for people in the UK? The Sky deal was sold as a great result for foreign gaels but in fact has just upped the cost with zero improvement in the quality of the service

You say they need to but they don't need to. They choose to. Some will be happy with Sky's content and won't pay for GAAGO.

I can only relate to my own family's experience. They had Sky already and now they get GAA games at no extra cost so they're happy out

Mantis Toboggan

Decent Skin wrote: »

What free channel ???

Sky sports mix

Decent Skin

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Sky sports mix

Thanks! The thread raised my curiosity so did a search on it; hadn't heard a thing about it!

howiya

Decent Skin wrote: »

Thanks! The thread raised my curiosity so did a search on it; hadn't heard a thing about it!

If you're with Virgin Media it's their replacement for the free Setanta/Eir channel that they no longer have

ProudDUB

I'm no fan of the Sky deal, especially as they had two of Dublins games this year, but some of the costings being tossed around here are absolutely daft imo.

threeball

If the Gaa had any vision they should do a deal with a FTA channel for Ireland and take GAAGO back under their own control where they could offer a worldwide package of games from the league through to championship with extras such as interviews, review shows etc. for €100 - €150 per year. It would get a large subscription base abroad and even here in Ireland which would eventually dwarf the current TV money they receive.
I believe they'd get more money from Ireland alone on a model like this than all the TV deals put together.

howiya

threeball wrote: »

If the Gaa had any vision they should do a deal with a FTA channel for Ireland and take GAAGO back under their own control where they could offer a worldwide package of games from the league through to championship with extras such as interviews, review shows etc. for €100 - €150 per year. It would get a large subscription base abroad and even here in Ireland which would eventually dwarf the current TV money they receive.
I believe they'd get more money from Ireland alone on a model like this than all the TV deals put together.

11.3 million currently earned from TV according to a Martin Breheny article in the Indo in February.

That figure should increase as part of the next deal.

But based on your €100 pricing and the current value of media income you would need 100,000 households to subscribe to match the 11.3 million which is a complete fantasy as nowhere near that number would subscribe.

If the content was produced by the GAA you would also be looking at increase costs too.

threeball

howiya wrote: »

11.3 million currently earned from TV according to a Martin Breheny article in the Indo in February.

That figure should increase as part of the next deal.

But based on your €100 pricing and the current value of media income you would need 100,000 households to subscribe to match the 11.3 million which is a complete fantasy as nowhere near that number would subscribe.

If the content was produced by the GAA you would also be looking at increase costs too.

So you reckon you couldn't get 100,000 subscribers worldwide? I think you'd get close to that in Ireland alone before you go near expats. Plus you're ignoring the main TV deal which would be worth between 4-5 million.

Fr Tod Umptious

threeball wrote: »

So you reckon you couldn't get 100,000 subscribers worldwide? I think you'd get close to that in Ireland alone before you go near expats. Plus you're ignoring the main TV deal which would be worth between 4-5 million.

But you could never run a online broadcast and a regular TV broadcast in Ireland

Who would pay 150 a year for games that were already on TV

And what broadcaster would pay for rights that would be available in parallel on another medium

threeball

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But you could never run a online broadcast and a regular TV broadcast in Ireland

Who would pay 150 a year for games that were already on TV

And what broadcaster would pay for rights that would be available in parallel on another medium

Not all games would be on TV just like all games aren't now. The gaago service could carry most of the rest of the games which plenty would be happy to pay for. Add classic games, interviews, podcast like shows and preview and review shows and plenty would fork out 150 euro. Most additional content would have little to no cost. Add in sponsors who would want their brand on the service and there's more money to be made.
NFL do it, nba, ufc etc. Gaa should be positioning themselves for a similar service.

ProudDUB

The NFL & NBA do not have an exclusive broadcasting channel for their own games. They do have some of them on subscription based services, but for the average fan, there are still more than enough games airing on regular telly stations. It's not a valid comparison.

threeball

ProudDUB wrote: »

The NFL & NBA do not have an exclusive broadcasting channel for their own games. They do have some of them on subscription based services, but for the average fan, there are still more than enough games airing on regular telly stations. It's not a valid comparison.

So what are NFL game pass, nba league pass and ufc fight pass in that case.

ProudDUB

Dunno about the ufc, but the other two are telly season tickets to watch any game, in any city, at any time. But the broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, FOX etc) & cable networks (ESPN, TBS, TNT, WGN etc) still have A LOT of games for people to watch. When I lived in Atlanta, I never had the NBA or the NFL season pass. Nor did I ever subscribe to Direct TV. I still had no problem watching plenty of Braves, Falcons & Hawks games, as well as other non Atlanta franchise games.

