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AS WE HEAD into the spring (even if it doesn’t look or feel like it), sports fans begin to turn their attention more fully to the GAA.
For some, that means travel around the country to follow their county but many will just want to keep up with their team – or their neutral interests – through the television.
Since it was first signed in 2014, there has been much criticism of the deal done between the GAA and Sky as some matches are no longer available to fans unless they pay a subscription.
In Northern Ireland, that situation is further complicated with the BBC providing some coverage.
This week, a Sinn Féin MLA issued a statement to focus attention on the broadcaster for not doing as much as it can – within its contract – to provide for the GAA fans in the north.
Sinéad Ennis said, “There is huge frustration in regards to the amount of BBC coverage of GAA games. Currently over a quarter of a million attend GAA matches in the north over the season with countless more wanting to watch or listen to GAA coverage whether on the TV, radio or online.”
She met with representatives of the organisation, raising the fact that the latter stages of the championships and the All-Ireland finals aren’t aired.
However, the BBC’s contract with the GAA does not allow it to do so.
A spokesperson for BBC Northern Ireland confirmed the terms of the contract again for TheJournal.ie. They said:
“A new five-year agreement announced in December 2016, means that, on television, BBC Northern Ireland will broadcast live any Ulster [Football] Championship match selected for live broadcast by RTÉ, including the Ulster Final.
We don’t have the rights to televise games in the qualifiers or All-Ireland stages, including the All-Ireland Final – whether there is an Ulster team playing or not.
Commentary for those games which do include Ulster teams is available on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sport NI online.
Last year, seven of the eight Ulster Football Championship games were shown live on BBC NI television, with deferred coverage of the remaining game. It cannot show any game that is part of Sky’s exclusive coverage.
“All the games in the Ulster Championship, broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland TV – live or deferred – can be viewed on the BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service. We do not have the rights to show highlights on TV,” continued the spokesperson.
The games it will be covering this year in the Ulster Championship have not yet been announced.
Ennis said she made a number of suggestions of how the coverage could be widened “in terms of dedicated or deferred coverage, online streaming or highlight shows on TV and radio”.
The thousands of GAA fans are licence fee payers too. They deserve parity of coverage with other sports in the BBC – something which is currently not the case.
The current contract was signed in 2016 and continues to the end of the 2021 season.
The deals made at that time allow RTÉ to show 31 senior championship games with Sky retaining the rights to 20 matches, 14 of which are exclusive. Both Sky and RTÉ show the hurling and football All-Ireland semi-finals and finals.
TG4 holds the rights to the Allianz League, minor championship and club championship, while Eir is allowed show Saturday night Allianz League games.
Niall McCoy, an Omagh-based journalist with GAA newspaper Gaelic Life, believes Sinn Féin’s stance is “somewhat fair… and reflecting the viewpoint of fans” across Northern Ireland but adds the BBC’s “hands are tied”.
“Years ago, we would have been used to seeing the semi-finals and finals on BBC,” he explains. “RTÉ is blocked for a lot of people up here… it can be very strange and we can’t get the Player (due to geoblocking) so if it’s not on BBC, it’s bust.”
He understands that a lot of frustration comes from a lack of coverage on the sport sections of BBC news programmes, and a lack of other programming in the area.
“One of the biggest gripes is the sporting coverage on news shows… it’s talked about but only fleetingly rather than fully. They would like to see more. There could be a talk show midweek. That would go down well but it would have to be without clips as they don’t have the rights to those.”
However, the Armagh man does believe that the broadcaster “would love to do more if it could”.
McCoy tells TheJournal.ie that fans in the north often make comparison to BBC’s coverage of the SSE Airtricity League but stresses it holds rights to show highlights programmes for those games so can include midweek talk shows on its schedule.
“In 2022, though, I would like to see them fight a wee bit harder.”
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The terminator you ain’t.
Terminated you will be..
If he was in Ireland he would get community service ……
No no a suspended sentence
Yeah. Why does every serious crime in Ireland get like 8 years with 6 years suspended. They should just say what it is… 1 year with good behaviour. 2 years if you attack the prison officers while you’re inside.
A bullet straight between the eyes… Two minutes after he leaves the court. Never mind WASTING 100′s of thousands on banging them up for year’s.
Handcuff in a cell and let the relatives in .
Its easy to say that in this case. Every case is not so simple
Seems like a nice fella ….
Looks can be very deceiving! Like me. I might look like an egg but I’m hard as a rock…
That headline sent a shiver down my spine before I read the article!
I Thought some northsider from Finglas or Coolock had broken through the security checkpoints on the Liffey & was on a rampage on this side of the city where the decent folk live! ..phew!
