The full, frank argument between Colm Parkinson and Dick Clerkin over Sky Sports GAA

Neither backed down.

It’s safe to say that Colm Parkinson and Dick Clerkin don’t see eye to eye when it comes to Sky Sports GAA.

The TV deal between the GAA and the English broadcaster has had no end of critics, especially because some don’t get to see their counties on the television if they don’t have a Sky Sports subscription. But Monaghan legend Clerkin is a big defender of the deal and the product that the station offers and he has been voicing that defence before he joined them as a co-commentator.

“I defended Sky at the very offset, before I had any involvement with them,” Clerkin told SportsJOE’s GAA Hour.

“I think that a lot of the arguments that are being put forward as an excuse that Sky shouldn’t be there don’t really stack up. Who cares, other than Sky, who’s watching them? It’s almost as if you have to wave this flag.

“It’s a commercial decision for Sky, as it is for RTÉ or BBC or any of these channels.

“Personally, I think it’s an excellent product.”

The GAA Hour’s host, Colm Parkinson, didn’t agree. Here’s how their chat went from then.

DC: “With an awful lot of products, it takes that little while to build that trust and relationship with their viewers.”

CP: “They’ve had three years.”

DC: “I would argue that the product that Sky offers is far superior to RTÉ’s. People should ask, ‘is this a good product?’ Judge it on that basis. Does it add value to the game?”

CP: “The only thing about that, Dick, is that people are not watching it. You had Mayo this year, five of their six games were on Sky. People don’t have Sky in Ireland. I think they’re averaging 37,000 (viewers) with a big qualifier game in the hurling like Clare and Cork. People don’t have Sky. If it’s not free to air, people can’t see it. And we see things like golf moving from BBC to Sky and participation levels dropping because people can’t see it. When you were younger and you watched the game at home, you went out the back and you practiced. Families are not able to see these games.”

DC: “In the last 20 or 30 years, do you think participation levels in the GAA have increased or decreased?”

CP: “Increased.”

DC: “Okay. There was nothing to see on TV before. The only way you could see the games was by going to watch them. There was no problem back then. We didn’t say we needed people showing our games to increase participation. People are honing in on the games Sky are covering when 20 or 30 years ago – not even, 10 years ago – these games weren’t being covered at all. Sky are covering games that, five years ago, would never have been covered. Is the argument that RTÉ don’t have them? Or is it that Sky are covering them?”

CP: “I think the argument is that TV3 – another free to air channel – was in at the same time as Sky and the GAA said that Sky didn’t offer much more money. But the argument at the time was that Sky could bring the GAA to an international audience. The numbers are not reflecting that – nobody’s watching in England. The service was already there on Premium Sports for a tenner, now it’s 30 on Sky Sports.”

DC: “Now, hold on. Let’s call a spade a spade – that one was knocked around here a couple of weeks. You can only watch Premium Sports via a Sky box. You have to have a Sky subscription.”

CP: “You can subscribe online.”

DC: “We’re not talking about online.”

CP: “You can get a Sky basic package for 25 per month. If you have that, you can get Premium Sports. Sky Sports is a completely separate thing which is an extra 30.”

DC: “It’s either free to air or under subscription. Now you’re saying it’s okay to have a subscription as long as it’s not that expensive. You’re adding in a cost element rather than being consistent.”

CP: “I think you’re mixing up Sky – a TV service provider – with Sky Sports which is where the GAA have now put games. GAA going on Sky Sports is an extra 30 quid on top of whatever you were already paying for the provider.”

DC: “It’s actually not. I’ve bought it over the last few summers. You can get reduced rate Sky Sports for six months that covers all your GAA coverage at half of that. So now you’re getting very close to what Premier Sports was – I think it’s 16 euros versus your tenner. We’re arguing over six euro, Colm.”

CP: “We’re arguing about the GAA saying that ‘the reason we’re going to Sky was to open the GAA up to an English audience when it was already there.”

DC: “It was via a Sky-based subscription service.”

CP: “But it was already there, Dick. That’s the principle of the matter.”

DC: “But if it wasn’t a problem then, why is it a problem now? They’re only jumping up and down now because it has Sky tagged to it, not Premium Sports.”

CP: “One part of it is the untruth that the GAA told. The other part is that families in Ireland are unable to see the games.”

That goes on for a while. By the time they eventually agreed to disagree, they had a whole other element to disagree on.

DC: “Judge it on its product. I can tell you from working with Sky, you have so many good, genuine GAA people there and all they’re interested in is delivering a good product to match the integrity of the games.”

CP: “I was going to let you go but I’ll have to pick you up on that. Genuine GAA people? Their two main presenters are not genuine GAA people. I think they stifle the debate and they struggle in a GAA setting. They’re not believable as GAA people because they’re not GAA people. Good, genuine debate cannot be chaired by someone who doesn’t really have any basic knowledge of the game.”

DC: “For a man who’s in the media profession, I think that’s a very harsh comment. Does that mean you’re not placed to discuss soccer, golf, rugby because you haven’t played the game? I’m quite sure you feel that you can discuss and chair conversations on those. It’s quite a harsh comment on those people who have immersed themselves professionally in trying to present those games and learn.”

Listen to the full debate below.  Subscribe here on iTunes.

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