Brennan urges TV bosses to hike up Northern exposure
Speaking at the Ulster GAA Writers’ function in Bundoran, the president expressed dissatisfaction with the interest shown by the two companies.
Pointing out that the Association had created separate packages to ensure coverage on BBC and UTV of Ulster championship games in the Six Counties, Brennan said “it was fair to say there wasn’t a mad scramble” for the rights.
“In comparison to BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland is not dedicated to sport — certainly not to Gaelic games. We would love to see more interest on BBC and UTV in our games,’’ he said. And, in pursuit of this objective he would invite the television companies to look at the island of Ireland as one market.
Ideally, the GAA president said he would like to see All-Ireland senior finals shown on either BBC1 or 2, or UTV, to promote their games in England, Scotland and Wales.
Longer term, he wondered if this could be achieved when the digital switchover is carried out in 2012.
“TG4 have a guaranteed slot in the Six Counties. Why not look to bring that date forward and make space to make Irish stations available all over the north?’’ he added.
Meanwhile ongoing talks on the inter-county player grants have so far failed to produce any white smoke but Nickey Brennan remains bullish about the chances of a breakthrough arriving sooner rather than later.
Sports Minister Seamus Brennan said last week that he expected proposals on his desk at some stage this week while officials from his department met with the GPA on Monday.
“There’s hard work going on behind the scenes,” said Brennan. “I’m getting updates as to how things are going along and I would be confident it will be resolved sooner rather than later.”
* Monaghan’s Tommy Freeman collected the Ulster GAA writers Footballer of the Year honours while his manager, Seamus McEnaney was chosen as Personality of the Year.
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