GAA Go

Avon8

Thinks it's the lack of flexibility away from what's written that's the issue. There was a directive that all 4 provincial finals had to be shown last year, even though they're essentially meaningless, 3 of them turned out to be walkovers and the only competitive one was also shown on BBC.

The GAA had a chance to change stupid rules like that this year, increase the amount of games RTE were licensed to show etc, but have stayed exactly as they are.

So we've a situation where Limerick v Cork can't be shown because there's provincial finals, or the two football quarter finals can't be shown because they fell under the old sky package, or any more of the Sam Maguire group games can't be shown because RTE are limited to 31 games max.

How they haven't sought to change the structure of the deal, especially given that gaago is co-owned by both entities, after all the controversy and furore of last year is mind boggling

franglan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121453802#Comment_121453802

How many of those was there last year?

TheRiverman

This crap needs to boycotted in large numbers. If no one or very few subscribe they will have to scrap it. RTE and BBC NI coverage will do fine for me.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454895#Comment_121454895

I think between RTE radio and independent local radio the vast majority of championship games were covered. The only gap was when two counties within NI were playing each other, then if RTE wasn’t covering it, there wasn’t a commentary. BBC Radio Ulster don’t do many GAA matches I think.

Billy Ocean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454895#Comment_121454895

6 or 7 I think

ForestFire

Was looking at the GGAgo website....its a bit bare....maybe the admin is off work sick for an undefined amount of time!!

But on a serious note...

There is no company info, owners and/or directors, VAT number, basic About section etc.

No telephone number even.

The address is incomplete and without an Eircode (As below)!!

Is it on the RTE premises? What information do they need to provide legally or can they just keep it bare

If I sent them a mail would they have to give me any of these details?

GAAGO Media

Donnybrook

Dublin 4

Ireland.

 

Email: support@gaago.ie

elefant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454933#Comment_121454933

I don't get the feeling that there's anything close to a general level of anger with GAAGO required to make something like that realistic.

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454536#Comment_121454536

Do people not understand the new condensed GAA calendar? RTE cannot show every game. They were always gonna show provisional finals, this is in the contract AFAIK. Munster hurling falls on the same weekend so the only option is to show it on GaaGo. If Sky were still in the game they'd have picked up this game also.

2 weeks ago their was fear in Munster that, that weekend of games in the hurling championship which clashed with the divisional finals was not going to be shown anywhere, imagine the outcry then?

The schedule is absoultely packed since the spilt season so something had to give.

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121457157#Comment_121457157

It's a money making racket. Why can't they show the other games on the NewsNow channel?

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121457183#Comment_121457183

It's part of the contract, RTE show X games per week. GaaGo show X games per week. The scheduling is the issue here with the Munster games - GAA want more games, and you need other platforms tgen to show them.

Yes, RTE News Now was used before when no other option was available but when GAAGo is now available, and for a bargain price too when purchasing a yearly sub. And RTE news now is broadcast in below standard Def quality and is awful for fast moving sports BTW.

People don't know how lucky we are with the amount of content we have access to over the last number of years and it's only getting bigger. Majority of county boards now have their games behind a paywall on clubber.ie and it is an excellent service. I was down in a neighbours house in the summer, he is 80+ and was watching clubber and casting from his phone to his TV. And he is in the sticks and his internet now is barely 8mbps. But his weekends now are wall to wall gaa coverage through, clubber, TG4 and RTE. He's never been as happy.

Mantis Toboggan

Rte know the munster hurling championship is the cash cow so will offload them to PPV to increase revenue.

evolvingtipperary101

1. Is the Company still operating without the approval of the Competitor and Consumer Protection Commission.?

2.What are the Directors being Paid?

3.When Dee Forbes resigned as a Director, did she receive a severance package ? Is there a severance packages lined up for board members? Is it a set fee or percentage on profit?

4What are the total viewership per game as some are rumored to be under 1,000 viewers ?

5.With Operating Costs of €1.32m in 2021 and €1.43m in 2022,Why is the viewing experience often so poor? How was this money paid out? What fees and wages were paid to who and why?

6.What is the criteria for the selection of games to be shown on the platform ?

ForestFire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121457257#Comment_121457257

Bargain price to 3 of your county games!

I not paying to watch other counties in the early stages, and not available FTA

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121457356#Comment_121457356

It's only 4 of the 10 MHC games on GAA Go from what I can see. So presumably RTE will show 4 or 5 also (6 may not be possible with last set of games simultaneous). Like it's not ideal but it's hardly a mass offload of games to PPV - it's an even split.

Could also argue that the games likely to be on RTE are the bigger games - e.g., Limerick v Clare, Limerick v Tipperary, Cork v Tipperary so they seem to have learned from last year.

