Jeez, there are some awful old dinosaurs and lads with chips on their shoulders on here.RTE pay a fortune for the Six Nations rights and for six or seven weeks they promote the living daylights out of rugby, because they paid the money and have something that nobody else in Ireland, not SKY or BT Sport, not TV3 or TG4 have. It's simple business and promotion.
I wonder if we looked hard enough and discovered some warped old rugby message board in the middle of the summer, would it be full of old codgers going on about how RTE is obsessed with GAA, and that is all that the national broadcaster focus on for four months.
I can remember RTE showing league finals live, the club finals, ladies football and camogie. The don't have those rights anymore, so why the hell are they going to promote games that other stations are showing live. Did any of us see many clips or goals from yesterday's games on TV3 or Sky News?
Every Irish TV and radio station, every paper and website was dominated by rugby this weekend. It's an international game and Roscommon v Meath or Kilkenny v Clare can't compete with that. But come the summer, GAA rules the airwaves.

Roger (Meath) - Posts: 471 - 23/03/2015 21:54:22    1705850

I've never been anti-rugby in my life but the recent hullabaloo & onesidedness from RTE is starting to put me off a bit actually. Apart from the last day of the Six Nations, many of the games were poor enough entertainment value.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 23/03/2015 21:55:47    1705852

Whats good for Rugby is usually good for hurling. The 2 complement each other imo. So when the Irish rugby team does well so does hurling. Likewise with football. When the Republic of Ireland soccer team is successful well so is Gaelic football.
Having said that- brace yourselves GAA and Irish Soccer. The hype about rugby will get more with World cup around the corner. How does GAA deal with this, sticking with basics. Irish culture, Irish language and family values. That will see them through to better days!

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2519 - 24/03/2015 11:04:47    1705938

20/03/2015 21:54:10 Soma
ROS1 the situation with the schools games was not one I was aware of but it does seem to sum things up quite well and gives further weight to Mediamans posts. Why would the Ulster rugby final clip be shown but not the gaelic football final clip? Both were broadcast by BBC so its not a case that the images were not available to RTE. Only the football game featured a team from south of the border as well, the area RTE licence payers live in, so it seems all the more strange that it wouldn't be the one featured. I am sure we will be given the nonsense about it being rugby season at the moment but surely people will start to realise that there seems to be a very definite slant given to sports coverage by RTE. It doesn't give weight to mediamans posts at all actually. Contact RTE if you want to know why one clip was shown and another wasn't.
21/03/2015 11:56:52 A Another
There can be no justification as to why RTE a national broadcaster favours rugby and soccer so much on their news coverage over the gaa. The facts speak for themselves - the gaa has more members, more players, higher attedances and bigger viewing figures (which I demonstrated in earlier pages on this thread) than the other sports. We're not asking for more coverage just to be equal.
People can say its the gaa off season but this is an all year round issue. If rtewatch keeps this up over the summer he's see rugby still gets more mentions during the height of the championship when their is no rugby on!!
More people have attended gaa games in Ireland since January than the other sports, you would not think it from the coverage being given. Attendances at a game don't determine tv audience and shouldn't either. Rugby will get a lot of media coverage this summer with the world cup in England next September/October but wont get too much in June, a bit in July and a good bit in August...
21/03/2015 17:37:47 mediaman
The real problem is that rugby union gets far more RTE coverage than it merits. Take for example the underage scene. The U-21championships in football and hurling are equal in importance to U-20 rugby union. That's self evident. Just look at the attendances for each competition. If anything U-21football and hurling matches attract larger crowds as evidenced by this week's games. Nearly 3,000 attended the Cork Kerry match and that was just one of 8 U-21 matches played on Wednesday night. Last night approximately 1,500 if even that attended the Ireland Scotland U-20 game. And yet the RTE website gave no reports on any of the U-21 football matches (full time scores only) however it gave a detailed report on the U-20 rugby running to a massive 700 words. Add in the fact that RTE has already given full live coverage to U-20 rugby matches this year and you have clear evidence of favouritism. And don't forget many of the U-21 players are already household names. How many of the Ireland U-20 rugby team can you name? These are the facts. Like them or not. Who are you to determine what coverage a sport merits. I would think all the mediamen/women in RTE would be much more qualified to judge what coverage a sport gets
How are intercounty underage teams the same as a national team?
If you want more coverage for GAA why not start a blog and do the coverage yourself and get yourself a job out of it. That's how several journalists have got a job... Murray Kinsella, a rugby journalist, started his own blog a few years ago and now will be covering the rugby world cup on tv3 later this year as well as continuing writing for the score.ie

