Frustrations are boiling over within the hurling community.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has had his say on the current debate over pay-per-view service GAA Go, saying there should be a review of the broadcasting of senior inter-county hurling matches.
“I think they should [be free to air] myself,” he told RTÉ.
“That’s a personal view I’ve had for a long, long time. It’s the game of hurling that has lost the most in my view because hurling at it’s best is simply classic and irrespective of ones preference for any particular code of sport everyone loves to watch a great game of hurling.”
The decision to show a number of senior inter-county hurling matches on the pay-per-view GAAGo service should be reviewed, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said | Read more: https://t.co/ymNZKLKppg pic.twitter.com/jFc1HdNep1
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 8, 2023
The Tánaiste’s comments come after the debate surrounding GAA Go and free-to-air hurling matches have reached new heights. After the Sunday Game at the weekend, panelists Donal Óg Cusack and Jackie Tyrrell launched a fierce tirade about classic games going under the radar on the pay-per-view service.
“We’ve had two classics now in terms of the Clare-Limerick game and Cork-Tipp game and it just seems like a significant audience didn’t get access to that, didn’t see hurling at it’s best,” continued Martin.
“Anyone that was at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, as I was this Saturday night it was just one of those occasions – sun drenched, beautiful new stadium and a great game of hurling between Cork and Tipp.”
The Tánaiste’s other point, a very important one, was the fact that elderly generations may be missing out on great games of hurling, simply through lack of access to or knowledge about the service they’re being played on.
“Certainly our senior citizens need to be able to watch these games and I think hurling would benefit because if we want to continue to brand hurling as one of the great, iconic identifiers of Ireland one of the great games played at a very high quality and high level of professionalism in terms of the execution of the hurling we want more and more people to see it. I think it’s something that should be reviewed for the benefit of hurling itself.”
The majority of live Saturday inter-county championship games this season will be broadcast on the pay-per-view service, which offers a total of 38 exclusive live games over the course of the championship.
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