Pay-per-view television arrives for GAA games

GAA followers will get their first taste of ‘pay-per-view’ when the opening game in the Allianz National Football League in Tralee tomorrow evening between Kerry and Mayo will be shown live on the Setanta Sports Channel.

However, supporters appear unaware they won’t be able to watch the game unless they have subscribed to Setanta.

Yesterday, Kerry Chairman Sean Walsh said ‘only a limited number’ of their followers would be able to see the game on television. “A lot of them are going to be disappointed because they will think they can watch it on TV at home.”

Earlier in the week GAA president Sean Kelly defended the deal the Association had entered into with RTÉ, TG4 and Setanta, saying it made sense to share coverage between the networks, rather than having a monopoly situation. However, the suspicion is that GAA leaders did not realise that the Setanta channel wasn’t generally available in the same way as the RTÉ and TG4 channels.

Setanta Sports Channel, which also features English and Scottish Premier League games, is only available free to customers of NTL (in Dublin and the east coast mainly). Chorus viewers, taking in the Munster counties and further afield, can only access it on their digital network (reportedly at a cost of €157 - and for a minimum contract period of 12 months). Similarly, Sky satellite viewers have to pay to receive Setanta.

The Kerry/Mayo game is the first of six ‘live’ television games in the League for which Setanta have the rights. Kerry will again feature the following week, against Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn, and the other games are the March 4 Dublin/Offaly tie, the March 11 meeting of Cork and Dublin, the March 18 clash of Kerry and Offaly and Dublin’s game with Mayo a week later.

There will also be deferred coverage of League games in both hurling and football on the channel, while the concluding stages of the AIB All-Ireland club championships will be featured, along with the Datapac Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup finals.

TG4 have been the losers in the latest GAA agreement - having pioneered the ‘Saturday night live’ games three years ago - but the station will still be showing a live game every Sunday (18 in total).

* Former Cork star Denis Long has been appointed as coach to Austin Stacks.