Time for lights, camera, action

The Broadcaster: "To be serious you have to have the GAA" according to Maurice Reidy, head of Outside Broadcasting with Setanta Sports. Seán Moran reports.

At last Monday's launch of the Allianz National Leagues GAA president Seán Kelly referred to the association's promiscuous television deal, which engages three broadcasters in the domestic rights issue.

"We decided to give a piece of the cake to all competing operators," said Kelly. "Monopolies aren't good in any walk of life."

The new bid on the block came from Irish cable sports channel Setanta and its reward is live rights to cover the floodlit National League fixtures on Saturday nights. As night matches are a relatively recent innovation in Gaelic games, there are only three grounds with the necessary facilities, all in Division One A of the National Football League.

Cork are the only county to have played hurling league fixtures under lights and that has contributed to the fact that Setanta won't be showing hurling matches live - although TG4 will have a full schedule of Sunday hurling fixtures.

"My understanding is that no team would play Cork under lights, as Cork have played there too often," says Setanta's Maurice Reidy. "That's one of the reasons we don't have hurling. All our matches are from Division One A of the football league because that's where the floodlit grounds are but come spring 2007, there'll be a greater variety of venues available."

Last summer the station ran deferred coverage of championship matches in its weekly schedules but tonight's Kerry-Mayo match in Tralee sees the company's first venture into live, competitive intercounty action.

"To be serious you have to have the GAA," according to Reidy. "It's a yardstick for everybody, audience and advertisers. Look at the number of leading companies who are building campaigns around Gaelic games and they know where the audience is.

"We're showing TG4 matches (the Irish language channel has the rights to the leagues' Sunday fixtures) on deferred coverage during week days so we'll be a five-day presence for Gaelic games for the week."

The mechanics of the live coverage are straightforward. Reidy is speaking in Donnybrook where he's been directing coverage of the schools' rugby matches, a relatively hassle-free task given the ground and its everyday use.

"We can bring the cameras for the schools rugby and keep the van there for four days because there's a daily match there. There's a gantry at the ground so there's no need for scaffolding."

Outside broadcasts are graded from two-star with three or four cameras all the way up to international or All-Ireland final coverage, which is five-star and utilises 15 cameras. Schools' rugby is two-star whereas the National League coverage will be three to four-star with six or seven cameras.

Reidy, from Kerry, joined Setanta to head up its outside broadcast function from RTÉ where he had worked in sports broadcasting since the late 1960s. He has seen Gaelic games coverage go from four live matches a year (two All-Ireland semi-finals and two finals) to the current situation where you can nearly see the same number of broadcasts in one weekend.

Having worked at Olympics and World Cups, he's not fazed by the smaller scale of events that now merit live coverage in a broadcasting environment hungry for live rights to a rapidly expanding range of sports.

He's also happy with the three floodlit venues, all of which are broadcast-friendly: "All three grounds are well equipped in that there are gantries facing the main stands and we're familiar with them, as are the crews.

Since RTÉ effectively privatised its OB unit, resulting in personnel going freelance to meet the national broadcaster's out-sourcing needs, two companies have emerged as the providers of technical services for outside broadcasting, TVM and Observe. TVM is Setanta's facilities provider.

Reidy describes the logistics of a typical job: "The day before we turn up and install the facilities and equipment so that the next day is just a matter of setting up the cameras and plugging everything in. The OB ends about half-nine or 10 and then they'll derig and maybe head off to another match for TG4 the next day. It's a routine."

Although there is still an element of novelty about GAA fixtures at night, from a broadcasting perspective there are no new demands.

"Floodlit rugby and soccer have been going on for a long time and there's no great difference. It's just the GAA have been slower to get around to it.

"The novelty is in seeing Gaelic games under lights rather than the lights themselves.

"I've been to National League and Celtic League matches under lights and it's a social occasion as much as a sporting occasion. The age profile of the attendance is younger. There's something about floodlit sport that's attractive and the GAA recognise that."