Continuing deadlock in the RTE-GAA negotiations could put this year's club finals off the air. The All-Ireland club showpieces, delayed by the foot-and-mouth restrictions from St Patrick's Day, are due to be played on Easter Monday, and they are traditionally broadcast on RTE.
This year, however, with renewal talks stalled, RTE have decided not to cover any Gaelic games until the new contract is finalised. Last Sunday saw the return of inter-county action for the first time since the enforced break began in February, but despite the attraction of National League matches, like Kerry-Dublin in football and Tipperary-Waterford in hurling, RTE's Sunday night sports programme carried no highlights.
(The club hurling semi-final replay between Graigue-Ballycallan and Sixmilebridge was shown on TG4, as the Irish language station have the rights to the club championships until the finals.)
Despite a busy double programme of National League football and hurling this weekend, RTE will not be covering any matches unless a deal is agreed. There is some incentive to do so, as the broadcaster hopes to begin coverage as soon as possible, and the GAA had wanted to be in a position to announce the new contract to this weekend's annual Congress.
The sides met on Monday. A source in RTE said that the non-coverage of the club finals was "a possibility". He added: "The answer to that is that if we don't have the rights, we won't. But we hope that things will be resolved in time to show the club finals."
According to a GAA source, the matches would be shown. "I would say that the club finals will be shown by someone. It could be TG4, UTV or BBC."
Declining to cover the matches is presumably a tactic designed to increase RTE's leverage in the talks. In the past, television coverage has continued even when the broadcaster has been out-of-contract, and even at the moment radio coverage is proceeding even though that deal - considered separately this year but as part of the same negotiations - is not concluded.
This has been a long-running saga. The previous rights contract ran out after last season's championship and the renewal negotiations have been in progress since the end of last year. Broadcasting rights have become an important source of revenue to the GAA and every effort has been made to maximise that income.
London media consultants Oliver & Ohlbaum were retained to advise Croke Park on how best to package their rights to GAA matches. Despite the consultants' considerable expertise in the area, the peculiar circumstances of the domestic market must have baffled them. Overseas rights were again awarded to Setanta Sport before Christmas in a straight-forward bidding process.
Aside from the headache of the competing rights to Ulster's championship matches, RTE's monopoly position means that no real market exists, and GAA director general Liam Mulvihill has criticised what he perceived as a cartel amongst Irish broadcasters to suppress the price of rights. On the other side of the argument, there is frustration at what is seen as Croke Park's unreasonable expectations of a weak market. Despite hopes that TV3 would provide genuine competition for the GAA rights, realistically the commercial station has nowhere near the resources - nor apparently the inclination - to get involved in a bidding contest.
In other words, it's hardly RTE's fault if they are the only viable bidder for the rights - however exasperating that may be for the GAA.
Yesterday's reports that Pat McDonagh, of the Supermacs fast food chain, was interested in securing the rights is regarded as a long shot.
TG4 will tomorrow start broadcasting the station's third season of highlights from the Australian Rules season. Coverage of the AFL will go out every Thursday night after the feature film. Tomorrow's programme is scheduled for 11.50.
