RTÉ get live Premiership rights

**pineapple stu** · 30/10/2003, 5:52 PM

Just heard this on the news on the radio (presume I heard correctly!!!) RTÉ, in partnership with Setanta, have gotten live rights to Premiership football for three seasons beginning from next season.

If I've heard wrongly, I apologise for upsetting people unnecessarily! If I've heard rightly, then many people in Montrose (and not the UCD fans!

) should be lynched. God knows how much this is costing compared to the cost of sending a couple of cameras out to five Irish grounds every weekend.

**Éanna** · 30/10/2003, 5:55 PM

Originally posted by pineapple stu
(and not the UCD fans! )

you didn't need to explain. The "many" made it obvious you weren't talking about UCD fans

**tiktok** · 30/10/2003, 6:05 PM

Just saw on sixone that they'll be carrying fifteen live games for three seasons, kick offs at 3.00 on saturday afternoons, they also agreed to continuing their deal for the premiership on saturday nights.

whoop-de-fcuking-do.

great to see RTE spending money on more football coverage

**Éanna** · 30/10/2003, 6:09 PM

Originally posted by tiktok
great to see RTE spending money on more football coverage

isn't it just. Is it not time for another campaign against the licence fee?

**Éanna** · 30/10/2003, 6:22 PM

Originally posted by Conor74
But the more good football on telly the better as far as I'm concerned,

There's plenty of British football on British TV! I've no problem with RTÉ showing foreign football, I do however have a problem with every game they show involving either- Celtic Glasgow, Manchester United PLC, Arsenal or Liverpool*. Public service broadcaster me ******

[SIZE=1]*: showing of Liverpool games may be aimed at helping cure insomnia, in which case it is a public service.[/SIZE]

**tiktok** · 30/10/2003, 6:52 PM

I know that it won't take people from LOI games as the saturday afternoon matches won't clash with our games, and i agree that the standard is likely to be higher than the SPL, but don't forget that Sky will keep the cream of each weekends fixtures well away from 3pm on saturday (12.30 sat, 2.00, 4.00 sun games won't be on RTE) so it'll be leicester and villa you'll be watching...

but surely the issue here is that RTE are splashing out more money on english football while they wash their hands of the domestic game, there's been three live games this year between our four domestic stations,
three!!!

the last two games that RTE have shown have both been great adverts for the league, it's been mentioned on a previous thread that the viewing figures were good as well, yet RTE trun their back on the relatively cheap option of showing friday night games to spend more showing foreign leagues live

thecorner · 30/10/2003, 11:31 PM

any chance they mite also show an el game every week

**A face** · 31/10/2003, 8:12 AM

[SIZE=6]You just cant possibly agree that it is OK for RTE to show British football over national football. Why are we paying a license at all., to fund a British product .... come off the stage.

It is a "National Broadcaster" [/SIZE]

**mickrev** · 31/10/2003, 8:14 AM

RTE cant show EL games cos TV3 have the rights. Remember City against Pats on first day of season was on TV3. Dire game, poor viewing figures so they wouldn't show another game.

The RTE deal will impact most on Today FMs coverage in any case and there always is a decent match on at 3 on a Saturday.
Also most people support the bigger teams so of course they are going to show them most of the time. A few years ago they used to show alot of Ipswich and Leeds when they were doing well. And they used always show a few Villa games too cos they have a bit of a following over here.I think RTE are very fair in that respect and do show some of the weaker teams.
I hate people who give out about Licence fee and RTE all the time. Imagine a world where every channel was commercial like TV3, ITV or bloody SKY One. A horrible thought but for some reason some people dont want to pay the Licence fee. They also dont want to pay for bins.
Sickening people.

**A face** · 31/10/2003, 8:22 AM

Originally posted by mickrev
RTI think RTE are very fair in that respect and do show some of the weaker teams.

Weaker British teams ..... Mick Rev .... What about the Irish teams .... dont shy away from that point. Fair my fcuk

I hate people who give out about Licence fee and RTE all the time. Imagine a world where every channel was commercial like TV3, ITV or bloody SKY One. A horrible thought but for some reason some people dont want to pay the Licence fee.

Thats the point ..... they are not a commercial station .... hense the License fee .... so why act like one. Why do people give out over the fee = It is our money, given to RTE of a product we do not get. There are trade acts in place that prevent people doing that but RTE wangle out of this. Now my friend ...... THAT IS WHATS NOT FAIR.

They also dont want to pay for bins.
Sickening people.

Fair enough about paying up ..... BUT THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO PROTEST

A 100,000 Farmers bring the country to a halt and it is OK but when people complain about a double taxation, they get thrown in jail and people like you snipe at them for trying ot do something about it.

My friend .... step back ..... bigger picture !!

**SÓC** · 31/10/2003, 9:35 AM

RTÉ ceased to be a public broadcaster many years ago, this wont really impact on the eL anyway, matches on at different times and they were never ever going to spend this money on the eL.

Also the Permiership is one of the few RTÉ shows that makes them a profit when it comes to adds and sponsorship. If you think about it, (figures made up) RTÉ pay say €3 Mill to get the rights, make €4 Mill over the years on it, that leaves RTÉ with surplus that they can invest elsewhere.

