THE OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE on Sport is due to decide whether or not to invite both RTÉ and the GAA to address the ongoing controversy over the airing of matches.
There has been heavy criticism of the GAA after the Munster senior hurling clash between Tipperary and Cork was aired on the GAAGO platform instead of on free-to-air television.
This backlash was also seen last week after Clare’s victory over Limerick was only available behind a paywall on the app.
The controversy heightened yesterday after Virgin Media said that other broadcasters were not approached by the GAA following Sky Sports’ decision not to renew their rights to broadcast games.
“When Sky Television decided not to renew its GAA rights, the GAA did not approach other broadcasters to ascertain whether they would be interested in broadcasting these games but arbitrarily decided to put them behind a paywall,” Virgin Media said in their statement.
This is despite the GAA’s Director of Communications Alan Milton telling The 42 on Monday that the GAA “don’t have another terrestrial partner, no-one else expressed interest, and to that end, we decided that GAAGO was the way to proceed.”
Both the GAA and RTÉ have said that it is not feasible to show all GAA matches on free-to-air TV.
Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth said that she would be consulting with committee members today about whether or not to send invitations to RTÉ and the GAA.
Smyth said that the statement from Virgin Media had “heightened peoples annoyance” about the situation and has added further upset.
She told The Journal that she wanted to have the opportunity to “tease out” issues at the committee.
Committee member and two-time Mayo GAA All-Star, Alan Dillon, said that the controversy had increased the perception that both the GAA and RTÉ were in a “cartel”.
“There’s a perceived formulation of a cartel here with the distribution of games. It calls into question issues of competition and fairness,” Dillon said.
He said that he supported both RTÉ and the GAA appearing before the committee and that he had concerns about the state broadcaster’s 50% stake in GAAGO.
Dillon added that it was “concerning” that the GAA had not approached other broadcasters, saying that “not looking at Virgin Media was a mistake”.
“To not afford Virgin the opportunity [to broadcast GAA matches] needs to be investigated.”
Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that it was “not possible” for RTÉ and TG4 to broadcast all GAA games.
“There could be as many as 10, 15 major [GAA] matches on every weekend. It’s not possible for RTE and TG4 to televise all of those matches,” Varadkar told the Dáil.
“The solution to me seems to lie in making sure that the most popular most important matches are the ones that are on RTE and TG4, and use GAAGO for the other matches.
“I think we all understand that all matches can’t be televised.”
Written by Tadgh McNally and posted on TheJournal.ie