Bobson Dugnutt

Less than 100 quid to see that many matches is great values Most of them wouldn’t be on the telly anyway. It’s amusing to see shysters who on Twitter who were proudly boasting about not paying the Tv licence now complaining about more games going behind a paywall. Cant have it both ways.

roosterman71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458419#Comment_121458419

If everyone paid the TV licence it still wouldn't have influenced the decision. Don't see how linking the licence fee to GAA matches on telly can be done

TheScoringGoal

I contacted them today as I had the season pass last year and I wanted to know can those of us that had it avail of the discounted price. The response I got back was a copy and paste job (font and colour of text didn't even match the rest of the email) so I've gone back to them on this. I may be in the minority in that I would buy it for €69 but I would have a major issue if the loyalty bonus I get for signing up last year is to pay extra this year.

Billy Ocean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121457157#Comment_121457157

In that case shouldn't the number of games covered live increase along with the number of games when there had to be adjustments after sky pulling out, hypothetical example if RTE covered 30 live games out of 60 live games (50%) and now covered 30 of 100 shouldn't they renegotiate their deal to cover 50 of 100?

TheScoringGoal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458501#Comment_121458501

They have just come back to me on this and said that when renewal occurs in March they will honour the €69 with a €10 refund. I'm reading this as the standard price will be €79 but they will refund €10. I'd suggest that anyone who has a season pass from last year to contact them or else it seems that you will be paying the higher price.

franglan

That's a slightly unusual way to charge isn't. Full wack but here's the 10er back..later in cash back to my debit card or in GAAGO credit...

TheScoringGoal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458552#Comment_121458552

Well my reading of it is they want to reward the loyalty of those who had it last year by charging them the higher price and only offered me the lower one because I put that to them.

You can argue the merits of GAAGO but they are a total PR disaster.

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458516#Comment_121458516

Where can RTE slot in 20 more games and don't say RTE News Now channel at same time as RTE are showing another game. That isn't the answer, that's a news channel which RTE could eventually ditch. You've to also consider the amount of outside broadcast units needed, cameramen, commentators etc. Given RTE's current funding issues, the funds and availability aren't there. That's where GaaGo steps in and pays for such games, it was sky sports before and TV3.

RTE have contracts to show other sports and programmes during the summer months at the weekends. And you have at best 4 TV slots on RTE; afternoon and evening Saturday and 2 afternoon games Sunday. That's 4 games. Early Saturday games or late Sunday games do not work, especially from spectators POV.

evolvingtipperary101

There's no need to use RTE News Now or GAA GO. There's TG4 and Virgin Media News. Talk to them and get a good spread of the games - weekend to weekend. Use RTE New Now, now and again.

ForestFire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458593#Comment_121458593

Well on guess they could slot them into some sort of online streaming app, that can be accessed on any smart phone, tv or computer....

They have experience from rte player on how to do this, so just add a new channel on there and call it GAAfree

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458386#Comment_121458386

Cork v Limerick is on GaaGo and that's a massive game.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458419#Comment_121458419

Most of those lads will be watching on the dodgy box.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458743#Comment_121458743

But TG4 nor Virgin Media bid for the rights when they were for sale last year.

Broadcasters can't just show what they want, they can only show what they pay the GAA for.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458516#Comment_121458516

The last rights sale was last year, that's when Sky pulled out.

Last year was the first year of the new football championship and the number of games available to be broadcast did increase from previous seasons.

jj880

GAAgouge.

Fyi GAAGO has been added to IPTV. I've a few streaming subs I dont mind paying for but stuff like this a real money grab.

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121458803#Comment_121458803

Virgin Media's statement: "RTÉ is a 50% shareholder in GAAGO, this has never been clarified in any editorial discussion about GAAGO and the decision not to show key games on Free to Air television.

"When Sky Television decided not to renew its GAA rights, the GAA did not approach other broadcasters to ascertain whether they would be interested in broadcasting these games but arbitrarily decided to put them behind a paywall.

"The question must be asked, did RTE pay anything for these rights or did they just agree to keep them behind a paywall to drive incremental revenues for both partners in GAAGO, i.e. RTÉ and the GAA

"Given the multi-million increases in State funding to RTÉ over recent years, RTÉ now has more Sports rights than it can show on its channels, with licence payers now being forced to further subsidise RTÉ by paying for GAA Sports content through its joint-venture with the GAA."

I know RTE and the GAA refuted this statement. But RTE are simply not trustworthy on any level and GAAGO is poorly presented and often doesn't function from it's email service to its production going blank on screen during games or simply not working at all.

I believe Virgin Media on this. I believe RTE and the GAA top brass have gotten into each other's ears on lots of junkets in Dublin and got into bed together on this deal and there's money being made somewhere and it's not going back into the game. The whole thing stinks.

I don't want to give any money to RTE through the guise of the GAA. None.