Irish Examiner view: Final whistle

GAA’s Sky Sports deal ends

When the deal was signed with Sky Sports back in 2014, there was considerable criticism of the GAA.

The end of the GAA-Sky Sports broadcasting relationship was a good deal less noisy than the beginning.

When the deal was signed back in 2014, there was considerable criticism of the GAA, based primarily on comments the previous year by then director general Páraic Duffy that the association’s membership wouldn’t allow a deal with Sky Sports.

The apparent U-turn was never fully explained to that membership, and while Sky’s coverage was praised in many quarters, viewing figures were consistently dwarfed by RTÉ’s offering. The fact that the deal has now come to an end will no doubt be seen by some of those critics as vindication of their opposition.

The announcement of the new deal makes quite a deal of noise about the restoration of live games to free-to-air TV on RTÉ as well as the GAA’s commitment to the Irish language through TG4, but there is some more interesting detail beyond those headlines.

The press release states: “Following the successful expansion of GAAGO’s streaming footprint during the pandemic, exclusive championship games will be made available on the platform in Ireland and overseas from the 2023 season onwards.”

As GAAGO is the GAA’s own streaming service, it raises one obvious question: Will the GAA eventually broadcast its own games and decide to bypass the likes of RTÉ and TG4?

Broadcasting deals are a significant source of revenue for many sports bodies, but if an organisation can stream its games directly to consumers for a fee then those deals may become a thing of the past. And not just for the GAA.