GAA’s money-driven Sky Sports ambitions would alienate members
Indeed, particular exception was taken to even the suggestion ‘that the GAA went to Sky for the money’. A Dáil Committee was told by the GAA hierarchy this was ‘cynical’ and that ‘cynicism has always been the easy refuge of those who are afraid to engage in analysis and reasonable debate.’
It is worth recalling that — instead of money — the deal with Sky was presented as being rooted in two basic ambitions: Providing coverage of matches to Irish emigrants and raising awareness of the game internationally.
In support of these stated ambitions, the GAA made claims that were unsustainable and used figures that were inaccurate. Ultimately, the arguments advanced were neither plausible nor coherent.
However, the ground has shifted over the last few months.
In the course of shifting its ground, it is now absolutely clear that, if it goes back to Sky for the next deal, the GAA will go only for the money.
The shift in the GAA’s position on Sky actually began in the months before last week’s Annual Congress, with the publication of Director- General Páraic Duffy’s annual report for 2015.
Anticipating a motion coming from Dublin that would prevent the GAA from selling its games to Pay-TV companies in the future, Mr Duffy wrote: “Any restriction that prohibits the GAA from engaging with all interested parties, including subscription TV providers, would seriously reduce our negotiating power…” in the future.
This makes sense. And in the debate at Congress, the argument against passing the motion was well-made and persuasive. There is a logic to keeping all available buyers in the auction, in order to drive up the price.
To acknowledge this is not to walk away from the sentiments (which I obviously agree with) that motivated those people who brought the motion. Nonetheless, it is fair to assert that the backdrop of Pay-TV companies will help ensure the GAA will be able to stretch the money it makes from its TV rights.
The debate at Congress was not on the merits of the Sky deal, of course. It was simply on whether it was prudent to tie the hands of the GAA in advance of negotiations on the next deal.
The fact the motion put by Dublin was — as expected — soundly beaten does not change the disaffection that exists at the existing Sky deal.
There are those who would have you believe that disapproval of that deal is something that is the creation of RTÉ, or its supposed stooges, or a few people carrying crosses.
There is no way the people who run the GAA are so out-of-touch as to believe this — and to make the claim is to insult the clubs and the counties who drafted and passed motions against the Sky deal.
When clubs ranging from inner-city Dublin to rural Kerry and Clare are of the same mind when it comes to opposing the showing of games exclusively on Sky, the GAA hierarchy must know that there is enduring disaffection among its membership.
Ultimately, though, Congress decided to ‘trust the leadership of the GAA to make the right decision,’ when it comes to the next broadcast deal.
And this is where we get to the nub of things: What are the ambitions that will underpin making the ‘right decision’?
Money is obviously vital here — only a fool would argue otherwise, and the good news for the GAA is that the TV sports rights market in Ireland is extremely competitive. The GAA will not have to go to Sky Sports in order to make its money.
TV3 have already taken rugby off RTÉ and will be desperate to win back the rights to GAA matches from Sky.
On top of that, there may be at least one more contender. If UTV Ireland wishes to properly crack the Irish market, Gaelic games remain the surest way of doing this. The GAA is correct when it says the sports rights market has evolved — and that evolution gives it the opportunity to walk away from Sky.
More than that, walking away from Sky would also allow the GAA to offer a proper service to Irish emigrants who live in Britain. This service can be made cheaper for emigrants and more easy to access by allowing GAAGO to show all the matches that it is allowed to show everywhere else in the world — except in Britain where Sky has exclusive rights to the most attractive matches/ This is ludicrous and obviously undercuts the service on offer.
In general, the potential to develop GAAGO in the future — even to the point of making it into a TV channel in its own right for Irish emigrants — is immense. That would be a genuine service to those abroad – and most likely a lucrative one for the GAA.
Which brings us back to the matter of what the GAA is supposed to be about at its core. The evidence available now to the decision-makers is clearcut: Disastrous viewing figures for important championship matches have underlined just how extensively the GAA has disenfranchised its own communities by shifting its games from TV3 to Sky Sports. These are people who have given, or continue to give, a lifetime of service to the association and there is no hiding from a decline which approaches 90% in terms of home viewership.
What we will see later this year is to what extent that matters to the people who make the decisions in Croke Park.
