The 2014 GAA Thread

**culloty82** · 28/03/2014, 6:36 PM

So, this GAA deal with Sky - on the one hand, it exposes the sports to a potential audience of millions, but putting a third of championship games behind a paywall alienates the grass-roots supporter?

**BonnieShels** · 28/03/2014, 7:20 PM

Originally Posted by culloty82

So, this GAA deal with Sky - on the one hand, it exposes the sports to a potential audience of millions, but putting a third of championship games behind a paywall alienates the grass-roots supporter?

But, again you have to ask yourself, if these people really want to see the games they will go to them like I and many others did/do.

The package has actually increased the amount of games shown. And even during my sessions of watching matches during the summer I still couldn't see everything.

And from what I could gather TV3 were outbid.

I'm all for it. The outcry is from the usual begrudgers. And I say all as someone who despises Sky with every iota of my being.

I'd be interested in the minutiae of the deal re international rights and the like.

**legendz** · 02/04/2014, 9:30 PM

Yeah sure the games handed over have tended to be affected by being live on tv. The GAA while being shrewd are definitely testing it's impact as well.

**geysir** · 02/04/2014, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

But, again you have to ask yourself, if these people really want to see the games they will go to them like I and many others did/do.

The package has actually increased the amount of games shown. And even during my sessions of watching matches during the summer I still couldn't see everything.

And from what I could gather TV3 were outbid.

I'm all for it. The outcry is from the usual begrudgers. And I say all as someone who despises Sky with every iota of my being.

I'd be interested in the minutiae of the deal re international rights and the like.

As if to have an objection to the the Sky deal was someone who didn't like others having some fun, a spoil sport, a nasty person, a scrooge.
just because a person is for FTA and against subscription televised GAA , doesn't mean they are a bunch of begrudgers.

**BonnieShels** · 04/04/2014, 6:41 AM

But this is Ireland and generally they are.

The amount of people I saw on Facebook and on comments pages that couldn't give a monkeys about the GAA were up in arms. The very same gob****es who don't go to Ireland friendlies then complain that Sky have the rights.

I would prefer personally of they remained FTA as it means I could view them easily over here on my high horse. I'm also not the biggest fan of Sky. But by the same token I'm excited at the prospect of the new audiences that this could bring the games.

The Channel 7 deal is a great piece of business as well.

**pineapple stu** · 04/04/2014, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

But, again you have to ask yourself, if these people really want to see the games they will go to them like I and many others did/do.

Or they'll go to the pub.

**bennocelt** · 04/04/2014, 12:05 PM

Less Gah on terrestrial TV, great

**geysir** · 04/04/2014, 9:43 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

But this is Ireland and generally they are.

The amount of people I saw on Facebook and on comments pages that couldn't give a monkeys about the GAA were up in arms. The very same gob****es who don't go to Ireland friendlies then complain that Sky have the rights.

I would prefer personally of they remained FTA as it means I could view them easily over here on my high horse. I'm also not the biggest fan of Sky. But by the same token I'm excited at the prospect of the new audiences that this could bring the games.

The Channel 7 deal is a great piece of business as well.

This is Ireland, that's your explanation

There are 14 games being exclusively covered by Sky in Ireland. Means in order to view these 14 games (which were covered by TV3?) one now has to watch via a sky sports subscription, which is a 12 month contract thing for new subscribers - EUR 50 or 60 per month, and if you already have a basic package it means an extra Eur 30 or Eur40 a month, month by month basis.
So Sky is not going to bring in a new audience in Ireland, it will gain new subscribers in Ireland without expanding the GAA viewership and without expanding the GAA coffers by anything much, well hardly enough to keep the Dubs in ice baths over a season.

In the UK, the GAA games were already on the Sky satellite menu with Premier Sports showing games a plenty for approx £10 pm, I believe Premier Sports will still continue with this.
The GAA and RTE still hold the worldwide rights, so Sky have nothing to do with that expansion and nothing to do with selling the rights to Ch7 in Australia.

So, for what exactly do you garner the enthusiasm for this Sky subscription deal and call anyone who has objections to it, a spoil sport, a mean eyed begrudger?

