Catherine Martin plans to designate 14 new sporting events ‘free to air’, including Six Nations rugby

The Government is seeking to add 14 new events in GAA, soccer and rugby to the designated “free to air” list of sporting events that must be shown on television.

Minister for Arts, Sports and Media Catherine Martin has published the list of the new events she wants to add to the free to air designation, which will now go out for public consultation.

They include nine women’s events to be considered for a designation to achieve equivalence for women’s sports, as well as live coverage of Ireland’s men’s Six Nations rugby games, currently only designated for “deferred” coverage on free to air.

The last review took place in 2017, adding the All Ireland Senior Ladies Football Final and the All Ireland Senior Camogie Final.

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The full list of events which will now go for public consultation is:

· The quarter and semi-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football and Senior Hurling Championships

· The finals of the Senior Football and Hurling Provincial Championships

· The quarter and semi-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship

· The finals of the Provincial Camogie Championship

· The quarter and semi-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Ladies’ Football Championship

· The finals of the Senior Ladies’ Provincial Football Championship

· Ireland’s games in the Uefa Nations League (men’s)

· Ireland’s games in the Uefa Women’s Nations League

· Ireland’s home and away qualifying games in, and the opening games, Ireland’s games, and the semi-finals and final of, the Fifa Women’s World Cup Tournament

· Ireland’s home and away qualifying games in, the opening games, Ireland’s games, the semi-finals and final of the Uefa European Women’s Football Championship

· Ireland’s games in the Men’s Six Nations Rugby Championship (change from current “deferred” broadcast designation to “live” broadcast)

· Ireland’s games in the Women’s Six Nations Rugby Football Championship

· Ireland’s games in the Women’s Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament

· The final of the European Rugby Champions Cup – should an Irish provincial team be represented

In a statement, the Department of Arts, Sports and Media said the aim of designating events as free to air is “to try and balance the rights of the sporting bodies to exploit commercial opportunities afforded by their broadcasting rights and the needs of society to engage, as a whole, with culturally significant events”.

The review is provided for in the Broadcasting Act 2009.

In a statement Ms Martin said the review “provides an opportunity to ensure that our most memorable sporting moments are retained on national TV for the people of Ireland to view together on an equal basis”.

“I hope to take this opportunity to deliver on a Programme for Government commitment to increase the visibility of women’s sport. The achievements of our female sporting talent should be available to view on our national broadcasters, providing both entertainment and valuable role models to our younger participants in sport. I encourage all interested parties and stakeholders to contribute to this consultation process,” she said.

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