RTÉ insist sponsorship won't affect reporting

GAELIC GAMES:RTÉ's HEAD of Television Sport Glen Killane has insisted the national broadcaster's decision to be a sponsor of the All-Ireland hurling championship will not impact on their match coverage. SEÁN MORANreports.

Responding to criticism that the surprise sponsorship move constituted a conflict of interest, Killane emphasised the two agreements relate to different departments in Montrose, saying that neither the Sunday Game's commentary nor the coverage of the football championships would be affected.

"There will be absolutely no influence on anybody in editorial," he says. "Editorial stands apart in this. You can't fool people and the programme will continue to call it as it sees it. RTÉ is 60 per cent commercial and 40 per cent funded by licence fee.

"This is a commercial matter. The sponsorship has a lot to do with our particular interest in a national sport. RTÉ believes - and the GAA do as well - we can make a difference to the promotion of hurling. Editorial values were never in question so there's no basis to concerns that maybe we would go soft on hurling or promote it over football.

"In terms of our broadcasts, we will still be promoting the Leinster football final as strongly as the Munster hurling final. At the same time our sponsorship aim is to promote hurling, and an engagement with hurling, to as wide an audience as possible."

In response to queries about the appropriateness of the State broadcaster committing substantial funds (believed to be worth over €1 million a year for the two years), RTÉ pointed out yesterday that TG4 sponsored the women's football championship and that non-commercial semi-States An Bórd Bia and Bórd Fáilte had committed far more funds to the sponsorship of the Ryder Cup in 2006.

Speaking about the special position RTÉ would have as regards how the other hurling sponsors are presented, Killane pointed out it wouldn't make sense for the broadcaster to create friction with other sponsors and the protocols would be well worked out in advance.

"There's nothing in it for us to be messing around with other sponsors. We want our coverage to be a success and will be fully co-operative. Anyway, there will be strictly laid down guidelines governing what appears where so it's not going to be up to us. We'll get a list for each match, telling us what sponsor goes in and out of each ad break."

Further complications await RTÉ next week when the summer schedules have to be worked out, as for the first time, the broadcaster will be sharing live rights to championship coverage with TV3.

Although the rights packages relate to match choices 21-30, RTÉ will have to think hard about its own choices. Matches one to 15 are virtually self-selecting but the next five will have to be carefully chosen before TV3 gets to choose the next seven (the remaining three are football qualifiers, which won't become apparent until the championship begins).

"Next Tuesday, we'll sit down with the CCCC, the provincial secretaries and TV3 and work out the schedule," says Killane. "It will be a different landscape. In the past we might have done a few games for different reasons but now we have to consider whether we shouldn't go for the most competitive picks."

Once the broadcasting schedules are made clear the sponsors will meet with GAA representatives and work out the exposure each will get and how that is to be handled by the respective broadcasters. The process will have clear demarcation lines.

"Sponsorship will be handled by our commercial department," says Killane. "Croke Park are appointing a new sponsorship executive but I think this year will be handled by an outside consultancy firm and after the discussions we as broadcasters will be given our riding instructions."

Although there has been a concentration on how the sponsorship might assist RTÉ when the broadcasting rights are up for renegotiation in three years, is there not also a possibility that if the sponsorship isn't a success or isn't renewed in two years this could have an adverse affect? "I don't think it's going to impact on the broadcasting rights. The two processes are very separate. Let's see what happens."