as bad as rte are...the worst example of bias towards rugby in this country by far is the coverage the private schools cup gets by the times and the independent...a very small competition played by a small number of upper class schools yet the huge gaa competition which involves the whole country is ignored?

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 16/02/2015 16:05:31    1694101

RTE also has major commercial considerations and perhaps that's why they look at rugby so much as there is more to be gained commercially from rugby???
If there is serious attempts to try boost playing numbers then why are they reducing coverage on tv of rugby from next season?

So we are in agreement they do look to rugby quite a bit. Commercial interests or otherwise there is no justification for favouring one over the other all most people here are advocating is impartial coverage. I'd imagine they are reducing rugby coverage from next season due to increased competition for rights much in the same way they have reduced GAA coverage due to the same.

The point is people are tired of the lack of even handedness and taking your point on the commercial aspect shouldn't rte like all other public bodies be trying to encourage the Irish economy, I believe in a championship year there will be attendances of 1.3 million plus, all with Irish produced replica shirts supporting local economies and amenities before /after games (See the clones / casement thread for views on this) as an industry the GAA does a lot more for the economy than our illustrious rugby friends, the issue is you wouldn't know it if you watched the national broadcaster and that is what frustrates people more than anything else.

duckula20 (Antrim) - Posts: 175 - 16/02/2015 16:26:12    1694118

ormond
That some of those mentioned are not covered doesn't mean rugby gets too much coverage and rugby doesn't get too much coverage and RTE are dropping pro12 so will only have the international games next season. How can RTE show O Byrne Cup final if other stations have rights etc? Why don't you contact RTE and ask why tey don't cover more GAA like you want them to

well its hard not to beleive that boxing,athletics and horse racing are loosing out
and rugby is gaining since a certain mr nugent took head office.
they havent the money to keep pro12 sure they held onto it until now and got rid of the other sports long ago
nobody had rights for o byrne cup games as not a single game was brodacasted
sure bbc decided to screen the mckenna cup final and they hadnt rights either.
because im wasting my time emailing or writing letters
its not the shawshank redemption where andy dufrane writes a letter every day to the prison board to get a library
you do realise rte dont care what its viewers want

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 16/02/2015 17:40:00    1694164

ormond
you ask whats so bad about a so called national newspaper making a complete shocker
stating one team won the game when they then gave the scoreline as a draw?
I actually cannot understand how on earth that can actualy go to print without a single person
noticing this major mistake
like does the journalist not read over their article
does he not have a sports editor who checks his work
do they not a person employed who reviews all articles and areas of the paper before it goes to print

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 16/02/2015 17:43:09    1694167

fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1391

1694069
in fairness the champions league does deserve blanket coverage as the interest is there

have to disagree on this
as rte are the national brodcaster for ireland and seen as no irish teams are in the competition
and the fact they only ever show british clubs matches
which are readily available to the entire country as it is on bbc or utv and so on
surely there is no need to cover it as much as it does
and if they are going to cover it why not show games involving clubs that arent british which would give the viewer
an option

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 16/02/2015 17:52:44    1694172

strongly disagree hill.the interest is there..its huge..they do show other sides beside the british teams..but the british sides is where the most interest is for the average fan as thats who they follow..irish teams dont qualify..if they did then obviously they would get big coverage...

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 16/02/2015 18:00:46    1694175

its the biggest club competition in the biggest sport in the world...its pretty straight forward as to why it gets the coverage and viewership it does...look how much bt sport have paid to get rights to show it

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 16/02/2015 18:01:50    1694176

The point is people are tired of the lack of even handedness and taking your point on the commercial aspect shouldn't rte like all other public bodies be trying to encourage the Irish economy, I believe in a championship year there will be attendances of 1.3 million plus, all with Irish produced replica shirts supporting local economies and amenities before /after games (See the clones / casement thread for views on this) as an industry the GAA does a lot more for the economy than our illustrious rugby friends, the issue is you wouldn't know it if you watched the national broadcaster and that is what frustrates people more than anything else.

Duckula the England & France 6 nations games this year alone will bring in over 40 million Euro into the Irish economy- (as per Dublin Chamber of Commerce) . GAA may stimulate some movement internally, the lack of an international aspect means it does not attract foreign visitors / money and most fans go home after the games and not stay overnight

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4649 - 16/02/2015 20:17:06    1694215

I decided to do a little research on viewing figures in recent years after a comment by ormondbannerman. Its hard to believe that despite the vast majority of the country being neutral for big gaa games that they still attract better viewing figures than the hugely hyped media back rugby.

Lets look back at some info available in recent years with links to source to avoid wild fictional comments.

