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.
Have to imagine it's a golden handshake to compensate them for a bit of a mess and allow both parties to break ties before they end up in hot water. RTÉ had a decent setup in place for handling the overseas side of GAAGo, turning a decent profit. GAA then pivoted their arrangements to include the domestic market, fulfilling a need here to show more games during covid, but in doing so breaching the terms of their original CCPC (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission) approval from '17.
The CCPC (correctly) kicked off last year that RTÉs involvement as both a terrestrial broadcaster & partner in the streaming venture was problematic (e.g. the choices of games we saw last year showed clear vested interests in the streaming venture at times). We hadn't heard too much in recent months about it, until now where it's suddenly looking like an exit for RTÉ and most likely a deal structured to ensure both parties can walk away clean without risk of the other kicking off and put it in the background (where something like the GAA simply forming a new LTD would potentially cause a lot of blowback). A little bit of value in the brand built up, a little bit of institutional knowledge in key employees that may be transferred in the buyout (could well imagine you'd have both GAA & RTÉ staff seconded to GAAGo currently) and potentially some gear/equipment owned by the JV that'd be purchased… but can't imagine those would be significant figures. I'd guess that the majority of any payment is going to be the 'quick exit' fee…. which could be pretty significant (though in RTÉs interests not to draw too much attention to themselves after recent years financial irregularities, so it'll be interesting to see what it ends up looking like).
I don't really see why the GAA would not just set up a new corporation for this, or look for a new partner, what are they buying exactly from RTÉ?
GAAGO have retained the rights packages they were originally awarded according to that article.
The main thrust of it though is an unconfirmed suggestion that the GAA has made an offer to buy out RTE’s stake and the name may be changed.
..
No guarntee what they will have the rights been announced yet?
Yes they will prob have more exclusives this year even
Will Gaa GO be showing exclusive matches in Ireland in 2025.
We usually buy a pass for the father at Christmas but it seems like the only option is International Passes
Whether you flip my point on its head or not, the question is still valid, and you still haven't answered it. If you were the GAA or RTE or whoever gets to choose which matches are to be shown live and FTA, which three would you have dropped this year to make way for the other three we're talking about?
On your other points, you're either wrong, or overlooking things, or both.
For instance, in 2017, there were 12 matches in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship. Granted, six of them were in a preliminary qualifying group of Laois, Westmeath, Kerry, and Meath, which wouldn't have been prime TV material (no disrespect to the counties involved). But that still left six matches from quarter-final stages onwards, not four.
And you're overlooking the qualifiers that were played in such years after the provincial finals and before All-Ireland quarter-finals. In 2017, there were seven of them, including attractive ties like Kilkenny v Limerick and a real humdinger Kilkenny v Waterford that went to extra time before Waterford won.
One of the few things you're correct on is that all bar one of the 11 Munster Hurling Championship games this year were shown on either RTE or GAA GO (six on RTE, four on GAA GO).
However, you're very wrong about Leinster. Of the 16 games, only eight were shown (three on RTE, five on GAA GO).
Won't give a full breakdown of the provincial football championships because this post is already becoming long enough, but basically, of 28 matches, only 14 were shown (eight RTE, six GAA GO).
Finally, your last couple of lines show a complete lack of understanding of what was on the table for RTE and other broadcasters this year, and how sporting organisations, including the GAA, handle the sale of broadcasting rights to their games.
To flip your point on its head would it not be the GAA deciding which games get broadcast or how many RTE would get?
Before we had Sky it is true to say that RTE had fewer games, no doubt, but there were also far fewer games played. The Munster and Leinster Hurling Championships for example consisted of 4 games pre-2018 and 11 or 16 respectively since then
I believe every Munster and Leinster hurling game, bar one, got broadcast on either RTE or GAAGo this season just gone and the only time games overlapped were in the last rounds. Fairly sure the football is similar so there is no reason why the GAA can't sell RTE more games. Other than the profitability of the GAA would take a hit
That's almost exactly my point. If RTE was the only show in town, they'd be able to choose which of the "big" games they wanted. But they'd still only be able to choose whatever number they have the rights for that year.
This year, that number was 33. So, question remains - which three of those 33 would you have dropped in order to make room for the three we're talking about here?
Full list of all that they had the contract to show is here:
https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2024/0329/1440759-monaghan-cavan-to-start-rtes-gaa-championship-coverage/
Note that you can't say that you'd have dropped some of the camogie matches, because that's a different deal with a different Association. And remember you'd be choosing your games before the start of the championship.
Incidentally, re. Cork v Clare in Munster this year - have thought even since the time that if RTE had shown it in place of Limerick v Tipp that weekend, and if the outcomes had been reversed (i.e. Cork v Clare very one-sided, Limerick v Tipp a thriller), then they'd have been hauled over the coals as well.
Not possible for all sort of contractual and practical reasons to show every single match in case it turns out to be a good one, so would love to hear what your method would be of choosing at the start of the year which ones to actually show.
If you think back to a time when Sky and GAAGO didn't exist yet the big games were still shown on RTE… Something like that plan could potentially make a return
Thanks again. As I said, would depend on the terms of the contract. Seems the zombie apocalypse would have to go off the airwaves for a couple of hours after all!
Thanks for clarifying, but to be honest, still not sure they'd actually be obliged to show them.
