RTÉ the big winner as GAA look to grow streaming service through exclusive live games

For many years now it has been a well-established GAA position when it comes to media rights that competition in the market is positive – positive for the association and positive for fans.

The last time the GAA announced their media rights package it included Sky Sports and Eir Sport. Even before that, TV3 had been a broadcast partner, while Setanta Sports televised National League games until it was taken over by Eir in 2016, and subsequently rebranded as Eir Sport.

However, the latest GAA media rights deal, which was announced on Tuesday, has no new major player involved. And all of the aforementioned have gone. RTÉ and BBC remain, but with extended rights. It looks, for all the world, a less competitive marketplace.

But the big development is the GAA’s decision to follow the example of many other sporting bodies globally and grow their streaming service by promoting GAAGO to the role of essentially a pay-as-you-go broadcast partner. They have confirmed that exclusive championship games will be shown on the platform in Ireland and overseas from 2023 onwards.

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In many ways it is the next natural step for the GAA, having almost accidentally discovered during the Covid lockdown National League of 2020 the potential of such a streaming platform. And it might well be another step on the way to the GAA eventually launching their own channel in the future, something which has proved successful in other sports including American Football with the NFL Network.

“That would appear to be the next stage in the evolution of this for the GAA,” believes Mick O’Keeffe, chief executive of Teneo Ireland, the consulting and advisory firm.

“Is GAAGO now the now broadcast player in the GAA rights market? And is that a reflection of how people want to consume matches, is it a reflection of the wider broadcast trend of sports associations actually broadcasting their own content and charging people for it?

“Where we have sports organisations actually monetising their own content and their own matches. Only time will tell, but you would think it is on trend that this is now a new broadcasting landscape. So it might not necessarily be that they have stepped into the breach because somebody else has left, but rather it’s actually a well thought through plan.”

RTÉ is a joint partner in GAAGO, so it is hard not to feel the national broadcaster is the big winner in this new five-year deal. Given Sky’s exit, it was certainly no accident that RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, in her statement on the rights package, stressed the international element of their coverage.

“Today’s announcement highlights RTÉ's continued commitment to bringing the very best in live GAA action free-to-air to audiences across Ireland, and internationally through GAAGO, RTÉ's joint-venture with the GAA,” she said.

[ Sky Sports and GAA end nine-year broadcasting deal ]

Still, the lack of an alternative commercial broadcaster is something former GAA president Seán Kelly has reservations about.

“Initially when Sky entered the market it would have been so that there was a choice, the potential for growing the market internationally and supplying some competition for RTÉ, so it is a blow that they have pulled out,” he said.

“You do need competition, a monopoly is the worst thing you can have, no matter how good it is. Even going as far back as when I was president we were looking at alternatives to have proper competition for the rights, rather than the national broadcaster getting all of it.”

The inclusion of a second highlights package on RTÉ has been widely welcomed. The absence of a magazine style midweek show has been evident for many years now and a second highlights programme will be part of RTÉ's coverage from 2023 onwards.

RTÉ will continue to show 31 championship games and also televise the Joe McDonagh Cup final, both Tailteann Cup semi-finals and the final for the next five years.

A new sharing arrangement between RTÉ and TG4 will see an increase in the number of Saturday night free to air league games broadcast, while TG4 will continue to carry Sunday afternoon matches. TG4 will also continue to produce a Monday night highlights show.

BBC will show 10 league games involving Ulster counties, have rights to show the All-Ireland semi-finals, and also broadcast at least one of the All-Ireland finals on its wider international network.

Overall, approximately 200 games will be broadcast every year.

On radio, RTÉ and Raidió na Gaeltachta retain exclusive national live rights while Bauer Media will continue to provide radio score-flash updates on Today FM and Newstalk. BBC Radio Ulster and 24 local IBI radio stations nationwide have also retained their rights.

“Maximising exposure of our games and seeking a fair commercial value for them for the betterment of the association as a whole lay at the heart of our approach to a five-year arrangement that provides certainty and security for all parties involved,” said GAA president, Larry McCarthy.