**BonnieShels** · 05/04/2014, 12:12 AM

Originally Posted by geysir

This is Ireland, that's your explanation

Not my explanation. Merely a taster of my opinion that was to come.
Whilst you live in Iceland and I in Canada we are both perfectly are aware of the Irishman's ability to come up with reasons to have a moan. No need for you to needlessly concentrate on the pointless part of the argument.

There are 14 games being exclusively covered by Sky in Ireland.

The 14 games are a mixture of games:

Originally Posted by GAA

Sky Sports has obtained exclusive Island of Ireland rights to 14 championship games.
These consist of eight Saturday evening matches in the All-Ireland qualifiers, two All-Ireland football championship quarter-finals, and two Saturday evening and two Sunday provincial championship games. In addition to these 14 games, Sky Sports will also broadcast live the All-Ireland hurling and football semi-finals and finals, thus making 20 live games available to its subscribers throughout Britain and Ireland.

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-video...press-release/

There are times when RTÉ don't show games. So Sky are taking up slack in this regard. I think that you are overselling what we are missing out on.

There are 6 provincial championship matches across both codes. Sky are gonna get 2 of these. Again. Not that big of a problem. The minutiae of the deal isn't out but I am sure there are parts of the deal that ensure hurling is going to be broadcast on Sky. so they may get the Leinster hurling and the Munster football etc.

Means in order to view these 14 games (which were covered by TV3?) one now has to watch via a sky sports subscription, which is a 12 month contract thing for new subscribers - EUR 50 or 60 per month, and if you already have a basic package it means an extra Eur 30 or Eur40 a month, month by month basis.

That's if you go with Sky Digital. and those figures aren't exact now.
There are various ways in which to get Sky Sports, such as UPC or eVision... but you knew that.

But if you don't want to pay for it then you don't have to. And maybe you should get yer ass to Croker for Dublin's AI QF.

So Sky is not going to bring in a new audience in Ireland, it will gain new subscribers in Ireland without expanding the GAA viewership and without expanding the GAA coffers by anything much, well hardly enough to keep the Dubs in ice baths over a season.

I'm sure it's expanding it by enough to warrant the sale to them.

In the UK, the GAA games were already on the Sky satellite menu with Premier Sports showing games a plenty for approx £10 pm, I believe Premier Sports will still continue with this.

Sky have bought exclusive GB rights. Why would Premier Sports be allowed to broadcast PPV?

A lot of people in Britain would ordinarily have Sky Sports on their packages they will now see these sports on Saturday and Sundays in the summer when there's nothing much else on. The Irish who are interested will already be watching it no matter who have the rights.

Sky don't take punts. They will see this as an opportunity to fill a gap in their schedule. Look at what they have done with NFL over the last decade.

You can be sure that their will be a lot of cross-promotion to make sure everyone knows that it's on.

The GAA and RTE still hold the worldwide rights, so Sky have nothing to do with that expansion and nothing to do with selling the rights to Ch7 in Australia.

I was making an observation outside of my Sky comments that the Ch7 deal was a stroke of genius.

So, for what exactly do you garner the enthusiasm for this Sky subscription deal and call anyone who has objections to it, a spoil sport, a mean eyed begrudger?

I'm garnering enthusiasm for the fact that there will be a bigger market for two of my favourite sports. Anyone who fails to see this I feel is not seeing the bigger picture (an Irish trait) and a begrudger.

**geysir** · 05/04/2014, 1:25 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

The 14 games are a mixture of games:
http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-video...press-release/

There are times when RTÉ don't show games. So Sky are taking up slack in this regard. I think that you are overselling what we are missing out on.

Are you being deliberately evasive?
The 2013 deal was shared between RTE (BBC NI) and TV3, what games not being shown by RTE, were covered by TV3.
Sky are not taking up any slack.
The 2014 deal does not add to the total of games being televised. Sky have now got the package that TV3 were bidding for, the package similar to what TV3 had in 2013.
There is no expansion in Ireland, There is in fact a retraction in the number of FTA games and no overall increase of number of games being shown on television.

There are 6 provincial championship matches across both codes. Sky are gonna get 2 of these. Again. Not that big of a problem. The minutiae of the deal isn't out but I am sure there are parts of the deal that ensure hurling is going to be broadcast on Sky. so they may get the Leinster hurling and the Munster football etc.

