Who is going to tell Joe Brolly?
The Sunday Game pundit has been a vocal opponent of the GAA selling exclusive rights of 14 GAA Championship matches per summer to Sky Sports over the past three years.
The former Derry corner-forward will be furious at the news in Wednesday morning’s Irish Independent. Colm Keys reports that the GAA are poised to renew their agreement with the subscription channel for another five years.
The new deal will see RTÉ retain their 25 exclusive games across football and hurling, with the two broadcasters sharing the rights to the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in both codes.
https://t.co/nXst8MChYz an awful pity the people have to bring this to the people who are supposed to be the guardians of the GAA
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) October 25, 2016
The mooted renewal for Sky Sports comes in the face of opposition from several County Councils across Ireland, the ‘Keep Gaelic Games Free to Air’ campaign, a defeated motion to Congress from the Dublin county board and the repeated highlighting of the low viewing figures in the UK by the likes of UCD academic Paul Rouse.
The Irish Independent value the new deal at €55million over five years, which is on a par with the €11.2m the GAA earned from media rights in 2016. The new deal is likely to see eir Sport (previously Setanta Sports) hold on to the rights to Saturday night Allianz League matches. TG4 will continue to screen Sunday league matches.
Eir's intention to enter market proves #GAA are right to stick to guns on Sky Sports https://t.co/E3jn3SlD5r
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 14, 2016
It was suspected that the ambitious eir Sport or resurgent TV3, now backed by Virgin Media, would challenge the incumbent pair for the Championship rights, but it seems the GAA are happy with the current arrangement – despite the criticism from some quarters.
In the radio market there could be a shake-up, with RTÉ close to securing exclusive national rights after years of sharing with Newstalk.
Colm Parkinson chats to Kerry GAA legend, and author, Kieran Donaghy in a special edition of The GAA Hour. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes