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:02:32    1705960

21/03/2015 21:12:25 fabio8
lobbying?..its about whether the sport merits the coverage it gets or not...me and a few people could lobby rte tomorrow to show some obscure sport..it doesnt mean i should expect it to be shown if the overall interest isnt there as its not...the sponsorship womens rugby bring in is minimal to say the least Yeah lobbying. RTE are publically funded. Lobby them with complaints from your local elected official etc like people do with all manners of issues like health, education etc

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:04:36    1705962

22/3/15 18:14:14 hurler32
RTE are ran by Fine Gael as can be evidenced by yesterdays coverage of the huge march in Dublin...make sure theres loads of Rugby headlines and people wont realise there was a march of anything up to a 100,000 in Dublin...RTE could stand for rugby telefis eirean at this stage... RTE aren't ran by Fine Gael. They are funded in part by the government but are politically independent
As for rugby telefis eireann hahahahahahah
22/3/15 19:25:01 mediaman
They do cover football or hurling but often in such a deplorable way as to insult everyone concerned. Go compare these two match reports on the RTE site and you will never again doubt that there is not just a clear bias but also an unacceptable level of of disrespect shown towards 'our sport' and its followers. If you feel its unacceptable contact RTE. Your twitter account doesn't appear be getting anywhere...
The coverage of GAA isn't deplorable and certainly isn't an insult to everyone concerned. If it was why do GAA managers/players not criticise the media more often....

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:09:17    1705966

He's back!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 24/03/2015 12:11:53    1705968

22/03/2015 19:45:37 arock
Only people with the power to change things is the GAA - wouldn't hold my breath though - one phonecall could change things if they so wished. So if they don't see a problem why all this whinging when the only body who can really really influence things isn't bothered
22/03/2015 21:17:20 Joxer
Non-rugby sports are treated with contempt it's sad to say. The only soccer show now shown on RTE, and it showing games from the national league, has been relegated from it's once prime time slot of 8pm to 11.05pm on Mondays. Could you imagine the uproar from the old boys club if 'Against the Head' was screened that late? Rumour has it that Ryle is changing his title to Director of Rugby at RTE as no other sport can get a look in. It's pitiful. I wonder you Tubs will have on as star guest next Saturday. Will it be Paulie or Seanie or Besty? ROG, Dricco, Donncha and Tommy Bowe have all been on this season so plenty of room for some more. How can you criticise RTE for putting the fai coverage to 11pm and downgrading it like they have when so many irish "soccer fans" have never seen the inside of a league of Ireland ground and openly dismiss the league and support English teams with feck all irish/English players playing for them..

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:12:09    1705969

23/03/2015 20:35:37 mediaman
Fascinating item on RTE Radio 1 Drivetime. For no apparent reason the programme decided to interview rugby union activists in traditional football and hurling areas to see what the impact of the rugby union results over last weekend might have. The entire item sounded like nothing more than a free ad for rugby union as speaker after speaker encouraged young boys and girls to get involved in rugby in GAA areas only. I wonder whose idea it was to do this. Obviously not someone with a GAA background. Is RTE now the PR division of the IRFU attempting to poach players from 'our' sport. It certainly sounds like that. What other possible reason could there be for such an odd item? Curiouser and curiouser.There is nothing curious about that. Rugby is gaining a foothold, however small, for the first time in some areas. After a big weekend for irish rugby RTE are rightfully covering something on the issue
IRFU has its own pr department and RTE isn't part of it. Your delusions and bitterness about rugby is getting sadder and sadder with every post
23/03/2015 21:31:16 ROS1
Ormond rte have no sponsorship for there coverage of women's rugby on tv or radio. Indeed i have seen bigger crowds at ladies football junior b finals here in Roscommon between 2 small rural clubs then was at the women's rugby game in Glasgow. Look at yesterdays sport news where the Irish women's hockey team beat Canada across the road in Belfield from Rte there was a 1 second clip of them celebrating didn't even bother showing any of the goals of the game. Indeed it seems that rte presenters are only aware that women play sport since the Irish rugby women's team have become competitive in the last couple of years. Mediaman it was the same on game on on St Patrick day where Hugh Cahill was getting giddy talking about fella from gaa backgrounds playing schools rugby, indeed he failed to mention how most of these lads have to pay fortunes to send there children to these schools Its still related to sponsorship and potential income. Covering womens game brings in more female viewers and advertising revenue. that a small crowd was in Glasgow cant be used as a comparison. The game was in Scotland!!!!!
It is a shame the hockey team didn't get more coverage.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:22:56    1705980

24/03/2015 12:11:53
keeper7
He's back! now now stay on topic. going to discuss things or talk stupidly?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:23:40    1705981