Top two sports shows of the year on rte in 2010 were the All Ireland finals. In fairness rugby did get 4 of the top ten.
http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/

In 2011 a rugby world cup year its interesting to note that the gaa attracted the 3 most watched sports programmes of the year!! GAA and rugby both had 4 in the top ten.
http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/

In 2012 soccer got top of the pile with euro 2012 taking place - top 2 shows came from it. GAA had 4 (3,5,8,10) of top ten watched shows compared to just one for rugby.
http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/

In 2013 the gaa really cleaned up. The top 3 shows watched were all gaa. And 7 out of the top 10 shows watched on rte that year were gaa!! Only two out of the ten were rugby. And 10 out of 20 were gaa with only 6 being rugby.
http://www.rte.ie/presspack/2014/01/24/rte-two-most-popular-channel-with-sports-fans-in-2013/

In 2014 rugby did top the charts with the 6 nations decider being top viewed. However, the gaa accounted for 5 of the top ten shows with rugby accounting for just 2 of the top 10 despite a great year for Ireland.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2015/0115/672800-rte-tops-the-tables-for-sport-on-tv-in-2014/

This was the only measure that I suspected rugby would have any chance of being counted as a bigger sport than the gaa. Given the amount of media hype and the fact it was a national team I thought that it might give it enough casual interest to get it above the gaa especially given everyone has a team to support in the big ireland games. The facts show otherwise.

A Another (None) - Posts: 193 - 16/02/2015 21:27:30    1694234

Obviously if it came down to playing numbers, membership or spectators at the games there would be no competition.

As you will see from the article below there is around 1.5 million attending the intercounty championship games alone:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/gaa-crowds-up-15-million-fans-expected-through-gates-30403446.html

When you consider that the leagues will also account for a high number of spectators. Then the club championships in each county which gets tens of thousands in each of the 32 counties followed by the provincial club championships and All Ireland series. The club finals will get 25000-3000 (number of games in ulster series accounted for 5-10,000 - not sure about other provinces) in croke park (all ireland semis even get 4-5000 each), even the womens final will get 25000 too. Compare this to rugby where outside the provinces and national team very few people attend games other than maybe the schools finals.

When you take this into account its hard to work out why rte pretty much ignore the gaa for 7 to 8 months of the year. As I said if you compared the news coverage of the two on rte sports news I'd say rugby easily gets 2 to 3 times the coverage.

There is nothing to suggest people aren't interested in the gaa all the year. The facts appear to point to quite the opposite. Club finals as a I say gets 25-30000 - how does this compare to the rugby club games?

You could argue that rugby has more passing interest at this time of year but the figures don't back this up either. Look at TG4 which covers gaa and rugby. GAA easily beats it most weeks. Look at the link below from TG4 viewings figures for last few weeks. Normally the channel gets 2% channel share but when gaa is on this increases to 10-13% and this is without the advertising of rte and the games are in a language many don't understand. The rugby show only accounts for between 1/3 and 1/2 the viewers the gaa gets. Surely this suggests that if rte took it seriously it could get big gaa figures throughout the year?
http://www.tg4.ie/en/production/tg4-viewing.html

Even the ladies football gets massive viewing figures. The 2013 averaged 328,000 viewers. Wonder how this compares to the 6 nations ladies games on rte or the u20 matches!
http://www.tg4.ie/en/corporate/news-releases/2013/300913.html

Its time the gaa starting questioning rte properly and pushing for fair coverage throughout the year.

Anyone see the sports news tonight? What way did the coverage go to the various sports? This should be monitored on an ongoing basis. Lets see how many times over the next 6 months that the gaa gets the top headline on the 6 sports news on rte 1.

Its actually all year round that they give the gaa minimal coverage. Even in the heart of the summer they still manager to get rugby/soccer to top of the headlines.

A Another (None) - Posts: 193 - 16/02/2015 21:28:21    1694235

Sorry my 2010, 2011 and 2012 links seemed to mess up a little. I've put them below:

2010:

http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2011/0125/292973-tvsport25012011/

2011:

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=160312

2012:

http://www.rte.ie/presspack/2013/01/17/rte-television-broadcast-19-of-the-top-20-sports-programmes-of-2012/

A Another (None) - Posts: 193 - 16/02/2015 21:48:46    1694241

interesting info a another..good to see info like this posted

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 16/02/2015 21:49:06    1694242

Duckula the England & France 6 nations games this year alone will bring in over 40 million Euro into the Irish economy- (as per Dublin Chamber of Commerce) . GAA may stimulate some movement internally, the lack of an international aspect means it does not attract foreign visitors / money and most fans go home after the games and not stay overnigh

-----
Yeah but that's a nothing point really. DCC have a habit of throwing around the 20 million figure. I'm guessing there is no real stats to back it up. Is this just co-incidence?

http://sportsnewsireland.com/rugby/rugby_irish/european-finals-worth-more-than-e20-million-to-irish-capital-2013-05-10/

I don't know how many French were at the game at the weekend but would there have been 10000 spending 2000 each? Maybe there was but I'm sure the Irish economy is leaking the same if not more on away games so it doesn't really mean much. The real point here is how much tax payers money is being spent by the national broadcaster on these games...
At the weekend I'm sure the game cost RTE a few bob.
- rights - I know BBC have rights but presumably RTE pay something
- the multitude of analysts. Some imported from their homes abroad so consider this money leaving the economy
Popey, Hook, O'Gara, O'Shea, Horgan, Lenihan, Keyes, Jackman. I know there were other ex-players for them over the weekend also and sure why wouldn't you. If you're not ROG, Briano or Donncha getting your once a month Late, Late Show spot then you can always count on a place in the rugby analyst squad for a few quid.