Says here they are
For the second week running, RTÉ are contractually obliged to show the two provincial football finals on Sunday,
Thanks for clarifying, but to be honest, still not sure they'd actually be obliged to show them. Would depend on the exact terms of the contract. Could very well be the case that they've simply secured the rights and option to show them, but it's still up to themselves whether they actually do show them or not.
Unlikely of course that they wouldn't exercise that right, but let's say there was live coverage on one channel of the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse, while the other channel had live coverage of something like 9/11. They probably wouldn't break away by saying "but now we're off to Croke Park to see the Dubs hammering whatever other unfortunates have qualified for the Leinster Football Final this year".
I don't mean by law, I mean by the conditions of the package of broadcast rights that RTE bought from the GAA.
Not actually true. Neither RTE nor anybody else are obligated to show anything under the legislation about sporting events that can only shown free to air. What the legislation actually says is just that these events can't be shown on a service that's not free to air. That's not the same thing.
In any case, am not sure that the provincial finals are yet covered by that legislation. They were among the events suggested earlier this year as additions to the "protected" list all right, and a public consultation was held around January/February, but am unaware of any legislation actually being passed subsequently.
Cork v Limerick - played May 11 - RTE showed Leinster & Ulster Football Finals.
It must also be noted that RTE were obligated to show the two football finals that weekend.
They are obligated to show all 4 football provincial finals and Leinster and Munster hurling provincial finals.
RTE had rights to show 33 GAA championship matches this year. If the three matches in question here were to have been part of that package, which three would you have dropped from those that were shown?
There's also the consideration that RTE show no more than two live matches per weekend, so let's look at the dates in question here:
Granted, you'll probably say you'd have dropped the damp squib of the Leinster SFC Final. But doing so would have opened up a whole can of worms for RTE, where they'd have been accused of 'disrespecting' football in favour of what many see as the minority game.
How about weekend of May 18 - which of those two Munster hurling matches would you have dropped in order to show Dublin v Kilkenny in Leinster? Your instinct might be to say Tipperary v Cork since there wasn't much riding on it at that stage, but bear in mind you'd have had to make the decision before the championship ever started at all, and before you knew Tipp would end up having such a poor year.
Again I make the point that if GAAGO didn't exist the rights to the big games would be included in the RTE package rather than just not be shown
Last season there was no major clashes between GAA matches that I can think of off hand, certainly not a 3+ way split.
Think the Rugby URC final and one of the soccer euro games clashed at the start of the championship with one GAA game but given there was only Irish involvement in 1 of them in the end I wouldn't describe that as a clash.
Point is that RTE are well capable of showing multiple matches even when there is a clash
RTÉ now have RTÉ Squashy Vision News Now :)
It's a pet peev of mine when people use "kick-off" to describe the start time of a GAA game.
Again it's about broadcasting rights, of course RTE could put multiple games on multiple channels, but the GAA only sell a finite amount of games to be broadcast, so it doesn't matter how many channels RTE have, the to can only broadcast the amount of games the GAA sold them.
As for the clash with throw in times.
The four provincial councils are independent of each other, so if the Connacht council happens to schedule a Connacht final the same time as a Munster hurling round robin game so be it, the Connacht final gets televised by RTE because that's part of the package they bought.
Leaving aside the fact that RTE have more than one channel so showing 2 matches at the same time is highly possible the GAA don't usually schedule 2 high profile matches for the same kick-off time
I suspect that if no broadcaster (including GAA GO) other than RTE had ever entered the fray, those three matches would have been part of the RTE package. And that consequently, three of the "lesser" matches that were actually shown on RTE this year wouldn't have been part of that package and therefore wouldn't have been shown at all.
These three were probably the supposed "jewels" in the second package on offer, in order to make it attractive to others. But then for various reasons, no other broadcaster secured these rights. And again - if nobody had the rights to show them, how would they have been shown at all?
This is the reality of how broadcasting rights work. Notions of "all GAA matches should be free to air" are idealistic but not realistic.
The matches that RTE has the rights to show are deliberately timed so that they don't clash with each other, so that situation wouldn't arise.
But even if they did, basically the same question to you as already asked above - what broadcaster other than RTE is going to be in a position to show any game, if no broadcaster other than RTE has bid for and secured the rights to that game?
And what TV channel would have shown them, considering no TV channel had bid for and secured the rights to them?
If RTE were limited to a certain amount of games, 35 for example, and they are obligated to show six provincial finals then if any of those games clash with those provincial finals then they are going to be shown on a broadcaster other than RTE
I'd say they got the European rights cheaply in fairness and their URC rights were picked up a long time ago on a good deal that I'd say is becoming very fruitful for them of late…
If they bid for the games currently on GAAGO they'd be literally bidding against the GAA themselves
Yes that is what I mean GAA had to come up with a package that is competitive for whomever buys the games.
CEO Nugent keeping his rugby pals happy :)
That makes sense but the argument that 3 of the biggest hurling games in last years championship wouldn't get shown without GAAGO is BS
Premier sport are just after spending a small fortune on the rugby rights for the coming season so I can't see them opening the purse again this season
I was thinking this, really setting up the package for TV3 required a number of big games otherwise it wouldn't be worth their while.
The extra 10 games are really divided between the RTÉ package and the non-RTÉ package, with a number of exclusive big games in the non-RTÉ package, which would have originally been shown on RTÉ.
It will be interesting to see what TG4 offer and if the offer is taken by the GAA. I am surprised that Premier Sport haven't considered bidding for these games.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e68aa2b0e039b12ade8384a2f42841c6.svg)