LAST UPDATE | 9 May 2023
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that RTÉ and the GAA must decide which matches are important enough to be televised and which should be streamed behind a paywall.
The GAA has been heavily criticised after the Munster senior hurling clash between Tipperary and Cork was aired on GAA Go instead of on free-to-air television.
There was also backlash last weekend when Clare’s victory over Limerick was also streamed behind a paywall on GAAGO.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today, Varadkar said: “There could be as many as 10, 15 major [GAA] matches on every weekend. It’s not possible for RTE and TG4 to televise all of those matches.
“The solution to me seems to lie in making sure that the most popular most important matches are the ones that are on RTE and TG4, and use GAAGO for the other matches.
“I think we all understand that all matches can’t be televised.”
Varadkar said he supported the position of Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who said yesterday that the broadcasting schedule of GAA matches should be reviewed.
He added: “Yes, it would be great if all matches can be free to air, but when you’ve 15 major matches every weekend – and that’s just GAA, nevermind all the other sports – it’s probably not practical for everything to be free to air.”
Martin said, however, that he believes all GAA games should be shown free-to-air.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said in the Dáil that RTÉ and the GAA “have come together to essentially privatise the viewing of our national sport”.
GAAGO, which is a joint venture between RTÉ and the GAA, is showing 39 matches this season. A season pass for GAA Go is €79 and a single match costs €12 to view.
Declan McBennett, the Group Head at RTÉ Sport, said earlier today that RTÉ was “very grateful to have the rights to 31 matches” in the senior Gaelic football and hurling championships.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s News at One, McBennett said the broadcaster was mandated through its agreement with the GAA to broadcast 16 matches – finals, semi-finals, quarter finals and provincial finals in both football and hurling.
The remaining 15 matches are spread over eight weekends, he said.
“When you have such a condensed calendar, you are inevitably going to have a clash of major hurling matches coming up against major football matches.”
He said it was “unfortunate” that the Munster senior provincial final between Cork and Tipperary was not shown on TV over the weekend, and RTÉ “fully understand[s]” fans’ disappointment.
“We cannot cover the whole of the Munster hurling championship to the neglect of counties like Sligo or Clare or indeed Louth this coming weekend.”
McBennett said “there has never been more free-to-air sport” on RTÉ when accounting for other sports such as soccer and rugby.
He conceded that the streaming setup of GAA Go was an issue for some fans. Critics have suggested in recent days that elderly viewers were being excluded if they did not have broadband or the computer skills to watch a match on the streaming service.
Speaking on the Six One news this evening, McBennett said the definition of the “most important” matches is subjective beyond the matches RTÉ is mandated to broadcast. “Not all of them can be covered,” he said.
He added that the allocation of match rights was a matter for the GAA.
“There needs to be a second outlet. In previous times that has been TV3, now Virgin [Media], then it was Sky Sports, and the GAA have decided under this rights allocation that GAAGO is the best outlet for them
Sky Sports broadcast a number of GAA matches for eight years until their broadcasting deal with the GAA ended last year. GAA Go has replaced Sky Sports as the second platform for GAA matches to be aired.
In a statement today, Virgin Media Television hit out at the GAA and RTÉ for failing to approach other broadcasters about potentially replacing Sky Sports.
The channel said: “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.
“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
“Licence payers [are] now being forced to further subsidise RTÉ by paying for GAA Sports content through its joint venture with the GAA.”
The statement also corrected a factual error from former GAA president Liam O’Neill, who appeared on RTÉ’s Upfront With Katie Hannon last night.
“During his comments, Mr. O’Neill said: ‘We did it in the best interests of games because, at the time TV3 was going out, and it ultimately went out of business. We would only [have] had one station covering, we thought it was best to examine other options.’”
TV3 did not go out of business but was rather purchased by Virgin Media in 2015 and subsequently rebranded, “based on its continuous success and achievements as a leading Irish broadcaster”, the statement said.
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