We should lobby them to spent that money on the eL. Be it by them showing it or by TG4, who would do a better job anyway.

**Dodge** · 31/10/2003, 9:52 AM

RTE CAN show el games. The TV3 contract is non-exclusive.

They choose not to.

**pete** · 31/10/2003, 11:48 AM

Obviously this doesn't affect the eL directly ..but....the more money they spend on UK football the less left for other football & sport in general. Even if sport makes money for RTE they will still be limited in the amount they can spend on sport.

ManUre won't be shown on 3pm saturdays anyway as they seem to be in permanent 12.00/12.30 saturday games for tv.

Pretty much wall to wall football now 7 days a week. The FAI need to fight hard to block any live tv football games from the UK on fridays!!!

For this RTE hassle me to pay my licence fee

**Éanna** · 31/10/2003, 12:08 PM

Originally posted by Dodge
RTE CAN show el games. The TV3 contract is non-exclusive.

They choose not to.

thats the brass tacks of it alright. RTÉ have shown they have no interest in the league. I think the best way to deal with them would be to ignore them as much as possible, and down the road when we have a product that they want- tell them where to stick it.

**pineapple stu** · 31/10/2003, 12:37 PM

Didn't realise when I first posted this that it was going to be Saturday afternoons only. That's okay from the point that it won't be clashing with eL games, but it's more exposure to the English game for youngesters who we should be trying to get to eL games. The only good thing I can see coming out of this is that this may pursuade a (small) number of people to unsubscribe from Sky, freeing them to consider the eL.

I genuinely can't understand though why they would send two people all the way to England - paying for flights, good wages, food, as well as rights to show the games - for a product which is more than likely going to get less viewers than their eL highlights show got. The basic facts of this are that when RTÉ (briefly) did their highlights show, it got more viewers than their Premiership show almost every time. As did the Cup semi-final. For a highlights show, all you need to do is send one commentator to one game - and RTÉ have studios in Dublin and Cork, so there's most of the Premier Division teams within a short drive - and maybe two cameras to each game. Surely the English option has to be less cost-effective????

Or even why not do a ten-minute round-up of the goals from last week's eL action during half-time? (Which I know they won't do, and which I know TV3 won't do during their Champions' League show either).

Seriously, though - what am I missing here? Does somebody want to e-mail RTÉ/put up a contact e-mail for them and ask?

**Slash/ED** · 31/10/2003, 12:37 PM

I don't have too much of a problem with them showing English premier league stuff, my massive quarrel with them is showing the absolute shíte that is Celtic against some random no mark Scottish minnows every week. Witness the drama, will Larsson score that all important 7th goal to finally put the tie beyond all doubt? An absolute load of rubbish. Poor quality of football, no entertainment and how anyone watches it without falling asleep is beyond me. It's this garbage that should be axed to put more domestic football on the TV.

**liamon** · 31/10/2003, 2:24 PM

Originally posted by Conor74
...... Paying for electricity or gas is not "double taxation" and neither is paying for waste disposal.

Oh, and BTW if RTE didn't spend the money on the Premiership games, it would just mean more crap like the Lyrics Board

Agree wiht you about the waste disposal, but not the RTE budget. From listening to numerous interviews over the years, I've been lead to believe that the RTE sports Dept gets a separate budget from other departments. As such, it's down to them to budget for which sporting events they can cover.

This time, they choose the wrong option. I can't see Boro v Wolves getting the same viewing figures as the recent games that RTE have screened. OK, the recent games have been cup games and may have generated more interest than normal eL fixtures, but I think it proves that there is a market out there that is not being accessed at present by commercial tv.

**DruggyDrog** · 31/10/2003, 3:45 PM

RTE ARE a commercial station, which is why they are going out of their way to buy products which appeal to the biggest audience possible. No matter what way we like to think of ourselves, we follow a small league with a small following. RTE show SPL matches because the interest is there, Celtic have more supporters in this country than any other club, and they want Premiership rights because the demand and the target audience is there. we have to have a package to entice prospective broadcasters to show us. At present, that is not the case, and that is why no one will touch us unless forced to.

But in saying all that, RTE are a shower of w*****s who are taking our licence fees, then bending us over and shafting us.

**Slash/ED** · 31/10/2003, 4:31 PM

But the viewing figures for the semi final replay show there is an audience there. It got more then RTEs premiership or Champions League coverage. It's also partially the FAIs fault for not forcing them to show a certain number of matches a year and a highlight package at a decent hour as part of the deal to show the international matches.

**John83** · 31/10/2003, 4:49 PM

That doesn't work. If you tell RTÉ that they have to show half a dozen EL games at certain hours of the day (as opposed to 2 in the morning) to get the international games, they'll just say that it devalues the package as a whole and offer less money. TV3 are every bit as enthusiastic about showing league games.

Let's face it, cup finals draw in bigger crowds than anything else. You average league game, where there are already a couple of thousand fans at the match, will have mediocre ratings at best. And Friday night is a good slot for audiences. The tv stations don't want to show these games because they'll get better ratings with something else. Better ratings means more ad money.