Larry McCarthy refuses to answer question about GAA broadcast debate at All-Ireland launch

Larry McCarthy refused to answer a question about the future of GAA broadcast rights at the launch of the All-Ireland hurling championship series on Tuesday.

McCarthy, Uachtarán an Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, was down in De La Salle GAA club in Waterford along with representatives of each of the eight hurling counties left in the All-Ireland series.

The All-Ireland series throws-in this weekend when Tipperary take on Offaly and Carlow take on Dublin in the preliminary quarter finals of the competition.

Neither of those games will be free to air – the Carlow-Dublin game isn’t being broadcast at all – while the Tipperary-Offaly clash will be shown on streaming service GAA GO this Saturday at 4.00.

Over the last few months, GAA GO has been like marmite.

With Sky Sports’ withdrawal from GAA broadcasting, GAA GO commandeered the rights and games that Sky previously held but the service has proved controversial.

Spoke to Larry McCarthy at the launch of the All Ireland series today, the GAA President declined to take questions on the future broadcast rights of the hurling championship from @VMSportIE pic.twitter.com/OYJYkMzNqW

— Joe Caulfield (@Joe_Caulfield_) June 13, 2023

Famously, Donal Óg Cusack made comments about the service on The Sunday Game last month.

“I have no issue with pay-per-view,” he said.

“It’s part of the landscape and it has its role to play. But by next weekend, when Clare play Waterford, four of the biggest Munster hurling championship will have been on pay-per-view,” added the Cork-man.

“You’d have to question, are RTE and the GAA exploiting hurling? It looks very like they’re using hurling to get this joint-venture (GAA GO) off the ground.”

That kickstarted many a debate in the weeks that followed although such commentary has died down in recent weeks.

That being said, Virgin Media reporter Joe Caulfield asked the GAA president about the issue in Waterford on Tuesday and McCarthy, as you’ll see in the clip above, had no appetite to talk about it.