Have to agree with mike03 having lived in the UK I found Premier Sports/Setanta's coverage of the GAA way below par. I think having Sky take over these rights to broadcast abroad only has positives. It will not have any impact on RTE or TV3's coverage of the Championship (so everyone can rest assured that their granny with 4 channels can still see their county play every summer) and may open our game to a wider audience.

I for one always think to myself how our sports have not expanded through the UK and beyond. Massive potential in both football and hurling and I believe the Sky deal would help the progression of the sport!

History is history, get over the whole British station nonsense.

bobby_shane (Dublin) - Posts: 106 - 18/11/2013 11:33:16    1514672

Is Sky not a Rupert Murdoch company and therefor Australian?

wise_guy (Tyrone) - Posts: 1584 - 18/11/2013 11:45:41    1514675

S Goldrick

What I mean is that GAA is way down on of priorities for Premier Sports. If there is a clash with another sport the GAA, no matter how big a match it is, will always lose out and be shown either late that night or during the following week. At least with Sky, there will always be a channel available. Premier advertise that they show club matches. They dont. They show no U21 matches at all, not one. And as soon as a match finishes on a Sunday they cut to straight to Nascar. So for what they charge it is awful value because their other sports are a joke. A fella with Premier Sports could become an expert on the U23 Ladies East Sussex Bowls or Norwegian Speedway and the likes!!

And as for their commentators on the GAA.....

mike03 (Limerick) - Posts: 2000 - 18/11/2013 12:07:28    1514685

And for Sky Sports you must pay your €160 TV licence fee and then pay for Sky Sports on top of that

______________

Hill said its free to watch Gaelic games over here, Well its NOT .. That's all im saying on that point.

waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13654 - 18/11/2013 12:08:51    1514686

mike03
County: Limerick
Posts: 309

What I mean is that GAA is way down on of priorities for Premier Sports. If there is a clash with another sport the GAA, no matter how big a match it is, will always lose out and be shown either late that night or during the following week. At least with Sky, there will always be a channel available. Premier advertise that they show club matches. They dont. They show no U21 matches at all, not one. And as soon as a match finishes on a Sunday they cut to straight to Nascar. So for what they charge it is awful value because their other sports are a joke. A fella with Premier Sports could become an expert on the U23 Ladies East Sussex Bowls or Norwegian Speedway and the likes!!

I agree about nascar and under 23 bowls etc :) but not sure I take your point about not showing big matches. which ones did you have in mind exactly. As far as I'm aware they show all the championships matches that are televised in Ireland.

And as for their commentators on the GAA.....

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5522 - 18/11/2013 12:30:05    1514691

waynoI
County: Dublin
Posts: 8089

1514686
And for Sky Sports you must pay your €160 TV licence fee and then pay for Sky Sports on top of that

______________

Hill said its free to watch Gaelic games over here, Well its NOT .. That's all im saying on that point.

You know what he meant, it is €160 a year to own a television.

He makes a valid point in terms of making are games less affordable to watch which no one on the pro-Sky side seems to care about.

I suppose they won't be affected so they don't care and hope to get a 'better' class of supporter through heavier marketing in certain markets.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13817 - 18/11/2013 12:34:29    1514694

Kerry Tyrone last year is a perfect example. It clashed with a rugby league match or something so they didn't show it. And there hasn't been a single club match on so far this year. Sky would show everything they could. And more

mike03 (Limerick) - Posts: 2000 - 18/11/2013 12:35:38    1514697

royaldunne
County: Meath
Marlon your wrong our biggest buyer of Irish goods/ faming is the UK market. My post was simply to point out that buying Irish is not always supportingi

No, actually you're wrong, you might be thinking of trading partner rather than export partner. Britain is our biggest import partner as over 40% of our imports come from Britain (making Ireland the 5th largest contributor to the UK economy in the world, staggering). However when it comes to exports, i.e. what they buy from us, the USA is our biggest individual export partner. As I said before, after that, Britain and Belgium generally consume around 16% of our exports each. But in general, most of our exports are consumed by the eurozone, so thats really our biggest export partner (and may ultimately be where our breads buttered).
This gives the general gist:
http://www.indexmundi.com/ireland/exports_partners.html

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 18/11/2013 12:51:46    1514707

how do sky make money from this? Yes there is an audience outside ireland for the business end of the championship but say Louth v Westmeath in the first round, how many UK/worldwide viewers are they likely to pull in from this. In London, you'd have a larger crowd in an irish bar for the ireland rugby than you would for a gaa game.

