RTE to show live SPL

**pete** · 08/07/2002, 5:44 PM

After losing the rights to show irish international games RTE Sport have announced a new deal that will surely be welcomed by supporters of Irelands biggest club Glasgow Celtic.

RTEs deal with the SPL follows on from a similar deal by the BBC last week. As part of the deal RTE will take their live tv footage from BBC. Coverage will focus on the the 4 old firm games as well Celtics other 40 victories.

RTE1 with henchforth be rebranded as BBC Oirland.

**James** · 08/07/2002, 5:59 PM

un****ingbeleivable

what a shower of wesbrit dumbass mother****ers those clowns in rte are

good news for all those thousands of people from glasgow you see going round cork and dublin everyday
shure there must be more people from glasgow in ireland anyway then in glasgow....cause everywhere u go u see people wearing the glasgow celtic of scotland jersey..

this is a nice sickening thought for the end of the day
thanks pete

**eoinh** · 08/07/2002, 9:49 PM

to be a ****-take? not even rte are that stupid.

**pete** · 09/07/2002, 10:30 AM

ha gotcha James

Its a ****take but if BBC get the SPL rights i'd say its highly likely RTE may take it too.

Just shows how unsurprisingly an announcement like that would be?

**patsh** · 09/07/2002, 12:44 PM

Well if RTE did show the games, it would be for the same commercial reasons that the FAI took the Sky shilling. RTE would get a big audience for SPL and sell a lot of air time for ads.

One of the worse things about the Sky/FAI deal is that it was sold so cheaply. Sky needs only 15,000 extra subscribers to cover their €7.5M costs. Thats the amount of people who attend premier/first division eL games each week, which is not a lot really.

I can see the FAI's point of view that €7.5M is handy money, but I think they have been very short-sighted and this deal will not be good for Irish soccer in the long term. Then again, when have the FAI put the best interests of Irish soccer above money?..

**Macy** · 09/07/2002, 1:06 PM

Originally posted by oddboy
I can see the FAI's point of view that €7.5M is handy money, but I think they have been very short-sighted and this deal will not be good for Irish soccer in the long term. Then again, when have the FAI put the best interests of Irish soccer above money?..

Can someone please explain why the FAI are being short sighted? How would they have been acting in the best interests of Irish football by taking the €1.2 - €1.5 million that RTE were offering? They offered it to RTE at less yo yo's than sky were willing to pay, and RTE turned it down. IMO the FAI had no choice, and for once they made the right decision. I, for one, would have been very p!ssed off if they had taken the RTE offer, with the Sky one on the table. They may well waste it, but at least potentially we have much more money to invest in the game in this country.....

**pete** · 09/07/2002, 1:23 PM

Deal is very good value for Sky & they could pay a lot more & still make a profit. However, just cos Sky could pay more doesn't mean they would. Sky offered 3 times what RTE offered so why would they pay anymore than that?

Usually the FAI are ripe for criticism & people onlky waiting for an excuse to slag them off - if they didn't take the money people would complain about that too.

If our governments actually properly financed sport in this country maybe sporting organisatiuons could afford to sell thier games to terrestial tv.

Eventhough the deal includes friendlies only the heardcore support have any interest in them. In the next 2 years the big games are Russia & Switzerland which won't even get close to matching the interest of Holland & Portugal.

**patsh** · 09/07/2002, 2:01 PM

Originally posted by Macy
Can someone please explain why the FAI are being short sighted? How would they have been acting in the best interests of Irish football by taking the €1.2 - €1.5 million that RTE were offering? They offered it to RTE at less yo yo's than sky were willing to pay, and RTE turned it down. IMO the FAI had no choice, and for once they made the right decision. I, for one, would have been very p!ssed off if they had taken the RTE offer, with the Sky one on the table. They may well waste it, but at least potentially we have much more money to invest in the game in this country.....

Q. How much money have the FAI got recently to give up on Eircom Park, plus the various tranches of money they will get from whatever stadium is built. (And there will be some stadium built, if only for the Euro 2008 bid) and where did they get it from?
A. The taxpayers of this country. Yes you, Macy, outside of whatever you contribute to the FAI through the Eircom League, have given a HUGE amount of money already to the FAI, and now they expect you to pay more again, to watch international games.