The fall of the Berlin Wall didn't cost as much to cover as a 6 nations rugby weekend does for the boyos. Face it lads the RTE obsession with rugby is nothing short of a scandal - waste of taxpayers money. I've no problem with them showing the internationals but seriously do we need to pay an army of millionaires to 'analyse' the game on both TV and radio? It's not like the game at the weekend was for the purist or anything.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4743 - 16/02/2015 22:03:06    1694248

Joxer

Very good point.

Beware politicians giving figures like that for the economic boost of sporting events.

I remember someone crunching the numbers when Dublin got the Europa League final. I don't remember the specifics but suffice to say if what the politicians claimed the boost would be were true every fan would've been spending close to €3,000 whilst in the country!

These are events (international soccer/rugby games) were people are typically only in the country for an average of just over 24 hours if that!

The figures often quoted are farcical.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13796 - 17/02/2015 09:13:44    1694257

They'll make more on advertising and sponsorship than they'll spend.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7970 - 17/02/2015 09:16:24    1694258

fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1396

1694175
strongly disagree hill.the interest is there..its huge..they do show other sides beside the british teams..but the british sides is where the most interest is for the average fan as thats who they follow..irish teams dont qualify..if they did then obviously they would get big coverage...
its the biggest club competition in the biggest sport in the world...its pretty straight forward as to why it gets the coverage and viewership it does...look how much bt sport have paid to get rights to show it

they only ever show a non british team when they are all knocked out
they are not irish clubs so they are not national station buisness in reality
there is no need to cover the same game bbc or utv has on live its a waste of money.
they only follow british teams because thats the leagues they are being allowed to watch
its not rocket science, if people were not like sheep they would be supporting barcelona or madrid or munich
as the football is way better but those countries arent plastered in your face here so it shows why people support
the weaker english and scottish teams.
the fact that its biggest club competition doesnt mean rte should show it
rte are the national station for ireland
they are not a popularity based channell they are supposed to provide national programmes.
bt sport are an international station so there remit is clearly different.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 17/02/2015 10:20:41    1694273

The interest is there Hill. Simple as that .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6178 - 17/02/2015 12:15:49    1694309

GreenandRed
County: Mayo
Posts: 1348

1694258
They'll make more on advertising and sponsorship than they'll spend.
----
I'm sure that's true but I would like to see the figures. As an organisation that is very deep in debt you really have to question expenditure on these games irrespective of advertising revenue. Obviously the director of sport is under no pressure on his six nations revenue margin. What does RTE pay in terms of broadcasting rights anyway? I know the BBC paid about 160m GBP for rights until 2017. Anyway the point remains, should licence payers put up with RTE showering ex-pros, more of them than Ireland have players on the pitch, with lavish appearance money for each 6 nations game? I don't think so and it just serves to prove again that RTE's love affair with the oval ball knows no bounds, either in expense or broadcast coverage.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4743 - 17/02/2015 13:34:05    1694350

Baaa baa baa!

RTE don't show Champions League on the same nights as ITV. They also show League of Ireland games. Besides La Liga and the Bundesliga being 3 team leagues it's a matter of opinion whether the football is better there.Some of them Spanish games are a bit tippy tappy for me
Not many Irish players in those leagues either. RTE is a commercial organisation. They'll sell enough ads this end of the year to those who target a rugby audience. They'll sell plenty for a GAA audience during the summer. If they thought they'd grt enough takers for the cricket they'd show that too, no doubt. Unfortunately they don't show more GAA, maybe they do have a rugby bias or maybe some Rugby marketing people are giving them 'incentives'.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7970 - 17/02/2015 13:52:21    1694353

Fair point Joxer. What do you think about this as I've little faith in GAA to market our games propely :

Dublin will be full of tourists, many American, for St Patricks day.The parade finishes about 2, we should encourage them to go to the Club Finals, a proper feast of culture, instead of thronging into Temple Bar at 2 o'clock? Proobably the only day this year, barring re-fixtures, that decent, inrense, games of hurling and football will be on the same day. Something memorable for them to see on their visit.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7970 - 17/02/2015 14:04:33    1694358