RTÉ sports chief McBennett: 'There's never been more free-to-air sport'

Montrose boss denies that high-profile Munster SHC games were directed to  GAAGO to increase subscribers

MIC'D UP: GAAGO at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Saturday. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

RTÉ group head of sport Declan McBennett has refuted claims that high-profile Munster senior hurling championship games were shown on GAAGO to increase subscribers.

Three of the stellar games in the competition so far – Clare v Tipperary, Limerick v Clare and Cork v Tipperary – have been streamed on the joint GAA-RTÉ owned platform, while RTÉ has shown Cork v Waterford and Limerick v Waterford.

A director of GAAGO, McBennett agreed that it would not be unreasonable for some of the best games to be shown on the streaming service to drive up subscribers but insisted suggestions they had done so was “simply not true”.

He said on RTÉ Radio’s News At One: “The reality of it is we did Cork-Waterford and we’ve done Limerick (-Waterford) so far in terms of RTÉ. The Limerick-Clare game was initially scheduled for the Sunday and that was an RTÉ game. Due to circumstances in Limerick which were entirely outside of the control of certainly RTÉ and I imagine the GAA (Great Limerick Run), that game was moved to Saturday and hence went to GAAGO.

“RTÉ picked up Cork-Waterford. Now, Cork-Waterford, unfortunately, did not meet the iconic status of the Limerick-Clare game but that’s the nature of sport. If we knew the results before the games...” 

McBennett maintained RTÉ were fulfilling their duty of delivering live coverage of the best matches free-to-air. 

“We’re doing that and we’re doing that across rugby, soccer and GAA where there has never been more free-to-air sport.

“We will be doing Clare v Cork and Limerick v Tipperary in two weeks’ time (May 21) when GAAGO will be doing the key football matches which have emerged, which will be Kerry v Mayo and Galway v Tyrone (May 20).” 

However, he explained GAA’s condensed championship scheduling was creating clashes. He also revealed RTÉ has a degree of discretion in picking 15 of the 31 championship games in their total package as the other 16 of them are determined: the All-Ireland senior finals and semi-finals (six), four All-Ireland quarter-finals (two in both football and hurling) and the six provincial finals.

"On the basis of 15 games across eight weekends, four provinces and two codes we cannot simply concentrate on the Munster hurling championship. That is not feasible."

Like the GAA, McBennett would not reveal the number of GAAGO subscribers for commercial reasons only to reiterate Croke Park’s remarks that it was meeting its targets and expectations. He added any profit gained by RTÉ from the venture will be reinvested into its sports rights.