No summer holidays for Tommy Martin.
TV3 have upped their football coverage this season, with extended shows and high-profile pundits, and now it seems they will get to extend their season at the highest profile tournament.
RTÉ are seeking UEFA’s go-ahead to sell the rights for 22 of the 51 Euro 2016 games to their rival – however the state broadcaster will keep the rights all the Republic of Ireland’s games and will have first dibs on knockout games.
The Irish Sun are reporting that TV3 will pay €2million for the 22 matches and, with that money, it is believed RTÉ will fund the return of comedy trio Apres Match.
The splitting of rights is par for the course in the UK, where BBC and ITV share the rights to the European Championships and World Cups, while France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway also divvy up the rights to major tournaments.
Fans will be hoping TV3 do not fund the €2m outlay with excessively long half-time ads that leave no time for analysis and TV3 will be hoping their indirect funding of Apres Match stops Barry Murphy and the lads ripping the piss out of them.
