GAELIC GAMES NEWS:THE DUBLIN COUNTY board are to raise the issue of "pay-per-view" television coverage at this month's Central Council meeting.

County chief executive John Costello said he is concerned at the news that Setanta Sports, which holds the rights to Saturday evening National League matches, will be screening three of the county’s four broadcast fixtures on the subscription Setanta Sports One channel, rather than on Setanta Sports Ireland, which is included in the basic cable television packages in most urban areas.

“I know that in other parts of the country there is no choice at all, as all of the Setanta channels are only available on subscription, but I’m disappointed that Dublin appears to have been targeted with three of our four live matches being broadcast on Setanta Sports One. I intend to raise this at Central Council.”

Setanta Sports Ireland chief executive Niall Cogley, rejected the suggestion the schedule represented anything other than an expansion of the channel’s coverage.

“We will, as we always have done, be broadcasting a second match as deferred coverage at nine o’clock. The three Dublin matches on Setanta One will be shown in full at that time on the same evening. It’s as simple as this: we asked ourselves was there any reason we shouldn’t show the deferred match live on another channel; would anyone be disadvantaged by it?

“Obviously we asked the GAA’s opinion and they couldn’t see a downside. The matches on Setanta Ireland were picked on their merits as before.

“The only difference is that we are offering the deferred game to anyone who wants to watch it live because we have the facility to offer that choice.”

The four matches being shown on the same night as Dublin’s fixtures are: Cork-Kerry, on February 13th, the night Dublin play Derry; on March 13th when Cork and Tyrone reprise their All-Ireland semi-final from August and Dublin face Monaghan; and Dublin face Galway on March 27th, the night Kerry play Tyrone.

The good news for Dublin supporters is the away match against Cork will be shown on Setanta Ireland on March 20th, with Down-Armagh as the deferred broadcast.

Setanta has held the rights to floodlit National League matches since 2004.

The GAA defended the decision to sell rights to a subscription channel by saying the deal brought a healthy element of competition to the television rights market.

Up until now all of the broadcasts had been on Setanta Sports Ireland, which is available on cable packages in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Galway.

This will also be the first season the channel is to show matches simultaneously.

For the first time the live Saturday evening schedules will feature two hurling matches: Tipperary-Kilkenny on February 20th and Limerick-Cork a week later.

** Galway football manager Joe Kernan believes the return to fitness of Michael Meehan is a huge boost ahead of their National League campaign.

The 25-year-old returned from a troublesome hamstring injury on Sunday and scored the only goal of the game as Galway qualified for the final of the FBD League with a 1-16 to 0-13 win over GMIT.

“It was great to give Michael a run and he was flying, but 20 minutes was enough for him at this stage,” said Kernan. “He is a key player for us and it is great to have him back as we head into the league.

“The college players will also be back with us this weekend and we will head to Castlebar looking for the win,” said Kernan.

Galway will play Mayo twice in a fortnight as they will also clash in the FBD final on February 21st.