Sligo v Derry on Eir Sport on Friday.
They're putting in a big shift this year, fantastic!
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Sligo v Derry on Eir Sport on Friday.
They're putting in a big shift this year, fantastic!
I see that the Welsh PL are playing some of their games on 3pm Sunday for their coming season, with Friday night English PL games on tv could the LOI follow. Big difference between Wales and Ireland is the GAA Championship, but the influence of that on LoI crowds may be over-estimated.
Sure then it just clashes with super Sunday games.
Galway v Dundalk on Eir Sport next Friday night. 6 games inside two weeks on Eir for LOI clubs
Eir at it again. Why of why did I sign a new contract with Virgin in June:confused2:
https://twitter.com/eirsport/status/758337342641934336
As a cord cutter I'm happy with what Eir are doing but annoyed I can't see any of them.
And they've just announced their third price increase this year for anyone with dual play services and up to pay for buying Setanta. Virgin did similar in Feb/ March to pay for their rebrand!
RTE announce two more games:
Cork v Longford - 26th August 7:45pm
Dundalk v Cork - 2nd September 7:45pm.
In relation to the TV Rights for League of Ireland, what is the current state of play?
RTE’s contract with the FAI started in August 2013 and finishes in December 2018. RTE are committed to 17 signals a year, those signals include cup semi finals and final If they’re are really good cup matches they might do an additional cup match and drop a league match.
More info here in a v good interview with RTE Head of Sport, Ryle Nugent - http://www.intallaght.ie/rte-explain...land-coverage/
By my count, they've only done 3 live games this season so far. With the two announced, that'll be 5. 12 games left to do before November, which will no doubt include two cup semi finals and final. 9 league/cup games in 3 months?
As I've said already, I'd like to see Eir Sport take on title sponsorship of the league and complete tv coverage.
That would mean a lot of Virgin Media (and possibly other) customers wouldn't be able to watch at all though. I do like how well they cover games though.
I can see where you're coming from but there's no substitute for matches on free-to-air stations. To be fair to RTE, they're not totally obsessed with ratings. If they were, they certainly wouldn't show 17 matches so we should be glad for that. Imo, I'm happy for them to continue showing 17 games but Eir can also show as many games as they want.
I'd love to see a deal that whoever shows the national team games has to show one LOI match a week plus the cup semis and final.
That's more or less what we have at present though, isn't it?
Though it's Soccer Republic instead of a match every single week, which I think is arguably better.
I think a match every week would be better than Soccer Republic. It would force the TV station to show LOI at a time that people can watch, not 11pm. It would also normalise LOI football on TV. Soccer Republic struggled to get viewers when it was at an earlier time (or maybe it was the previous incarnation of the programme). I think that was because the majority of people were just not into LOI and a highlights show is not enough to get their attention. If it becomes normal to have a match on every week then I believe more people will become interested in LOI.
Soccer Republic's timing isn't great, for sure. Even allowing for it being available online afterwards.
But clubs give out about TV games because they hit crowds - so it seems that we should prioritise highlights to encourage people to go out to the games live.
Highlights have the advantage of cutting out the crap too, of course. Even a dull 0-0 can be made interesting, whereas a bad live match can just give the barstoolers ammunition.
I don't think a game a week is necessarily bad - and we're not far off. But I think what we have isn't bad in fairness.
With 17 games that should be a game every two weeks. However, it doesn't pan out like that. They are shown too inconsistently. A couple at the start of the season, then a more in a few blocks throughout the season and finally a heap together at the end. People like consistency. They like to know that at 7.45 every Friday there is a match on TV. If it's not on then they get used to it not being on and then don't watch out for the next match that might be 5pm on a Sunday three weeks later.
Agree that it's not the be all and end all but it does create huge awareness possibly greater than any other medium as we are a nation glued to the box. It's up to the clubs then to entice people to the grounds once the awareness is there.
The majority of Premier Division games are on Friday nights. Is there a better time for the weekly live game that does not clash with other games?
Live game on Saturday nights at 8pm. Programme starts at 7 and includes highlights from the Friday night and midweek games. No Monday night show but everything contained in one great 3 hour LOI block on Saturday night
Make the live game an event
Is 3pm on Saturday an option? Eir Sport aren't showing much of note at that time today. Can't avoid clashing with EPL continuously.
Dundalk game against Legia being shown live on BT Sport.