THE GAELIC ATHLETIC Association (GAA) has said that deciding which matches are broadcast on free-to-air television is not based on revenue alone.

Representatives of the organisation appeared before the Oireachtas Media Committee today over a backlash about matches being shown exclusively on the pay-per-view app GAAGo rather than on RTÉ.

The GAAGo subscription channel is a joint venture between the Gaelic Athletic Association sports body and RTÉ.

GAA director general Tom Ryan told TDs that although it was “great” that people want to see football and hurling matches, he said “the expectation that every single game should be on television is just not realistic”.

“It’s not in our interest, and not in our plans,” he said.

He said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, people could not attend games but the demand to watch them grew, so they “tore up the broadcasting model”.

Attempts were made to broadcast every game but there was a “capacity limitation on the part of broadcasters”, and so it was done through GAAGo, and “morphed” an overseas and an international provider to the domestic market.

“We learned too, that there was a market for it, and we also saw the flexibility that it afforded,” he said.

He said that the total income for GAAGo in a year is approximately four million euro, and that the he believed that the domestic viewership is greater.

“We have a responsibility to try and earn a decent and a reasonable income, in whatever means, whether it be through the turnstiles or through broadcasting those games.”

When Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan outlined various difficulties people had in watching a recent Cork-Tipperary match, Ryan accepted there had been difficulties.

“And I completely understand the perspective of that gentleman who wanted to see a particular game in your constituency, but I can guarantee you, in whatever other constituencies around the country people don’t have the same sentiment if perhaps that game had been shown.”

Fine Gael TD and former Gaelic footballer Alan Dillon said there was “huge frustration” among the public that prominent GAA games were being put behind a paywall.

“By and large, if the game is on a Saturday, that’s more than likely GAAGo, if it’s on a Sunday it’s at RTE’s discretion,” Ryan said.

“It’s not fair and has been characterised in the past a little bit, ‘RTE team pick which games’ or ‘GAA pick’… We don’t pick it based on revenue. The contracts are signed at the start of the year. So we’ll earn the same revenue, irrespective of what game is shown or whether the game is shown at all.”

Federation of Irish Sport chief executive Mary O’Connor said that although the broadcast of women’s sport has greatly increased, TG4’s coverage of Ladies Gaelic Football was “an outlier”.

She said the Irish language broadcaster had “dedicated two decades of superior and innovative coverage that has played a huge part in the popularity of the sport” as well as increased participation in it.

“This then should be seen as an example of how the broadcasting of women in sport via television/online and streaming can transform perception, participation, and generation of commercial opportunities for sport organisations.”

Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), Kevin Posts, and chief commercial officer Padraig Power said that 20-25% of its income is broadcasting rights, and that the importance of it “can’t be understated”.

He said that they are examining how the younger generation is watching sport “on multi screens across a myriad of different platforms” and that the organisation would have to be “agile and adapt” in future years.

By the numbers

The controversial GAAGo streaming service garnered a total audience of 1.3 million people across 42 games in 2023, according to figures released today to an Oireachtas Sport Committee by the GAA Director-General Tom Ryan. 

The GAA appeared alongside other major sports bodies today as part of a discussion on the future of sports broadcasting, at which Ryan divulged some figures around the service, which is a joint venture by GAA and RTE. 

Initially founded in 2014 as a streaming service serving the diaspora abroad, GAAGo took on exclusive rights to 38 Championship games for 2023 after Sky Sports did not renew their rights deal. 

Speaking at today’s Committee meeting, Ryan said the highest-profile games on GAAGo – which included two All-Ireland football quarter-finals – attracted between 100,000 and 120,000 streams, while the lowest games – defined by Ryan as “less-marketable” and understood to be the Tailteann Cup – attracted between 1,000 and 1,500 streams. 

Committee members were told that GAAGo will yield €4 million in revenue this year, split between an initial rights fee paid by the company along with a yield on the profit of the streaming service.

Ryan said the yield is “within 10%” of what the GAA earned from Sky under the previous broadcast arrangement. There was no figures given regarding how much GAAGo has cost the GAA, and no breakdown was given subscriptions purchased in Ireland as opposed to those bought overseas. 

GAAGo was the subject of a public firestorm earlier this summer, when Dónal Óg Cusack bemoaned the fact that three high-profile Munster hurling championship games were shown on GAAGo as opposed to RTE, speculating whether RTE were keeping these games off free-to-air television to help drive subscriptions to GAAGo. 

Tom Ryan said that he understands this perception but added he believes it is “a little unfair”, pointing out that the broadcast packages agreed before the season reserved Saturday games for GAAGo and Sunday games for RTE, and that fixture dates are decided by the CCCC, an independent body on which neither GAA nor RTE have any representation. 

The GAA’s director-general also rebutted the idea that the best games have been reserved for GAAGo by pointing out that the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, along with all but two of the quarter-finals, are reserved for free-to-air broadcast. 

RTE’s head of sport Declan McBennett spoke to the Committee later this afternoon alongside representatives from other broadcasters, and he also rejected the claim that games were picked to maximise GAAGo subscriptions, pointing out that RTE requested to broadcast Dublin v Mayo and Kerry v Tyrone in the All-Ireland football quarter-finals, but the CCCC’s scheduling of Kerry/Tyrone on a Saturday meant it was shown on GAAGo instead. 

McBennett clarified that he has never taken any money in his role as a director of GAAGo, and confirmed that former RTE director-general Dee Forbes is no longer a director of GAAGo.

He said that all profit RTE derive from GAAGo is ringfenced for the purchase of other live GAA rights, specifically the National Leagues.

He accepted that there is a problem regarding access for GAAGo, saying, “if you have good broadband, you have a good experience of GAAGo, but it you don’t have good broadband, you won’t have a good experience.” 

Tom Ryan, meanwhile, accepted a point made by Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick that the once-0ff €12 fee to watch a single match on GAAGo is expensive, saying the cost would be reviewed.

Meanwhile, both McBennett and GAA commercial director Peter McKenna both admitted under questioning from Imelda Munster that GAAGo has shown Championship games this year without clearance to do so from the competition watchdog, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPI). 

In 2017, GAAGo sought and received clearance from the CCPI to stream games abroad, but they have not received the watchdog’s blessing to show games in Ireland, as they have done this year. 

Contains reporting from Press Association.

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