RTE will show 24 live games in summer

The GAA and RTE have announced that 24 senior hurling, football and camogie Championship games will be broadcast live next summer.

Although RTE transmitted roughly the same number of games last season, it is predicted that next year's screened Championship games will attract a wider audience than ever before.

"With centres across Europe, the United States and the Middle East showing the games live, the Championship has never been so accessible and following on from the All-Ireland finals last year, more matches are to be transmitted via the Internet, the market for which is really inestimable at the moment," commented GAA PRO, Danny Lynch.

While the increased coverage has had a phenomenal impact on the image and popularity of the games at home, the marketability abroad is reflected in the burgeoning number of centres broadcasting the matches live and through the increased competition for transmission rights.

In 1999, Championship games will be broadcast regularly in Britain, France, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the US and in the Middle East.

"Orbit television will broadcast the games in the Middle East while Fox World will be the main outlet in America," commented Lynch.

Other networks and companies involved in the transmission include Fox Sports West, Madison Square Gardens Network, PBS, Celtic Vision and Setanta Sport, according to Lynch.

"As well as that, WTN news agency have obtained the rights to show nightly highlight films of the games, meaning they will reach a tremendously wide audience," he added.

The untapped demand for Irish-based sports programmes precipitated the establishment of companies such as Setanta television, which have a heavy subscription base in traditional Irish-American strongholds, but expatriates in Australia will have to keep in touch with the Championship via older methods as the Australian network SPS is broadcasting only the hurling and football finals live.

Given the success of last year's events, the women's All-Ireland football and camogie finals will again be screened live, although the dates have yet to be finalised.

The first of the live games is a repeat of last year's Munster football final between Kerry and Tipperary on May 23rd, while a week later the hurlers of Waterford and Limerick line up in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

As usual, the minor hurling and football All-Ireland semi-finals will also been transmitted live prior to the senior matches and the summer schedule also features a number of double headers, notably the Munster and Connacht football finals on July 18th and the Ulster and Leinster equivalents on August 1st.

It is highly likely that the games will clash with other televised sporting events broadcast both by RTE and the other terrestrial channels, but that is unlikely to affect championship viewing ratings unduly.

Only last week, RTE announced that they would not be screening the Irish Open tournament live, as it cost the station £500,000 for a signal which other networks were filtering through for their own use. Also, it was noted that the golf tournament failed to attract anything like the audience drawn to GAA games shown simultaneously.