Sky and the GAA one year on - the good and the bad

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Sky Sports' announcement as the GAA's media right partners. John Fogarty takes the rough with the smooth.

THE RIGHTS

Presentation

Slick was the one word that came to mind last year watching Sky's coverage. Sure, they might have played it too safe, but the content was snappy and engaging. Along with the three-piece suits, there was solid, thought-provoking analysis from Jamesie O'Connor and Peter Canavan in particular.

Technology

This is one area where RTE will hope to make up ground against Sky this year. The touch-screen technology deployed before and after games as well as half-time was an impressive addition to the coverage of Gaelic games.

High definition

Again, RTE are playing catch-up here. All of Sky's 20 games last year (14 of which were exclusive) were shown in high definition quality. RTE showed the same amount in HD last season but then they had 11 games when they were without it. Sky, largely thanks to their resources, have also showed a little more innovation in their camera work.

THE WRONGS

Bad pronunciations, factual mistakes

There were always going to be some teething problems for the new kids on the block but some of the mistakes by the Sky Sports News channel at the outset were gallingly bad. Their first day was peppered with errors but the mispronunciations continued through the summer along with a misplaced graphic here and there.

Defending the product

Sky Sports are well known for not being too critical of the product they are putting on show, and there were a few games last year when they pulled their punches and avoided describing just how bad a game was or didn't call obvious mismatches. They may be more comfortable to do so this year, but it's not in Sky's culture to call it exactly as they see it.

Erroneous viewership figures

Even after the figures were refuted, it was maintained by one Sky presenter that there was close to 500,000 people in the UK watching the drawn All-Ireland hurling final on Sky Sports 1. In fact, only 103,800 took in the game and that included Northern Ireland. The 427,000 figure mentioned was the reach, which relates to those who may have only flicked onto the station for a second.