Anyone subscribe to this? The website is fairly poor but it seems like you can't watch many games, but does have the facility to watch old All Ireland Finals which i'd be interested in.
Clare Limerick was slated to be on RTE, but the match was moved because of the Great Limerick Run, and if GAAGO hadn't picked it up it wouldn't have been shown at all.
With that, it was originally planned that 3 of the 5 Munster hurling games so far would have been on RTE. And it would have been 5 of 8 by May 21. The whole thing is being way overblown.
All the matches cannot be on free-to-air, unless they set up a new channel(s). Clearly something needs to happen with streaming, that's just the reality, and I guess GAAGO or similar cannot exist for free if they need presenters, cameramen, equipment and so on.
I think Donal Og's point was why do so many of the big Munster hurling games seem to be behind a paywall. Hurling has relatively few games so you shouldn't need to put so many behind a paywall. How can 3 of Clare's 4 championship games be on GAAGO, seems a bit off to me?
Perhaps the top games should all be free-to-air and GAAGO is used to stream the other "leftover" games which cannot be on regular TV. I know that would mean GAAGO get less subscribers but maybe it needs to be just a service created to break even rather than make money. GAA needs income but they also need to promote the games.
GAA's revenue for 2022 96 million.
There's a strong case to just have RTE cover the semifinals and final in both GAA codes free to air. Let everything else go behind a paywall and then there can be no confusion. As for auld ones down the sticks, let their local clubs sort them out. Trip to the pub or community hall.
GAAGO made 1 million in PROFIT in 2021. That's long before they got their hands on the Munster hurling championship. They say their figures are now commercially sensitive... (McBennett) how are they sensitive when there's no competition?
This whole thing stinks.
I don't agree with that.
The intercounty season is now 3 months long. Looking at last year, I paid €10 per month for Sky sports pass on NOW TV. Got all the other sports they show too, including Irelands rugby games in New Zealand etc.
Most people in Ireland are general sports fans, we watch everything.
Sky deal was way better value for money and was easier access.
GAAGO is only €59 a for a year in Ireland - it's very good value. It was a bit more expensive for me, as I live abroad, but I get even more value for it since I wouldn't have access to any games on Irish television otherwise.
I can't say I've really felt that same frustration with how the GAA spends its money, as you've highlighted there. What areas do you think they spend too much money on, and should be spending elsewhere? The only expenditure of the GAA that I have qualms with is how much goes towards the GPA, and obviously I'd have even more issues with that if they decided to start paying inter-county players from the proceeds of volunteers.
Funny how the GAA partnered up with RTE to develop a streaming service when RTE have such a poor record with their own RTE Player.
Cost wise the GAAGO app is about 50% the annual cost of the likes of Netflix or Disney Plus for 38 or 39 games and some archived matches vs all the content on the other streaming services deliver. An advertising supported model would have been a better approach.
I think people would be more willing to pay for the service if the GAA turned professional, the players who there would be no income generation without deserve to get a portion of the revenue the GAA collects. We are always told that the money is used to support local clubs but if that's the case why do local clubs need so many church gate collections, shop bagging collections, lotto's, car raffles, property raffles, donations from businesses and membership fees when the GAA is raking in nearly €100,000,000 a year.
It is something, but not €165 a week.
Firstly, there is no Free To Air TV in Ireland, any TV viewing is subject to a TV license, of is it 165 E a year (edit) or something.
The 5 year deal - I'd say whoever RTE /GAA are getting the money from to invest in the streaming service would need some certainty that it wasn't going to be thrown up after one year
Virgin are full of sh1te IMHO. If they are so worried and interested in providing free access to sport, they have rights to Champions League and Europa League and international games, most Iof which is behind a pay wall. That's fine, that's their model, but when stay out of this argument it's nothing to do with you, you have shown zero interest in showing any gaa. Regarding the above idea of the government buying and distributing the rights (if they are so worried about Timmy in Borris being able to see that first round Leinster game), I can guarantee Virgin will look for more money to produce the shows as they are making a loss on it or something.
Leo and Micheal are so worried about people not having access to streaming, who is responsible for putting in decent infrastructure around the country like broadband if not these clowns 🤡
People say Hurling is our national sport, I disagree.... Giving RTE a kicking when you get the chance is the national sport in many quarters. What next, free admission into every game in the country because people think the tickets are too expensive? Will we lay on free busses and taxis to bring ye too?
