RTÉ set to increase sports webcasts
Sunday’s Munster SFC Final replay between Cork and Kerry in Páirc Uí Chaoimh attracted thousands of viewers to www.rte.ie to watch the match live.
This was the first time the station has streamed a GAA match live on the web and aside from attending the match, it was the only opportunity for fans to experience the live action as the company was committed to broadcasting the Connacht and Leinster SFC Finals on RTÉ Two.
With over 32,000 streams to the webcast, and 9,954 unique visitors to the site during the match, the figures show, according to sources: “an extremely positive response from GAA fans”.
RTÉ.ie is planning to deliver more live sports events and has already confirmed it will be streaming simultaneous live coverage of this season’s Champions League, along with RTÉ Television.
Commenting on the success of the webcast, Múirne Laffan, Executive Director of RTÉ Publishing said: “We are delighted with the success of our first GAA match live on the web and we are committed to providing even more choice to our audiences by actively seeking out other events which we can stream live.”
RTÉ cleared the rights for the Munster final with the GAA for the island of Ireland, but there were a small number of difficulties for some users who were unable to access the webcast during the event.
In response to this, Marcus O’Doherty, Technology Manager of RTÉ.ie said: “Unfortunately, the outsourced service provider’s geo-blocking system did not correctly identify all users as being on the island of Ireland.
“This is an issue that we have taken up with our service provider and will be addressed before our next live match.”