switec (Kildare) - Posts: 525 - 18/11/2013 13:02:43    1514714

Lads don't forget Sky now also have the rights to the PRO12 from next year so adding GAA to the list would make sense. They are going to get a few Irish, Welsh, Scottish rugby diehards for that alone. So with the PRO12, Scottish football which they already show and then GAA, there is an opportunity to set up a Celtic nations channel. They already do it with channels solely for Formula 1 and the Ashes during the summer

mike03 (Limerick) - Posts: 2000 - 18/11/2013 13:11:09    1514720

I'm a Sky customer but I don't pay for Sky Sports because I'm not into soccer or cricket or wrestling. I follow the Heineken Cup alright & their coverage of that is fantastic so if they were to cover Gaelic games I would certainly consider altering my package deal with them. As for the ethics of it, well you can't stop progress!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 18/11/2013 13:13:34    1514722

mike03
County: Limerick
Posts: 310

1514685
S Goldrick

What I mean is that GAA is way down on of priorities for Premier Sports. If there is a clash with another sport the GAA, no matter how big a match it is, will always lose out and be shown either late that night or during the following week. At least with Sky, there will always be a channel available. Premier advertise that they show club matches. They dont. They show no U21 matches at all, not one. And as soon as a match finishes on a Sunday they cut to straight to Nascar. So for what they charge it is awful value because their other sports are a joke. A fella with Premier Sports could become an expert on the U23 Ladies East Sussex Bowls or Norwegian Speedway and the likes!!

And as for their commentators on the GAA.....
____________________
Which, as an exile, I suscribed for one season only and never again, you are spot on Mike, Premier should have been done for false advertising. My only means of watching the championship these days is via BBC NI and for that much I am grateful but there are many other great games I wish I was able watch, e.g. the Dublin V Kerry semi-final for one, but couldn't.

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 18/11/2013 13:15:22    1514727

I couldn't give a toss if Sky are British, Australian or Japanese. The point is that how will this affect coverage in Ireland.
We have seen the IRFU selling out to Sky for the Autumn internationals. Yes, these games are still available in RTE but in the 26 counties only. The six counties will be blacked out, will this be the case with a GAA deal (UK rights etc)?
What about throw-in times? Surely if Sky own the GAA rights and are pumping money into it, will they dictate when and what time games happen? Say for example, if Ashes cricket is on, will they force games to be played at random times to suit themselves, for example, 12.30pm, 7.30pm on a Sunday? Gaelic Games will be viewed as a niche sport, much like speedway or ice-hockey, certainly not something that will take priority over what the vast number of Sky subscribers will want to see or care about.
I'm not feeling this. I just don't like it and seems to smack of the suits doing what's best for them, not the GAA or the people that make it what it is, players and fans.
Of course, the arguments for will be that we are all dinosaurs and that loosest of terms 'progress' will be bandied about. Progress is a by-word capitalists use to try and fleece the ordinary man in the street.
If the GAA want to promote games overseas, I'm all for it. Why not sell and broadcast ourselves, cut out the middle man?
While we all appreciate what a fantastic organisation we have and marvel at our games, trust me, these people won't care a jot. It's something to be milked to sell subscriptions, making amateur sport PPV. Be careful what you wish for.

srb (Antrim) - Posts: 344 - 18/11/2013 13:42:39    1514744

Fishermantom is the only one talking sense here , GAA has no real appeal to anyone in the UK except a few Irish expats and I done see how commercially it would be of any benefit to Sky as it has not the audience , in the overall sporting world GAA is an obscure sport mainly player in one quiet small country I can not see the commercial sense in Sky wanting to broadcast GAA.

tinrylandman (Carlow) - Posts: 387 - 18/11/2013 14:01:42    1514754

Fair points there, SRB.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 18/11/2013 14:03:40    1514756

I really don't care if sky sports get it or not once rte get to keep the games as well.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 18/11/2013 14:11:56    1514765

SRB the gaa is already Pay Per View everywhere outside of Ireland. Whether it is SKY or Premier Sports that has the UK rights wont make a whole pile of difference

mike03 (Limerick) - Posts: 2000 - 18/11/2013 14:12:16    1514766

Will the six counties be regarded as 'UK rights' though with Sky - as is the case with soccer and rugby?

srb (Antrim) - Posts: 344 - 18/11/2013 14:26:19    1514775

People are jumping the gun here. Sky are looking to buy a package for gaa. That doesnt mean rte lose it. They will both show games. In respect to that, what is so bad about them buying the rights to show some games? Surely it is the more the merrier? What good can come from preventing people from seeing the games?

Also, this stuff about england is pretty pathetic. Sky show american football, ice hockey, etc, also. There are growing numbers playing these games in england, and the same goes for GAA. They are simply trying to provide for those people, because that is their job. Also what about all the irish living in england? Why dont we want them to see the games that are as much theirs as they are ours? Some people would really want to get over themselves. The way they go on you would think they personally had a hand in inventing the gaa. And before anyone says 'oh it is on premier sports, let them watch that', they should ask themselves are they really trying to dictate to people how they should be watching gaa? Couldnt sky be cheaper for instance?

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 18/11/2013 14:56:22    1514787

Sky is £22 per month for sports package
Premier Sports is £9.99 per month

srb (Antrim) - Posts: 344 - 18/11/2013 15:05:31    1514794