The Sunday Game / GAAGO [Split from RTE thread]

Butson

GAA Go is terrible value when you compare it to the Sky deal and nowhere near as accessible for lots of people.

When the GAA condensed the season into basically a few weeks, you cannot have marquee hurlers like Tony Kelly behind a paywall two weeks in a row.

Madness.

mike2084

I'm not a GAA fan, but my Dad is and he loved the Sky Sports output. I asked him this year if he'd be interested in GAA Go and he said no way was he paying for more subs.

galtee boy

And yet when Sky had the coverage, people complained left, right and centre about having to pay a subscription to see their "national sport " , what's the difference paying a sub to GAA Go and paying a sub to Sky ?

icdg

There isn’t any except the distinction RTE draws, which that it gets half the money from GAAGO and none of the money from Sky, so one was the worst thing ever to happen to the GAA while the other is a brave new dawn of enhanced coverage.

Beyond that, there’s a bit of an undercurrent about who Sky’s former chairman was, who hadn’t really controlled Sky since 1990 except to the extent he was allowed to by the other shareholders, and who hasn’t been involved in Sky at all since 2018. The equally subscription Setanta had been showing League games on sub only for years and never got the same harsh coverage (though I know Setanta Ireland was part of the basic cable sub in Dublin meaning it had the perception of being “free”).

lertsnim

People complaining are forgetting that it was Sky who pulled out and didn't want to renew. The GAA didn't take the games away from them to make GAA Go.

There's plenty of pubs with GAA Go which is where people without Sky were told to go to watch so what's different?

People with Sky not wanting to shell out for another subscription is exactly the same scenario as those without Sky the last few years but they were expected to suck it up.

The ideal scenario would have been the extra games going back to TV3 who had them before Sky but that didn't happen.

roadmaster

The ads on GAAGO would the revenue be split 50/50

icdg

It would be the profits (if any) from the JV rather than the revenue from a specific source they’d be splitting afaik.

roadmaster

The poor GAA cant win. Former players giving out over what games should be on and then lads that never go to games giving out that its behind a paywall

icdg

I think to be fair (and also to be fair, this got a bit of attention on the Sunday Game last night) the issue for some seems to be that the Munster Senior Hurling Championship seems have had more than it’s fair share of games on GAAGO and some of those games have been tightly fought.

it hasn’t helped that the Saturday Game disappeared after one edition (its back this week apparently) and the Sunday Game has had half an hour shaved off its run time.

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120570391#Comment_120570391

I dont know where this is going to end up. People cant seam to be happy.Sunday Game is Sh1t, Virgin is bad quality. Sky is taking our games. These have being said over the years

Now GAA have taken control of there own product and people are even more mad.

The only mistake i think they mad was comprressing the season. They need to return to summer.

An now are elected reps are jumping on the bandwagon for gaago.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/political-heat-rising-over-pay-per-view-gaa-games-as-micheal-martin-weighs-in/a726289605.html

Dermot224

Do GAAGO stream at 50fps because it is required for fast moving sport to avoid stutter when looking at tbe ball

AJB39

Virgin Media have rather cynically put the controversy as their top story on their News at 7 along with a statement from Virgin Media attacking the GAA and RTÉ. They claim that they and other broadcasters weren’t approached about acquiring the rights to the matches that ended up on GAA Go. However I’ve read a number of articles stating that Virgin Media weren’t interested in the rights which was why the GAA set up their own platform to show the matches.

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120574953#Comment_120574953

I’ve used it twice. Both time I set it at 240 as anything higher left it stuttering and you can’t enjoy it, it looks like a pack of playing cards moving around and not live top level sport.

Beechwoodspark

I am a man from a so called weaker county how I hate that disrespectful phrase.

I who has given innumerable hours time sweat and effort to the GAA.

What I am calling for is scrap these gaa go or sky sports deals.

ALL matches should be shown live on either RTÉ or TV3. ALL of them.

No exceptions!! That’s it.

Beechwoodspark

I am sick of seeing all sorts of Mickey Mouse European football and European rugby being shown morning noon and night

and then these BS excuses about why they can’t show local Irish hurling - my woman and children at home going crazy last weekend with the lack of coverage and I point blank refuse to go near gaa go any longer

cheese sandwich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120575983#Comment_120575983

Virgin Media are bandwagon-hoppers with an extremely rich financial backer. I wouldn’t take what they say at face value at all

icdg

There isn’t enough money in the GAA for all matches to be shown live and free to air.