Yes, Sky have the 2014 version of the TV3 package, the package that TV3 would normally get and the one they were the highest bidders for.

That's if you go with Sky Digital. and those figures aren't exact now.
There are various ways in which to get Sky Sports, such as UPC or eVision... but you knew that.

You mean there are various way in which you can shell out Eur40 a month?
I feel better about it already

.

But if you don't want to pay for it then you don't have to. And maybe you should get yer ass to Croker for Dublin's AI QF.

Lets see, if a person doesn't want to pay to watch the games, they don't have to? is that what it comes down to, cynicism?
In 2013 Irish people could watch at no extra cost, the TV3 package of GAA games, just by dint of tolerating TV3 adverts.
In 2014 to watch the similar package, they have to pay EUR 40 -60 a month and new sat subscribers have to fork out one year.
Any you regard this as expansion, expansion of games being televised and will expand the viewership?

Sky have bought exclusive GB rights. Why would Premier Sports be allowed to broadcast PPV?

A lot of people in Britain would ordinarily have Sky Sports on their packages they will now see these sports on Saturday and Sundays in the summer when there's nothing much else on. The Irish who are interested will already be watching it no matter who have the rights.

Sky don't take punts. They will see this as an opportunity to fill a gap in their schedule. Look at what they have done with NFL over the last decade.

You can be sure that their will be a lot of cross-promotion to make sure everyone knows that it's on.

Did you not realise that Premier Sports already showed GAA games on subscription in the UK (ch428) and continue to have the rights to show 26 games for the next 3 years?
Yes, the package that Sky have bought the rights to will be shown on sky sports in the UK and yes there are hopes that those games will reach a wider audience.

A large part of the cost of this is to the Irish public who have lost free access to the TV3 package and if they have any objections about paying Eur 40-60 pm they are are regarded as thickos by jumped up, uninformed, hysterical, poncy jackeen ......in a shell suit

I was making an observation outside of my Sky comments that the Ch7 deal was a stroke of genius.

I was making sure that it was clear, that the CH7 deal had nothing to do with Sky as Sky fanboys appear to confuse Sky with Santa Claus. One cannot take anything for granted re what a skyfanboy writes.

**BonnieShels** · 05/04/2014, 8:05 PM

Originally Posted by geysir

Are you being deliberately evasive?
The 2013 deal was shared between RTE (BBC NI) and TV3, what games not being shown by RTE, were covered by TV3.

TV3 were taking up slack when the GAA expanded the amount of games in the Championship and RTÉ obviously weren't gonna show everything.

Sky are not taking up any slack.

From my reading TV3 actually only showed 9 games. I can't actually find conclusive confirmation of that however. The GAA site is awful to search within and TV3 have disavowed all knowledge of the GAA's existence.

The 2014 deal does not add to the total of games being televised. Sky have now got the package that TV3 were bidding for, the package similar to what TV3 had in 2013.

I think the package is in essence different given that Sky have GB rights as well which TV3 didn't have. I don't think it's like-for-like at all.

There is no expansion in Ireland, There is in fact a retraction in the number of FTA games and no overall increase of number of games being shown on television.

The games are being shown in Ireland. That's the first hurdle crossed.
Most of the games are played in Ireland. So again they are available for all to see.

Liam Ó Néill made a very good point though which was missing from my initial riposte.

Originally Posted by Liam Ó Néill

"I take the point that there are some games that people won't see. But there are some games not being televised anyway. There were games last year that weren't televised at all. But nobody jumped down our neck about that. And there will be games this year that won't be televised.
"But all games are covered, in some way or other, by radio, whether it's local or national. And as well as that, there have been a number of games with Setanta for a number of years anyway. And the same fellas who live in isolated places haven't been able to get those. So there is a lack of consistency in the argument here."

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-video...v-rights-deal/

Yes, Sky have the 2014 version of the TV3 package, the package that TV3 would normally get and the one they were the highest bidders for.

Again I don't think the packages were like-for-like given the GB coverage that Sky brought to the table. Ad that's the nub of my tentative preference for the deal as it stands.

You mean there are various way in which you can shell out Eur40 a month?
I feel better about it already

You plucked figures from your rectum when talking about the costs involved with getting Sky Sports.

Lets see, if a person doesn't want to pay to watch the games, they don't have to? is that what it comes down to, cynicism?