The US sports scene is massive entity, with lots of different stakeholders & a massive population to bank roll it all. Little ole Ireland just doesn't have that, so it's not a valid comparison imo.

Paulzx

Bambi wrote: »

Watching a game for the pundits..bit weird in my book.

I agree. I couldn't give a sh@$e who or what the pundits are saying. I only want to see the match and can make up my own mind on what's happening.

Fr Tod Umptious

threeball wrote: »

So what are NFL game pass, nba league pass and ufc fight pass in that case.

Gamepass is not available in the US, heck the games that are on Sky are not even available here in Ireland or the UK.

And I don't think you can be comparing the NFL with the GAA

The NFL is a hugely popular, bulti-billion dollar league. Where Gamepass is available it's not cheap, e160 more in some places, maybe a little less in others.

But you get really good stuff for that
The NFL is a very "condensed" season, every game is important to a lot of people and to the outcome of the league
Plus the professional nature of the game allows for all the ancillary stuff, Hard Knocks, player interviews, the combine, the draft etc

You are not going to get the same uptake from GAA
Feck all people are interested in Louth v Antrim in a 1st round qualifier.
And you do not have enough ancillary content to fill the gaps.

howiya

threeball wrote: »

So what are NFL game pass, nba league pass and ufc fight pass in that case.

Neither NFL Game Pass or the NBA League Pass are available in the United States. A bit like GAAGO here...

howiya

threeball wrote: »

So you reckon you couldn't get 100,000 subscribers worldwide? I think you'd get close to that in Ireland alone before you go near expats. Plus you're ignoring the main TV deal which would be worth between 4-5 million.

You said in Ireland. Maybe you would get them worldwide.

The main TV deal would have little worth if games could be watched somewhere else. You're just making up figures with your 4-5 million

threeball

ProudDUB wrote: »

Dunno about the ufc, but the other two are telly season tickets to watch any game, in any city, at any time. But the broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, FOX etc) & cable networks (ESPN, TBS, TNT, WGN etc) still have A LOT of games for people to watch. When I lived in Atlanta, I never had the NBA or the NFL season pass. Nor did I ever subscribe to Direct TV. I still had no problem watching plenty of Braves, Falcons & Hawks games, as well as other non Atlanta franchise games.

The US sports scene is massive entity, with lots of different stakeholders & a massive population to bank roll it all. Little ole Ireland just doesn't have that, so it's not a valid comparison imo.

And a broadcast network would still have the main games here but you could then access lesser matches and other content on the GAAGo service. Its a perfectly valid comparison. No one is expecting 10 million subscribers but 100,000 is more than achievable and will provide a far greater revenue stream than any tv company will pay while simultaneously giving people the world over the opportunity to watch Gaelic games as it suits them and not have to fork out €60 a month to a subscription channel.
Are you saying that is the GAA had a service with games that weren't on TV, had classic GAA games etc etc. you wouldn't sign up to it for €100-€150?

Fr Tod Umptious

threeball wrote: »

And a broadcast network would still have the main games here but you could then access lesser matches and other content on the GAAGo service. Its a perfectly valid comparison. No one is expecting 10 million subscribers but 100,000 is more than achievable and will provide a far greater revenue stream than any tv company will pay while simultaneously giving people the world over the opportunity to watch Gaelic games as it suits them and not have to fork out €60 a month to a subscription channel.
Are you saying that is the GAA had a service with games that weren't on TV, had classic GAA games etc etc. you wouldn't sign up to it for €100-€150?

No one is going to pay €100 to €150 for what you describe.

Cosmo Kramer

Well Rachel Wyse's tweet a couple of weeks ago certainly made it sound like Sky won't be involved after this year. That's a shame as their coverage is way ahead of anything RTE produce. However, I'd say very few subscribed to Sky for their GAA coverage, they probably get far more takeup for their Rugby League and cricket.

Personally I'd like to see the whole thing taken off RTE for a few years to wake them up a bit, their coverage of the football is a disgrace. If Sky are gone, maybe split it between TV 3 and TG4 for a while, they both take or have taken their coverage more seriously for the games that they have had. Most likely RTE will retain the main rights though, the 'true gaels' that won't pay for Sky wouldn't have it any other way.