Aogán Ó Fearghail: Nobody has an automatic right to see every game on television

As GAA chiefs put the finishing touches on a fresh TV rights deal with interested parties, President Aogán Ó Fearghail insisted “there is no automatic right for everybody to see every game”.

The GAA will soon announce whether they will extend their partnership with Sky Sports, as Ó Fearghail conceded RTÉ were the big winners in the last broadcast carve-up.

The Sky Sports deal continues to come in for criticism from those who feel that all games should be shown on a free-to-air basis.

Ó Fearghail commented: “I have said this before, I’ll say it again, there is no such thing as a Sky deal, there’s a media deal, and the big winners in the last deal certainly were RTÉ.

“Our biggest thing is always to make sure that people are at a match. Without the attendances we have difficulty, so there is no automatic right for anyone to see every single game.

“We have to always make sure that we can have as many games as possible where people can see them, but that’s the environment that we work within.

“So, there is no conclusion, no finality yet to the next deal.”