Hardly cynicism when I've repeatedly said that FTA v greater exposure is a no brainer.

In 2013 Irish people could watch at no extra cost, the TV3 package of GAA games, just by dint of tolerating TV3 adverts.
In 2014 to watch the similar package, they have to pay EUR 40 -60 a month and new sat subscribers have to fork out one year.
Any you regard this as expansion, expansion of games being televised and will expand the viewership?

But you are making the spurious assumption that people in Ireland still watch TV with an aerial or a Saorview box. Which is painfully obvious they don't.

A majority of TV viewers in Ireland already have cable/satellite/broadband packages to view terrestrial TV as it stands. You would swear that the concept of getting in Sky Sports is alien to us.

Did you not realise that Premier Sports already showed GAA games on subscription in the UK (ch428) and continue to have the rights to show 26 games for the next 3 years?

I knew that they did previously. But as it wasn't mentioned in the press release from the GAA. I had assumed that they lost out on foot of Sky's entry. I will concede this aspect.

But given they already had the coverage and it was available in GB why would the GAA have gone with Sky as well... Maybe they thought it was better for the association per chance?

Here's Premier's press release pour vous.
http://www.premiersports.tv/gaa/gaa/

Yes, the package that Sky have bought the rights to will be shown on sky sports in the UK and yes there are hopes that those games will reach a wider audience.

Ah an agreement of sorts.

A large part of the cost of this is to the Irish public who have lost free access to the TV3 package and if they have any objections about paying Eur 40-60 pm they are are regarded as thickos by jumped up, uninformed, hysterical, poncy jackeen ......in a shell suit

You are again living in 3 channel land with these assumptions.

I was making sure that it was clear, that the CH7 deal had nothing to do with Sky as Sky fanboys appear to confuse Sky with Santa Claus. One cannot take anything for granted re what a skyfanboy writes.

Do you honestly think that it is impossible to debate this without you resorting to pettiness?

I'm no Sky fanboy. But I can separate my dislike for Sky from the grander scheme unlike some jumped up Farney boy.

If anything I lose out on my ease of viewing here in Canada because of this deal because I would have watched it on TV3.ie.

I now have "This Charming Man" in my head. How apt...

**BonnieShels** · 10/04/2014, 9:30 PM

Semi Finals weekend in the League this weekend...

Will this Cork renaissance continue? Is Derry's rise in fortunes a signal of what's to come or a flash-in-the-pan? Will Mayo choke? Will we experiment now that there's silverware close?

**Real ale Madrid** · 11/04/2014, 8:45 AM

Moving Pa Kelly to centre half back shows that the new Cork manager has shown more tactical nous in a league campaign than his incumbant did in the previous 5 years. Its the emergence of Brian Hurley though that really has Cork football excited. While we have a lot of good forwards - we haven't had anyone in the class of Stephen O'Neill, Buddentit Brogan, Gooch etc but now we have. Strong, great fielder, pace and scores from play - a serious player. Not sure if we can dominate midfield on Sunday though so might have to give way to Ta Tubs - but it should be a belter. This black card thing has turned football on its head - the league was great to watch. Mayo might shade it experience wise against Derry.

**swinfordfc** · 11/04/2014, 1:59 PM

Dublin and Derry to win at the weekend.......

**swinfordfc** · 13/04/2014, 8:56 PM

Originally Posted by swinfordfc

Dublin and Derry to win at the weekend.......

Thats was easy .....

**BonnieShels** · 13/04/2014, 9:47 PM

Good call. Seems like the Dublin game was a thriller.

**BonnieShels** · 29/04/2014, 6:43 PM

Should I be booking my flights home for the 3rd week of September?

Seems like we just went for them and didn't let up i that second half.

An already intriguing summer has now got the potential to be better than last.

Also, GAAgo announced as a Championship sponsor. Hmmmm...

At least we'll have more detail on this "international" package soon enough.

**BonnieShels** · 30/04/2014, 6:32 PM

Reports coming out that Mark McHugh has left the Donegal panel.

Looking for more details now.

Yeah... Him and two others according to rte.

**BonnieShels** · 05/05/2014, 10:57 PM

Mayo hammer New York in first Championship match of 2014. Nothing much to talk about really other than to say WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYY that the summer has arrived.