GAA Congress to debate future of television rights

Next month's GAA Congress will debate the future of the GAA's pay-per-view TV rights, potentially ending any extension of the current deal with Sky.

Among the 65 motions headed for Congress in Carlow next month is motion 42, passed at last month’s Dublin Convention, and which calls for a new rule (1.18), with regard to broadcast rights, whereby “all televised inter-county championship games shall be available on free to air TV”.

It will require a two-thirds majority in order to be passed, although it will certainly make for some interesting debate at Congress, set for the weekend of February 26/27th.

A similar motion passed by the Clare County Board last year failed to make it onto the Congress Clár, after the GAA’s rules advisory committee deemed it did not amend a rule nor enact one.

It’s almost two years now since Croke Park made the decision to sell exclusive rights for 14 live hurling and football games to Sky Sports, opening up the market to satellite pay-per-view broadcasters.

That three-year deal comes to an end following the conclusion of the 2016 season, and the GAA must then decide to extend the contract with Sky or revert to free-to-air only. Motion 42, if passed, would come into effect from January 1st, 2017.