As regards RTE, their's was an opening offer, and they fully expected to pay more, as they were STILL in negotiation(or so they thought). Not anywhere near as much as Sky, but still a reasonable amount and RTE has ALWAYS been the station that tried to cover the national league and pay it some attention.

So Macy, let's say you sign up to Sky. You'll get to see the up to 8 games Ireland will play in any one year. What will Sky be trying to get you to watch for the rest of the time?? THE PREMIERSHIP. So now we will have even more soccer fans in this country brainwashed by Money Utd, Liverpool etc. etc. , and who are hardly going to be interested in CCFC or whoever.
How is this going to promote the game here?
We have one really glamorous soccer team in Ireland, the national team. Seeing this team is now limited to those who either want to, or can afford to, pay a hefty sum every month or those who will go to a pub to watch the team. The second option is an appalling choice for any kids wanting to watch games, and quite a few people simply will not pay out so much money for what is, most of the time, a load of sh*t.

I know soccer in Ireland needs the money, but not this way.
Somebody complained already the RTE were "westbrit dumbasses". Well the f*ckin country will be overrun with even worse very soon, because all they will be seeing is Sky television, the most biased little Inglander station in the world.....

Finally, in 4 years time, it's quite possible that there will be nobody but Sky to bid for the rights. Then they will own soccer lock, stock and barrel.

**Macy** · 09/07/2002, 2:02 PM

Don't dispute it's very good value for sky, but you have to wonder with RTE's bid so low, did the FAI not do well to get that much off Sky - 5 times the amount of the next nearest bidder!!??!!

**Macy** · 09/07/2002, 2:38 PM

Originally posted by oddboy

Q. How much money have the FAI got recently to give up on Eircom Park, plus the various tranches of money they will get from whatever stadium is built. (And there will be some stadium built, if only for the Euro 2008 bid) and where did they get it from?
A. The taxpayers of this country. Yes you, Macy, outside of whatever you contribute to the FAI through the Eircom League, have given a HUGE amount of money already to the FAI, and now they expect you to pay more again, to watch international games.

I already subscribe to RTE, through the tax disguised as a licence fee - for this I get sh!te reception (and I live only a couple of miles from Montrose!!!!), and very little of any interest to me on RTE. Yes the FAI have recieved other money's, but lets not forget that much of this paid off the eP losses.

Originally posted by oddboy
As regards RTE, their's was an opening offer, and they fully expected to pay more, as they were STILL in negotiation(or so they thought). Not anywhere near as much as Sky, but still a reasonable amount and RTE has ALWAYS been the station that tried to cover the national league and pay it some attention.

Opening offer? Negogiations had been going on for 9 months apparently! And even if that is the case, to offer less than the last deal was ridiculous. On the national league - they barely covered their contractual obligations - just look at the lack of coverage of irish clubs in Europe.....

Originally posted by oddboy
So Macy, let's say you sign up to Sky. You'll get to see the up to 8 games Ireland will play in any one year. What will Sky be trying to get you to watch for the rest of the time?? THE PREMIERSHIP. So now we will have even more soccer fans in this country brainwashed by Money Utd, Liverpool etc. etc. , and who are hardly going to be interested in CCFC or whoever.
How is this going to promote the game here?
We have one really glamorous soccer team in Ireland, the national team. Seeing this team is now limited to those who either want to, or can afford to, pay a hefty sum every month or those who will go to a pub to watch the team. The second option is an appalling choice for any kids wanting to watch games, and quite a few people simply will not pay out so much money for what is, most of the time, a load of sh*t.

Firstly, we're moving towards a summer season, so that effect will be less. If anything it will be a chance to cash in on general football supporting
Secondly, what difference is it going to make? We already have saturation of the premiership - RTE have the premiership highlights package running at the same time as many clubs here play their games, and the printed media covers the premiership so much anyway....... That's a red herring, basically saying that isn't happening already. That battle was lost back in the 60's when match of the day started.......
Thirdly - kids can watch the whole match on TV3 later - it's not against the law to say no to kids you know

Originally posted by oddboy
I know soccer in Ireland needs the money, but not this way.
Somebody complained already the RTE were "westbrit dumbasses". Well the f*ckin country will be overrun with even worse very soon, because all they will be seeing is Sky television, the most biased little Inglander station in the world.....

