TV rights for home qualifiers

**Forever Dreamin** · 05/03/2006, 5:57 PM

According to one of todays papers John Delaney has requested permission from the government to sell the rights to our qualifiers to the highest bidders i.e. sky sports

I dont know what other fans think but I personally am against it.

The argument in favour of more cash to give to junior clubs will be rolled out, but surely the "rights of the average fan" are more important. Not everyone can afford sky nor is it right for parents to have to bring kids to pubs if they want to watch the match.

I think that given the taxpayer, you and I, are giving the new stadium a huge grant, surely all matches played in it should be televised on free to view channels.

**Dodge** · 05/03/2006, 6:34 PM

I'm all for selling rights to the highest bidder.

**eirebhoy** · 05/03/2006, 6:45 PM

It was all paper talk.

The FAI today said all championship qualifying games will be broadcast on RTE through to 2010.

The FAI has a four year agreement with RTE to broadcast ALL competitive European and World Cup qualifiers live. Chief Executive Officer John Delaney said today "all our qualifying games for the UEFA Euro 2008 and the World Cup 2010 will all be broadcast live on RTE". "There is no question of any change to that agreement", he added. He said that today's newspaper report seems to give the impression that this is not the case.

The FAI has excellent TV agreements with all the major broadcasters for varying rights, including RTE, Sky, TV3, TG4 and Setanta Sports.

http://www.fai.ie/article099.html

**zinedineontour** · 05/03/2006, 7:18 PM

The Fai is a business not a charity so sell to the highest bidder .. Those that genuinely want to watch the game will find somewhere to do so if they dont have sky .. Oh I cant sit on my couch and watch poor ireland cause i dont have sky !! The money that we can get from the sky deal will benefit irish football rather than accepting the ****e rte or tv3 will pay to benefit a few people who wont bother to go to their friends , pub so on a couple of times a year ...

**joema** · 05/03/2006, 8:05 PM

I think its important that the qualifiers should be on free to air tv. If they were only available on sky the general public may lose a bit of interest in the team. Also young children might not be able to watch match as they cant go to pub and because the "as live" coverage would be on too late

**pete** · 06/03/2006, 12:56 PM

The governments "free to air" rules distort the market for FAI Internationals. The FAI only moved to Sky the last time because od pitance RTE offered for the rights. Tv3 do not have the financial muscle to compete with RTE which basically means only 1 bidder.

I've no problem with highest bidder approach & I am sick of RTEs moaning. The FAI should at least have the option to sell to SKy or Setanta - it doesn't mean they will actually use that option.

**Bald Student** · 06/03/2006, 1:19 PM

Delisting the games will force RTE or TV3 to pay a fair price. Last time they were offered a discount of (I think) 20% on what SKY would pay. Sky offered 8 million so RTE were told they could have it for about 6. That seems fair to me.

A possible compromise would be to sell it to SKY on condition that it's on SKY One and not Sky Sports.

**brine3** · 06/03/2006, 10:34 PM

I think the long term damage that would be done to the game if the matches were on pay-tv well outweighs the short term gains from a couple of extra quid.

If there's no footy on tv then kids will end up watching GAA and rugby. We can't have that...

**Dodge** · 06/03/2006, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by brine3

I think the long term damage that would be done to the game if the matches were on pay-tv well outweighs the short term gains from a couple of extra quid.

If there's no footy on tv then kids will end up watching GAA and rugby. We can't have that...

So you're saying that because there'll be 8-10 less games on tv over a 2 year period, kids will stop playing football? Do you honestly believe this?

EDIT; It'd actually be only 4-5 games over a 2 year period

**tricky_colour** · 06/03/2006, 11:02 PM

Hopefully soon you will be able to watch the games for nothing on the internet

Sky kills off sports in the long run IMO.

Some things should not be for sale.

Should a country sell off it's national anthem to Coke-Cola or it's
flag to McDonalds?

**Fergie's Son** · 07/03/2006, 3:07 AM

I think you walk a dangerous line when you start to commoditize a national team. I think selling the games to Sky would have a negative impact on the popularity of the team. Further, what exactly in the FAI's past has suggested to anyone that they are capable of managing any financial windfall for the betterment of anyone other than themselves?

There is, however, some merit to the FAI being able to capitalize on the popularity of the team. To the end, I propose that the FAI and RTE enter into a revenue sharing agreement. RTE will pay a base amount for the rights to televize the games. The FAI will then receive a portion of advertising revenue paid to RTE based on the advertising rates and ratings. Incentives all around.

**Macy** · 07/03/2006, 7:39 AM

FAI should be allowed to sell to the highest bidder. RTE have for too long got it for to low a price, holding back development of the game in this country. Give RTE priority if they match the sky or setanta offers, not give them any discount.

**Terry** · 07/03/2006, 7:44 AM

Sell to the highest bidder!

Everyone, no matter who you are, has at least one friend who has skysports. Surely they wouldnt mind you popping over for 2 hours a couple of times a year ?

**brine3** · 07/03/2006, 9:01 AM

every single other association i know has matches on terrestrial channels. wales, england, scotland, holland, germany, belgium, france, spain etc. even the money grabbers at FIFA have resisted selling tv-rights for the world cup to pay tv. it is in the better interests of everyone involved that the beautiful game remains accessible to the people. all the other associations realise this.

that said, rte shouldn't think that they can get a free ride.

**eirebhoy** · 07/03/2006, 9:28 AM

Originally Posted by brine3

every single other association i know has matches on terrestrial channels. wales, england, scotland, holland, germany, belgium, france, spain etc.

I though Scotland and Wales sold theirs to Sky.

**Dodge** · 07/03/2006, 9:39 AM

And England have had them on sky, of course. But all that doesn't really matter. If the countries listed there's a multitude of channels looking for those rights. In Ireland we have one local station looking for a free ride and another with a fairly high subscription rate looking to pay over the odds. Not a hard decision IMO

**pete** · 07/03/2006, 11:31 AM

I think football is big enough in this country to survive matches only being on cable.

Minority sports struggle on cable-satellite. English rugby sold its 6 nations matches to Sky Sports but because rugby union somewhat of a minority sport they sold the next rights to the BBC as get a lot more exposure.

If a terrestial tv station offered the same cash as satellite then almost all sports bodies would opt for terrestial.

**jbyrne** · 07/03/2006, 12:36 PM

think i heard before that a major reason for rugby lge in england going into a major decline was due to the rights being sold to sky thus limiting the potential audience.
fair enough, we all know someone with sky and could pop around to watch the games but selling the rights to a subcription channel will without doubt reduce the exposure of the Irish team and that can only be bad. what about people who are house bound or are living in the middle of nowhere? are they not entitled to see their countrys team play live just because they cant afford sky??
skys coverage of Ireland games is poor, tacky and most of their commentators cant even prenounce the difficult Irish names properly!
can you imagine if our shoot out victory over romania or mcateers goal against holland had only been commentated on by the likes of martin tyler of sky rather than an Irishman who knew how to properly capture the Irish spirit and have genuine excitement in their commentary?!
moneys not everything, especially in sport

**Dodge** · 07/03/2006, 1:41 PM

To repeat. It would a maximum of 5 games over a two year period. World Cup and European Championship finals would not be included

**jbyrne** · 07/03/2006, 5:57 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

To repeat. It would a maximum of 5 games over a two year period. World Cup and European Championship finals would not be included

maybe so but still important games to Irish football. how many games shown in Ireland are actually relevant to Irish football? about 12 live eircom lge and about 4 or 5 Irish qualifiers is about all each season. take away the home internations and theres not a huge amount left