There are more games than when the championships were just one outing a year for 16 or so counties in football. Or when the hurling was about 15 games in total. The extra games were created in the football Qualifiers, and the three lower tier hurling competitions. And round robins. Now we have the Tailteann, which people can ignore
None of this was done with a view to giving wall to wall TV coverage. It is part of an ongoing process to turn what were originally straight knockout competitons into something which gives a second chance or more to the also rans. People will get more Free to Air games than in the old days. But that won't make everyone happy. Something which is not often mentioned, is the "rights" of the majority of TV viewers who have no interest in any sport, never mind GAA.
What's false about it?
Aren't there more GAA matches free to air than ever? Aren't all of the "business end" of the season games FTA?
I personally don't want to watch any games that don't involve my county and for a significant proportion of the GAA watching audience that's the same barring an AI final or similiar. Indeed, there's only certain sports that I watch in any event - should the broadcaster cater to my own personal requirements?
But is that fair either on the "smaller counties"? Or shouldn't we try to grow the game but making the less attractive game FTA?
The whole thing will be sorted either way with the solution I've described above anyway.
The comment that "there are more GAA matches free to air than ever" is another false argument. There's a real demand for only a limited amount of games. Pointing out that you can watch a whole host of games you don't want to watch is irrelevant. Put the big games on free to air and then if there's such a convincing argument that Wicklow v Longford is so compelling that it needs to be shown on TV but "costs money" to broadcast then charge and see if it pays for itself. The delusional argument about the number of games being shown would soon be shown up for what it is.
Ah you'll never keep everyone happy all of the time.
There are more GAA games than ever available on free to air.
Despite the GAA being made up of a tonne of volunteers there are significant bills to pay. It costs money to broadcast a match, some more than others depending on any number of variable.
The solution to the problem is for the state to throw another, let's say ten million a year , into the GAA for them over the lost rights packages and throw another 8 or 10 million between RTE/TV3/TG4 in grant funding to support broadcasting fees. The money can come from the redistribution of the gambling tax income which currently only goes to HRI and greyhound racing.
Job done, every match free to air, all parties happy.
Not even contacting Virgin does create a bit of murkyness surrounding the 5 year deal. Especially as they contend that - we can't show all the games. Surely sharing some of the games RTE 'couldn't' show with Virgin was an option that should have been explored. I'm sure it would not have been as financially beneficial, probably why it didn't happen.
This is all a bit strange. If Virgin had rang up and expressed an interest in giving the GAA a lot of money then they would have got a good hearing. More likely they had not interest but are just using this as an excuse to get at RTÉ.
Not having it set up for a smart TV or games console/virgin box app is annoying for watching on tv especially if you don't own a Chromecast - rigmarole of connecting the laptop to the TV is annoying.
The two euro a game argument is somewhat bogus to be fair - cavan v laois and Meath v Leitrim for example doesn't exactly whet the appetite for the neutral in the season pass. Appreciate though the effort that goes into broadcasts and there will be cross subsidization but realistically it's closer to a fiver a game for the games you'd realistically watch - still not bad to be fair.
The "conflict of interest" issue will rumble on - how is it decided what games are shown on GAA go? The fact the hurling that was shown so far on RTE hasn't been great and the games behind the paywall were top notch is likely fuelling the discontent. The two football games shown at the weekend didn't help matters either - "showing pointless turkey shoot football matches when there's good honest hurling men frozen out waiting for their stream to buffer in "insert hurling heartland here" type of discontent. The GAA really doesn't do itself any favours at times.
Is there a valid reason why Virgin weren't offered the opportunity to bid for a package? In essence, RTE have taken licence payers money, to pay the gaa for access to games which they then charge for and give the GAA a further cut. If the GAA get 50%, what are they getting a cut of? The revenue/subs? The profit after paying the broadcast costs? Does the GAA get a cut of the advertising revenue on the online platform? I do think there will be questions asked that a public service broadcaster (with all the political ramifications that go with that) is being used as a conduit for pay per view to drive revenue for a sporting organisation.
If Sky are paying for the rights, it's to all intents and purposes "external money" whereas when it's RTE it has the perception that it's taxpayers money and taxpayers again are paying on top to watch what the licence fee has funded. If the defence is "the games wouldn't be shown at all" how hard did the GAA try to prove this? The virgin statement (whether they had any intent on bidding at all) would cast some doubt on the bone fides of Croke Park. Just all looks a bit murky
They have that already, URC.tv where they show 151 games every season for €75. Their coverage of the URC on FTA is limited to Munster, Leinster and Connacht games and is shared with TG4
I had assumed before that sky were brought in as the all Ireland was a summer tournament so there was something for sky to show during the Premier League off-season, also good exposure to the British market
The GAA changed their calendar and sky didn't want to clash with the soccer, I always thought that's why Sky pulled out
This was all flagged back in October 2022
Farrell also said that despite the abrupt end of the Sky broadcast partnership with Croke Park he was aware that the relationship between the two was coming to an end since last year — therefore, he believes, the GAA had time to find another broadcast partner “that wasn’t RTÉ or an RTÉ affiliate”.