23/03/2015 21:33:01 keeper7
Is this RTE getting back at the GAA for the "SKY deal"? And where's Ormondo gone to in all of this? How are RTE supposedly getting back at the GAA?
23/03/2015 21:35:24 mediaman
Year old out of date Information on the Club Finals on RTE Player only goes to prove that whereas nothing is too good for Rugby Union fans any old thing at all is good enough for football/hurling followers. Great to see so many have now become aware of just how badly 'our sport' is being treated by our so-called National Broadcaster. If there is supposedly so many aware of RTE acting so poorly where are the protests etc and actual attempts to bring about change?
23/03/2015 21:54:22 Roger
Jeez, there are some awful old dinosaurs and lads with chips on their shoulders on here.RTE pay a fortune for the Six Nations rights and for six or seven weeks they promote the living daylights out of rugby, because they paid the money and have something that nobody else in Ireland, not SKY or BT Sport, not TV3 or TG4 have. It's simple business and promotion.
I wonder if we looked hard enough and discovered some warped old rugby message board in the middle of the summer, would it be full of old codgers going on about how RTE is obsessed with GAA, and that is all that the national broadcaster focus on for four months.
I can remember RTE showing league finals live, the club finals, ladies football and camogie. The don't have those rights anymore, so why the hell are they going to promote games that other stations are showing live. Did any of us see many clips or goals from yesterday's games on TV3 or Sky News?
Every Irish TV and radio station, every paper and website was dominated by rugby this weekend. It's an international game and Roscommon v Meath or Kilkenny v Clare can't compete with that. But come the summer, GAA rules the airwaves. great post. spot on

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 12:28:02    1705984

24/03/2015 12:12:09
ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 9458

1705969
22/03/2015 19:45:37 arock
Only people with the power to change things is the GAA - wouldn't hold my breath though - one phonecall could change things if they so wished. So if they don't see a problem why all this whinging when the only body who can really really influence things isn't bothered
22/03/2015 21:17:20 Joxer
Non-rugby sports are treated with contempt it's sad to say. The only soccer show now shown on RTE, and it showing games from the national league, has been relegated from it's once prime time slot of 8pm to 11.05pm on Mondays. Could you imagine the uproar from the old boys club if 'Against the Head' was screened that late? Rumour has it that Ryle is changing his title to Director of Rugby at RTE as no other sport can get a look in. It's pitiful. I wonder you Tubs will have on as star guest next Saturday. Will it be Paulie or Seanie or Besty? ROG, Dricco, Donncha and Tommy Bowe have all been on this season so plenty of room for some more. How can you criticise RTE for putting the fai coverage to 11pm and downgrading it like they have when so many irish "soccer fans" have never seen the inside of a league of Ireland ground and openly dismiss the league and support English teams with feck all irish/English players playing for them..

The same could be said of all these new provincial rugby fans ormondbannerman. The ail don't get too many so it's a bit rich to be criticising league of Ireland football when the same goes on in rugby only on a much larger scale.

Bain (Donegal) - Posts: 470 - 24/03/2015 13:01:33    1706006

Guess who's back...ORMO's back

ConnollyDub (Dublin) - Posts: 2007 - 24/03/2015 13:02:30    1706007

22/03/2015 21:17:20 Joxer
Non-rugby sports are treated with contempt it's sad to say. The only soccer show now shown on RTE, and it showing games from the national league, has been relegated from it's once prime time slot of 8pm to 11.05pm on Mondays. Could you imagine the uproar from the old boys club if 'Against the Head' was screened that late? Rumour has it that Ryle is changing his title to Director of Rugby at RTE as no other sport can get a look in. It's pitiful. I wonder you Tubs will have on as star guest next Saturday. Will it be Paulie or Seanie or Besty? ROG, Dricco, Donncha and Tommy Bowe have all been on this season so plenty of room for some more.

"How can you criticise RTE for putting the fai coverage to 11pm and downgrading it like they have when so many irish "soccer fans" have never seen the inside of a league of Ireland ground and openly dismiss the league and support English teams with feck all irish/English players playing for them.."

----

It's easy to criticise them. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and the second most popular in Ireland. The first week's LOI premier league attendance figures were over 18,000. The cost to RTE is minimal. They don't even have to send their cameras to the games as independents flog coverage to them. Most rugby TV viewers have never set foot inside the Aviva, never mind any rugby stadium abroad, yet it doesn't stop the national broadcaster from inflicting endless coverage upon us, 7 1/2 hours on Sat, followed by 1 1/2 hours of a ROG documentary, followed the following day by live coverage of a women's game attended by less spectators than have attended Cabinteely's opening home game in Div 1 of the Irish soccer league. Does that seriously sound like balanced coverage to you?

