LAST UPDATE | 10 May 2023

THE GAA HAS rebuked Virgin Media Television for their claims that no other broadcaster was approached to air GAA matches after Sky Sports lost their rights to broadcast games.

Virgin Media yesterday said that it was not approached by the GAA to gauge their interest in acquiring rights to broadcast games, which the GAA is now disputing.

Both RTÉ and the GAA have faced pressure in recent days 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.

In a statement this afternoon, the GAA said that Virgin Media were “afforded every opportunity” to discuss options around broadcasting games, after Sky Sports lost the rights to air matches.

The GAA said: “From as early as February 2021, the GAA contacted VMTV and other parties to gauge their interest in acquiring rights packages that would become available in the renewal of the GAA media rights in 2022. The initial call was followed up by a detailed description of the various packages available.

On Tuesday May 9th, VMTV (Virgin Media Television) issued a statement that called into question the integrity of the GAA Media Rights process. The statement contained several factual errors and misleading comments which obliges the GAA to correct the record. #GAABelong

— The GAA (@officialgaa) May 10, 2023

“Thereafter followed several meetings, telephone calls, emails and document exchanges between the parties. The GAA did not receive a formal bid from VMTV or an expression of interest.”

“In June 2022, VMTV were again contacted to clarify that they did not intend to make a bid. VMTV were clear that their model was not to acquire rights but rather to acquire ‘ready to go’ packages ie productions which don’t require outside broadcast set-ups for live match coverage.

“In short, VMTV were afforded every opportunity to discuss options, variations to packages and to submit a confidential offer. VMTV choose not to bid.”

This has directly contradicted Virgin Media, who yesterday stated that no broadcaster was approached by the GAA to acquire rights for matches.

“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,” the statement said.

Both the GAA and RTÉ have said that it is not feasible to show all GAA matches on free-to-air TV.

Oireachtas Committee

This afternoon, the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media agreed to invite all Irish sporting organisations and broadcasters to appear before it, following the GAAGO controversy.

The committee met late this afternoon following proposals to invite both RTÉ and the GAA to the committee.

However, there were some internal disagreements and TDs and Senators instead agreed to invite all Irish sport bodies and broadcasters.

One TD who attended the meeting described it as a compromise.

Invitations are due to be sent to the GAA, IRFU, FAI, Sport Ireland, the Federation of Irish Sport, RTÉ, Virgin Media and Sky Sports.

Yesterday, 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.”

Additional reporting by Christina Finn

Written by Tadgh McNally and posted on TheJournal.ie