Or they'll be seeing a decent highlights package on TV3 of the national league...... Lest we forget that RTE have already sold their soul to sky, considering they already broadcast on the digital channels......

Originally posted by oddboy
Finally, in 4 years time, it's quite possible that there will be nobody but Sky to bid for the rights. Then they will own soccer lock, stock and barrel.

So RTE will be out of business in 4 years time!!!???!!!

**pete** · 09/07/2002, 2:55 PM

Firstly the government could have used legislation passed 3 years ago to stop tv rights being sold to SKy. Personally I belive they will never enact the law cos RTE would probably offer less again then.

People have been criticising the FAI for not completely Eircom Park. The govt gave them money (bribed them) to stop EP & go along with Bertie Bowl. Why couldn't the FAI have used the 60 million to compleet EP?

btw if you used the saem logic it could be said i give the GAA money (80 million punts towards Croke Park) & what do I see from it?

**patsh** · 09/07/2002, 2:57 PM

Well you have your mind made up, Macy, but you really seem to have something against RTE? RTE do a fair job, covering news, current affairs and drama in this country. Just ask anybody who tries to work in these area's in Ireland how much work they get from TV3 or Sky. The answer is NONE.
The money the FAI are getting from us will nt just cover Eircom Park. Over the next three years the FAI will get €57M in various grants. This leaves Sky's paltry sum in the halfpenny place.

The eL clubs are as much to blame for bad coverage as RTE, given that so few clubs made any attempt to co-operate with RTE.
Summer soccer will not make any difference to Sky, they will hardly be promoting it waiting for their own offering to start.

RTE has no choice but to broadcast on Sky's digital band, because the stupid cow who was the minister responsible in the last government hadn't a clue and couldn't care less about broadcasting, or how Ireland might get it's own digital network up and running.

As regards MOTD, if the "battle has been lost" why not pack it in, and close down the eL now? Why bother keeping it going?

TV3 and "decent program " is an oxymoron.

And yes, it is quite possible taht RTE will be gone in 4 years time, unless something is done to save the station.

Looking at this, I sound like a spokesman for RTE! I promise you I'm not, but I do think it a station that does a lot of good things, and I don't want to be swamped with the likes of "Ibiza Uncovered" as the onlt sh*t to watch on TV.

**Macy** · 09/07/2002, 3:59 PM

I have got something against RTE, but far more so since this deal was announced. They have been continually putting a negative spin on the deal in their "news" reports, rather than reporting the facts..... Rather than say they simple couldn't afford the deal, they have shifted it onto the FAI - an organisation that took a significantly better deal, and offered the coverage to RTE at a significantly reduced rate. RTE are using this for their own political means to get a fee increase, and to use as leverage against the unions in the organisation....

I don't dispute that much of RTE's programming is good - in terms of current affairs, and some of the productions it's gone into with other channels. That is by the by - this deal was never going to be saviour of RTE, nor is it going to Sky going to bury the station - that's just more spin.

Yes the Terrastrial Digital was blocked by Government, but could the Government have saved them from themselves? (look at ITV digital!)

Think you may be a bit harsh on TV3, but I'm not their biggest fan - just think we should give them a chance before we slate them. RTE has had the chance, hasn't produced, so I do feel free to slate them.....

If RTE is gone in 4 years time, it will have nothing to do with this deal.

I also think RTE does good things - not often enough though (hence the trouble it's in!)..... however it can never be claimed that it's eL coverage was one of them.....

**eoinh** · 09/07/2002, 4:12 PM

(this is nicked from somewhere else)

rte were offering the fai less money for the wc qualifyers than they would give to pat kenny in that amount of time!!!!!!!!!!

**patsh** · 09/07/2002, 4:13 PM

Macy, I'm not trying to claim that this will save or sink RTE. Your original question was "why do people think the deal is short-sighted" I think it is short-sighted because in the long term it will do nothing for soccer in Ireland, may even damage it, and I've given my reasons why I think that way.
And one other thing, when you say RTE are putting a negative spin on something. Murdoch, his papers and his TV companies, including Sky, are the masters of spin, disinformation and downright lies. Sky will do whatever it takes to make money, and if Irish soccer, or any other sport suffers because of that, then so be it. RTE have to ensure some sort of public service remit, Sky don't give a sh*t.
However, it's a done deal, I just hope Menton et al do make some really good use of the money, but I am sceptical of them at the moment....