GAAandSkySportsLogoApril2014_large

On April’s Fools day 2014, the Gaelic Athletic Association announced a 3-year broadcasting deal with Sky Sports. The deal involved the sale of exclusive rights to a portion of championship games.

The plan didn’t really come together.

Dr Paul Rouse (School of History and Archives, UCD1) is the author of The Impact of Pay TV on Sport

Dr Rouse writes:

Although the GAA hierarchy has sought to portray the deal with Sky as a success and consider the reaction of people in Britain to be ‘a vindication’, the reality is, at best, much more complex – and one might legitimately arrive at entirely the opposite conclusion. After all, what we now know is:

Viewing figures for showcase GAA games in Ireland collapsed; The supposed new service for Irish emigrants in Britain, not only already existed, but did so in a more extensive way; Irish emigrants wishing to watch Gaelic games in Britain must now pay much more than was previously the case; The part of the deal which allowed the broadcast of matches on TV in Australia no longer exists and there is no plan – in any real sense of that word – for internationalisation.

Idris wept.

Read more: Sports Rights Commercialization Revisited: Sky and the GAA (HistoryHub)

Previously: Sly Sports

Thanks Spaghetti Hoop

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14 thoughts on “Believe In Better

  1. Digs

    Hurling is an amazing spectacle. Most sports fans who see it for the 1st time are amazed. It’ll never become an international sport and the irish are only interested in glamour fixtures so it won’t grow. Footballs on the other hand is pants. It looks and feels like such a makey upy game. Pure pants!

  2. More_Bemuda_Than_Berlin

    This deal had a stink of money about it from the start. Fair play to this scholar for crunching the numbers and proving as much.

    How soon before the GAA starts referring to youngsters as “products” and “supply lines”?

    1. Domestos

      “How soon before the GAA starts referring to youngsters as “products” and “supply lines”?”
      Er, ask Joe Brolly.

  3. Bingo

    Yesterdays Premier League deal made me a little sick. Cancelling Sky Sports. I’ll have be happy to watch crappy streams.
    To know that €50 of my cash goes into a fund that pays the likes of Wayne Rooneys wages makes me mad.
    Or even worse, Falcao….
    These guys ain’t worth the money……and that’s coming from a football fan.

    1. Pale Blue Dot Cotton

      +50.

      Disillusionment is what I get from watching the premier league these days, on crappy, totally illegal streams.

      1. Anomanoman

        your using the wrong streaming site. There are plenty of crystal clear hd streams. Which i can’t name here and of course I would be against any one streaming illegal football.

      1. mauriac

        the football is neanderthal compared to the big continental leagues and now Burnley is bigger moneywise than most Italian teams..crazy

    2. Al

      At least the premier league deal goes to those who play the games, even if they are vastly overplayed, unlike the Grab All Association which pockets the money for “de committee”

      1. Bingo

        The GAA spread their cash all over the country.
        The stars don’t get paid directly by the GAA but all of them come from small, local clubs that have better facilities than most soccer clubs.
        The collective benefits more so than the individual.

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