Yeah he’s not the worst
You were told as a chicken not to stay in the hot water too long Paperboy ..and did you listen? :- No – you and your hard boiled brains …..
We note the value placed on the unborn child in the case; that he got ’15 to life’ for that murder.
Note the term “viable”, meaning that it could have been delivered and survived.
If a woman miscarries after 24 weeks the baby is given a birth and death very as it has passed the point of viability. It doesn’t get either if it is miscarried any sooner.
I understand the need for revenge however I would much prefer if he rotted in a cell for the rest of his life. He could also be studied by criminal psychologists who might gain a greater insight into how criminals work. Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacey could have provided invaluable research that could have maybe been used to help catch offenders and saved lives in the future but now we will never know.
And these ones too:
Mark Goudeau “The Baseline Killer” (Eight women and a man in 2005-2006)
Coral Eugene Watts (11 women in Texas & 1 in Michigan)
Matthew Emanuel Macon (Murdered and Raped 5 White Women in Lansing)
Chester Turner (L.A.s most prolific killer 12 women killed.)
Ray Joseph Dandridge and his uncle, Ricky Gevon Gray (Richmond, VA.–Murdered 7 people in 7 days, including an entire family.)
Wayne Williams (33 many of them children!, Atlanta, GA)
Maurice Byrd (killed 20 + in St. Louis)
Maury Travis (17 and rising, St. Louis and possibly also Atlanta)
Eddie Lee Mosley (killed 25 to 30 women, south Florida)
One has to wonder why Dahmer and Gacey are more known and have more airtime?
@Ciara. Don’t forget:
George Bush (countless men, woman and children)
@David
And Obama who has surpassed Bush’s atrocities all at the behest of their masters in Wall st and the US federal reserve.
The fecking yanks, the moral compass for humanity eh?
Murdering, raping and butchering before and after them.
Saves the state money if he is executed, sooner the better
Not really..
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2011/09/22/death-and-taxes-the-real-cost-of-the-death-penalty/
“I’ll be back.”
Unless you mean back in a court room for other bad shit you did, I can safely say, you definitely won’t be.
An Arnie fan?..
I hope this beast has one of those botched executions that have been happening in the States this year. And I hope he survives the first attempt, because then he’ll know what he has to look forward to again.
There’s positivity for you. A real optimist. Unfortunately Mr. Turner once the needles are put into you the only place you’re going is to Hell.
Just burn him at a stake, end of it, cut the money train for lawyers too that see $$$$$ in keeping him alive for as long as possible, with zero regard for victims families.
I wonder would the do gooders feel he should not be executed??
TBH if I were facing the prospect of spending the rest of my life in an 8′*6′ cell I’d request the death penalty.Why put the guy out of his misery. He is going to die anyway sooner or later.I really don’t understand why people think death is the ultimate punishment. We all die in the end.
Most people who oppose capital punishment oppose it because innocent people get executed.
Cases look simple in the 2paragraph summary in the paper but when you’re on the jury and see the nitty gritty its often far more grey.
I don’t reckon he should be executed. I reckon he should be punished. Death isn’t a punishment, when you die you die – death is too good for him.
I’d prefer to see him suffer – a lifetime in solitary with only his memories to haunt him. Let his life slip away in the slowest way possible. Let him be acutely aware of it.
There are some things far worse than death.
I don’t think he should be executed. I think they should lock him up and throw away the key. Let him live the rest of his life (and may it be a very, very long one) knowing that he will never been free again. And that’s not because I’m a do-gooder, it’s because death, even in a botched execution, comes far too quickly murders and rapists like this man.
Dont waste time and money, execute this monster now
Makes Larry Murphy look like an upstanding decent citizen.
No it doesn’t. Makes them both look despicable.
I wasn’t actually serious. However, If i had to choose one of them as a roomie, it would be Larry Murphy hands down.
*cellmate
American cities are human cess pits.
Evil
It’s interesting to see how and why the crack epidemic started in the first place!
Did he kill the rostas girl lol
Your some gowl you Declan boy.
Oh Declan, you intellect you
Half wits like you should not be allowed to publish your stupidity.
Jeez, just imagine if he does come back….de smell, de maggots, de big scary skeleton head on him!!! He’d be even more vile de second time around!!!
In the words of Bruce Willis Geronimo motherf@cker..
What an epic fail
He said it in Die Hard as he threw the explosives down the shaft!
He’s a big unit maybe the injection won’t kill him
I wonder will he serve the four death sentences concurrently?
Feel like listening to johnny cash after reading this article…san quentin you’ve been living hell to me…
If I were the president of Nicuragua I’d be onto the Pope right now and see if he could do anything about preventing this guy from coming back !
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