White opens consultation on free-to-air sports

Minister for Communications Alex White has opened a consultation process on free-to-air sports that could see Six Nations rugby matches broadcast live to terrestrial TV viewers.

Ireland’s games in the Six Nations Rugby Football Championship are currently listed for free-to-air broadcast on a deferred basis.

The Minister on Friday placed advertisements in the national press seeking submissions from interested parties on the current list and the possible designation of three additional events .

The Six Nations Rugby Championship, the All-Ireland Senior Ladies’ Football Final and the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Final would be designated free-to-air under Mr White’s plan.

There are currently no female-only sports included in the list of designated sporting events.

In a public consultation in 2014, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association said the Ladies Football Final was the largest women’s sporting event in Ireland and that designation would “ring fence the sport as occupying an important position in the sporting calendar and put it on par with its male counterparts.”

The Camogie Association said that the designation of the Camogie Final would be a timely opportunity to address the failure to include any uniquely female sporting event “in the context of women’s sporting and social equality.”

The Broadcasting Act 2009 provides that the Minister may designate certain sporting and cultural events of major importance to society in order to make them freely available on national television (e.g. TV3, TG4, RTE, UTV).

The events currently listed for free-to-air broadcast are:

- The Summer Olympics

- The All-Ireland Senior Inter-County Football and Hurling Finals

- Ireland’s home and away qualifying games in the European Football Championship and the FIFA World Cup Tournament

- Ireland’s games in the European Football Championship Finals Tournament and the FIFA World Cup Tournament

- The opening games, the semi-finals and final of the European Football Championship Finals and the FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament

- Ireland’s games in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament

- The Irish Grand National and Irish Derby

- The Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show.

The closing date for receipt of submissions is Friday 12th June 2015.