“We knew this was on the rocks about a year, a year-and-a-half ago, that there was a wobble in the conversation, and that Sky were putting huge money into new products, and consolidating their costs,” he told the Irish Examiner.
He claims that for whatever reason Sky didn’t leave the negotiations then, and opted instead to run right up to the deadline for the GAA’s announcement this week, before walking away. “Once Sky walked away this week everybody expected the GAA to go back to the market, that was the biggest surprise that they didn’t even call (Virgin Media), instead they just went over to RTÉ,” added Farrell.
He believes that the GAAGO arrangement between RTÉ and the GAA requires closer examination, raising questions about State-ownership of GAA rights, particularly from an organisation which will receive additional government funding next year.
As part of the Budget 2023 TG4 and RTÉ will receive €22.3m extra, which Farrell says effectively sees a State-owned broadcaster investing more public money in broadcast rights, from extra money awarded by government.
“If you look at the GAAGO piece, and the extra games it got this week, that’s giving even more to RTÉ — GAAGO is a joint venture between the GAA and RTÉ.
“Is there a State monopoly here? It’s the State that’s effectively funding these (rights packages), and enabling RTÉ, GAAGO and TG4, all state-owned, to go buy them.”
A GAA source confirmed that it had held negotiations with Virgin Media “early on, (but) they were unable to come up with a proposal — they wrote themselves out of the picture”.
Farrell said: “We had initial conversations with the GAA, there were certain things we liked but ultimately we didn’t get anywhere with them —they still should have called us this week.”
In the immediate aftermath of Sky’s departure and before the GAA’s announcement on Tuesday, former GAA president Sean Kelly warned about the importance of having “an alternative to fill the bill (left by Sky) or RTÉ will essentially have a monopoly” on coverage. The MEP believes RTÉ needs competition for its GAA coverage, something which the Sky deal had offered and one which “made them up their game a bit”.
Farrell, who has been vocal before about RTÉ buying up sports rights it cannot then use, believes it now has so much GAA content — which it will invest heavily in producing — but will ultimately not be able to show.
“What you have now is RTÉ have a load of new rights, on top of the already significant coverage it holds, and ultimately a lot of this content won’t see the light of day, and will end up on the cutting room floor.”
RTÉ declined to respond.
Thought it was GAA based and not a split partnership. Similar to when Sky had GAA games, that it was the GAA were in charge. Maybe RTE had more control over that too.
Virgin Media are full of crap. Their cable division have sabotaged BBC 2 NI denying viewers several important football games that were shown on that channel and as noted above, they deny all their Saorview viewers a HD service.
There is a a lot of hype here, with pointless comment about government funding etc. If the GAA got government funding it was not to put on free TV but to train youths and the like. Similarly the licence fee has not gone up for donkey's, and RTÉ never showed more games than they do now, there just are more games now.
I don't think it was a secret. When GAAGO was announced it was announced as a joint venture between RTE and the GAA.
Mybe with all the rugby games they show they should throw a few of them on it as well....
Seems like a valid reason for RTE to put some of the bigger games on PPV, big money to be made.
What do you mean who is getting paid? RTE nor the GAA are private business entities
Yeah read that earlier and laughed - seems that GAA and RTE carved it up between themselves. But it's a win win for RTE.
He did make some decent points though in that part of the reason the situation arises is the rapidly multiplying number of matches that the GAA invent for the purpose of a championship. All about games I guess, cash and squeezing as much out as possible.
It's 3 million Euro. I can only give the initials of who is getting it. JM and TR.
This guy is the head of sport at RTE and is on the GAAGO Board of directors... conflict of interest? How much is he being paid?
How many millions is RTE and the GAA given in state funding?
(And of course RTE are losing Caitríona Perry - one of the few great journalists we have.)
People are on the make here. What kind of money is being made and who is being paid is crucial here. Then we'll get to the bottom of why these hurling matches are not available to people. Who are the RTE and GAA figures making money off this.
Another own goal by the GAA mentioning TV3 in their statement hahaha
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