For any colour writer, yesterday’s launch of Sky Sports recently acquired GAA coverage would have been a bit of a disappointment. The event did start with the media being herded into one of the Croke Park corporate boxes – but one with its windows blacked out – and left there with only each other and our darkest fears for company.
The disorientation didn’t last long, as the press release gave up the expected names, many familiar from TV3’s coverage and before we knew it we were in a bigger, brighter suite and supplied with the comforts of the usual rider, our body weight in sandwiches and canapés.
Nagging unease would have set in when it became clear that for all the Sky entourage from London, there weren’t going to be any repeats of the odd blooper or comical mispronunciation that had attended some early GAA material on the station’s platforms and no chummy attempts to plamás with knowing references to players or events, guaranteed to send a shivering cringe through the gathering.
Sky Sports is big business and this was simply business as usual.
Faintly hostile
Director of production at Sky Sports Steve Smith more or less said that the company was familiar with situations like this: where they arrive to a faintly hostile reception and sense of concern at what the impact on a national sport will be.
“When we took the live England home test rights in 2005 off the back of the Ashes series, lots of questions were asked about what would happen to the state of cricket and how Sky would take that on. Channel 4 had award winning coverage at the time. What we did was we had an established stable of cricket talent so we had experience of broadcasting but it brought a bigger spotlight to what we were doing.
“But the important message for us is that we understand that, we respect that and we want to make sure that we put a great offering on for GAA fans.”
He also compared the challenge of covering Gaelic games to that faced by the company when they first took on Formula One coverage and had to establish credentials in a sport they hadn’t previously covered.
“Clearly I am not an expert on GAA but I hope we have got the right team around us that will bring that to the fore.
“We will create the right platform for that. Marrying up the technology with the insight is the most important thing. I think this is one of the reasons why we structured the team in the way that we have.
“The most important thing is what the analysts say. We don’t want to have a situation where the analysts are concentrating on technology more than what they are saying.”
Specialist perspective
That technology is familiar to viewers of Sky's coverage of soccer and rugby. The plan is to have the lead analysts in football and hurling – Peter Canavan and James O'Connor – working with interactive boards and other panellists whose identities have not yet been confirmed but who will link up with the coverage on the basis of county allegiance or some other relevant specialist perspective.
It is intended to provide training for the lead analysts in the next week or so. The selection of former rugby – league and union – international Brian Carney as presenter was partly based on his knowledge of technology, acquired through his work on Sky’s rugby league coverage.
According to Smith there will be 13 cameras at exclusive Sky matches and six or seven additional at the later fixtures to be simulcast with RTE.
If the punditry (see panel) is very experienced, the same can be said for those behind the cameras. Dave McIntyre and Mike Finnerty have extensive commentary experience and the producer Ciarán O'Hara has worked on GAA programming with Setanta and TV3.
The first broadcast will be on Saturday fortnight from Nowlan Park where Kilkenny take on Offaly in the Leinster hurling championship and will continue to the end of the championship, including simulcasts of All-Ireland semi-finals and finals with RTÉ.
Smith confirmed that the Sky cameras would be on the old stand side of the ground so as to prevent viewers being distracted by the structure having no roof after the storms earlier in the year.
“We’re not bringing a roof,” he said (not that we’d have been surprised if they were). “That’s where the production manager and directors go and deal with the specific detail but I do know about Nowlan Park and the fact it’s re-developing. The plan is to shoot from that side rather than into that side. We’d much rather show what a great spectacle it is rather than shooting a building site.”
He was also asked about the potential difficulty of dealing with players, who as amateurs have no obligation to co-operate with media.
“When we set out with the Premier League, it was important to build relationships and build trust. I understand it’s a slightly different dynamic because you’re dealing with amateur players rather than professional players. But I hope we can work with the GPA to try and build that. And the flip side of that is, with the platforms that we have and the amount of people that we can reach, it’s an opportunity for those guys to profile themselves as well.”