If they did say no more pay tv what then? Back to two matches on RTE on Sunday and one or two matches on VMTV or TG4 on Saturday, with the rights being picked up for a penny with no competition from other broadcasters (which would suit VMTV down to the ground of course).. At best it would be a similar level of coverage to what the league is getting on RTE and TG4.

You won’t be seeing the Leitrim v Carlows of this world on TV that way, whatever chance you have of seeing Dublin v Kerry.

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120576252#Comment_120576252

Time for GAA Saorview funded by the government

icdg

Just to say though, there’s an allegation being raised by VMTV that the games that went to GAAGO were never put out to tender but directly awarded to GAAGO. If that’s the case rather than releasing statements VMTV should be preparing a complaint to the CCPC, because there’s a potential competition issue there. But they’ve known about this for months and by realising a statement now it smacks of simply milking the controversy that’s been generated to hit RTE.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120576252#Comment_120576252

Could they not use the RTE News channel on Saorview if there's an overload of GAA fixtures on certain days? It was used during the recent soccer World Cup for this.

icdg

It has been used (rarely) in the past yes, where RTE has covered simultaneous throw ins. That’s not the point. The point is that there is a limit to what RTE and VMTV can put resources into based on the advertising revenue they will earn (and RTE earn precisely €0 from games that air on the RTE News Channel, because it doesn’t carry advertising).

roadmaster

Oh Mr Virgin media why did you get involved

https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-accuses-virgin-media-of-several-factual-errors-and-misleading-comments-as-gaago-controversy-intensifies/a956013143.html

icdg

That really leaves no room for reconciliation with the VMTV statement.

AJB39

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120580178#Comment_120580178

Bet it won’t be their top story on their News at 7 tonight. They probably won’t mention it all. Unbelievably stupid for Virgin Media to get involved in the controversy given that they must have known that their inaccurate statement would be exposed.

roadmaster

I think the media coverage this is getting is insane. All thats going on in this country and the world and the lead storys across all media is GAAGO and the eurovision

Dick phelan

The hurling has been absolutely shafted by this. Put on two uncompetitive football games instead of Tipp vs Cork which anyone would know would be a far better game. This Saturday another Munster championship game on GAA Go its ridiculous. Also as someone who previously had GAA Go I certainly won't be paying for such a substandard product. It often lagged or cut out and the camera work was poor.

There are 2 RTE stations and TG4 yet they want us to fork out money for a subscription. I'm sorry what's the point of the license fee if they can't be arsed showing the highest level of our national game

Dick phelan

Also they have the RTE player so they could show games through that if there's no TV slot available

AJB39

Well Virgin Media News did cover it. Apparently they stand over their statement. RTÉ, TG4, Virgin Media and Sky have all been invited to appear together before an Oireachtas committee, which should be interesting.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569774#Comment_120569774

I was thinking about it there - how many GAA games would the 'casual' GAA fan watch excluding the AI finals and semi-finals.

Two or three max? Normally people go to the games otherwise, fairly inexpensive easy to get tickets etc.

I mean 12 euro for a single game - 3 games for the price of 2 24 euro - or 79 for the full sub - clubs can buy sub for 150.

Good value and plenty of options.

I never had SKY sub - their GAA coverage was very hit and miss to be honest - they just loved going on about 'turnovers' 'possessions'.

But I like the GAA go system - lots of games and you can pick the ones you that might not otherwise be shown.

I paid 12 euro for the Dublin v Wexford hurling - cheaper than buying a ticket - better view (hurling not great live in CP) and atmosphere in an empty CP would be not great

To be honest I don't understand all the moaning? Thus far it seems to have been mainly hurling diehards? From 'traditional' counties. To be honest I think they are just been selfish - those high profile games - bring in more money for the GAA through this system - and a rising tide lifts all boats - it is funnelled back in to the system.

roadmaster

So we now have government ministers saying there will be extra gaa games on free to air. Who is going to pick up the tab?

The IRFU & FAI must be rageing they are now being dragged in to this. What is going to happen to our TDs little heads when they find out about LOITV and worse who part owns URCTV!