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 24/03/2015 13:22:55    1706017

Joxer soccer is the most popular game in Ireland to play ,it has more registered players in the Republic of lreland than GAA has in the whole 32 counties .

tinrylandman (Carlow) - Posts: 387 - 24/03/2015 13:41:39    1706026

24/03/2015 13:02:30
ConnollyDub
Guess who's back...ORMO's back What you on about CoDub?
24/03/2015 13:22:55 Joxer
It's easy to criticise them. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and the second most popular in Ireland. The first week's LOI premier league attendance figures were over 18,000. The cost to RTE is minimal. They don't even have to send their cameras to the games as independents flog coverage to them. Most rugby TV viewers have never set foot inside the Aviva, never mind any rugby stadium abroad, yet it doesn't stop the national broadcaster from inflicting endless coverage upon us, 7 1/2 hours on Sat, followed by 1 1/2 hours of a ROG documentary, followed the following day by live coverage of a women's game attended by less spectators than have attended Cabinteely's opening home game in Div 1 of the Irish soccer league. Does that seriously sound like balanced coverage to you? 18000 going to the premier games in the premier division of the league isn't a lot. Why should RTE invest so much coverage in this competition when the public don't care for the games? When the overwhelming majority of soccer supporters here support English teams with feck all irish players.
How do you know most tv viewers haven't went to Aviva? RTE don't inflict anything on you. You don't have to watch the rugby on RTE if you dont want to. You do have the option to change channel or turn tv off and go outside etc
There is often GAA documentaries on weekends of big all Ireland games etc. There is no or very few complaints about GAA having Up for the Match on RTE on weekends of All Ireland finals.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 24/03/2015 13:44:41    1706027

They were great to watch though in fairness.Never enjoyed rugby as much.

Dubh_linn (Dublin) - Posts: 2312 - 24/03/2015 13:56:12    1706031

"Joxer soccer is the most popular game in Ireland to play ,it has more registered players in the Republic of lreland than GAA has in the whole 32 counties"

I'd like to see the actual stats for that.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 24/03/2015 14:20:50    1706047

ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 9460

1706027
24/03/2015 13:02:30
ConnollyDub
Guess who's back...ORMO's back What you on about CoDub?
24/03/2015 13:22:55 Joxer
It's easy to criticise them. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and the second most popular in Ireland. The first week's LOI premier league attendance figures were over 18,000. The cost to RTE is minimal. They don't even have to send their cameras to the games as independents flog coverage to them. Most rugby TV viewers have never set foot inside the Aviva, never mind any rugby stadium abroad, yet it doesn't stop the national broadcaster from inflicting endless coverage upon us, 7 1/2 hours on Sat, followed by 1 1/2 hours of a ROG documentary, followed the following day by live coverage of a women's game attended by less spectators than have attended Cabinteely's opening home game in Div 1 of the Irish soccer league. Does that seriously sound like balanced coverage to you? 18000 going to the premier games in the premier division of the league isn't a lot. Why should RTE invest so much coverage in this competition when the public don't care for the games? When the overwhelming majority of soccer supporters here support English teams with feck all irish players.
How do you know most tv viewers haven't went to Aviva? RTE don't inflict anything on you. You don't have to watch the rugby on RTE if you dont want to. You do have the option to change channel or turn tv off and go outside etc
There is often GAA documentaries on weekends of big all Ireland games etc. There is no or very few complaints about GAA having Up for the Match on RTE on weekends of All Ireland finals.

----
Well you see my problem is not that I don't have the option to change channel, my problem is that I only have the luxury of having a TV in the first place because I pay a scandalous TV lic fee to our national broadcaster. The least I expect in return is balance in sport and other areas of huge national interest , for example politics. Surely that's not much to ask, given that I pay them €160 py for the privilege. Trust me if LOI soccer and GAA was shown on any other channel I would never watch RTE and as long as I didn't have to pay this TV tax, I would be made up.

On rugby jersey wearing 'fans' of the provincial teams and the national team. I know plenty of fellas walking around in Leinster and Ireland jerseys who wouldn't know half the rules never mind have attended a game. Again 18,000 attended the premier league games on opening day and RTE have a 60 min highlights program at 11.05pm, 30 mins of which was dedicated to national team affairs anyway. That tells the story as to where Ryle's loyalties are. Domestic soccer is mow also suffering. How many were at the women's Scotland Ireland rugby game?

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 24/03/2015 14:25:35    1706050

Yes it did make for great TV & fair play to Ireland but score difference is no way to win a championship, in my opinion.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 24/03/2015 14:32:13    1706052