GAA director general Tom Ryan has rejected a suggestion that “plum ties” were shifted to Saturdays to try and maximise GAAGO subscriptions.
Ryan was responding to questions from Alan Dillon TD of Fine Gael as he appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media to discuss the future of sports broadcasting in Ireland, with leading administrators from other sporting bodies also present.
But the main thrust of the discussion centred around subscription service GAAGO, a joint venture between the GAA and RTE, which was parachuted in as the secondary broadcast partner this year after Sky Sports pulled out.
There was outcry early in the Championship when big Munster SHC ties like Limerick-Clare and Cork-Tipperary were not broadcast free-to-air, with further disquiet at the recent Kerry-Tyrone All-Ireland football quarter-final being available on GAAGO only, along with other fixtures.
Deputy Dillon, a former Mayo footballer, stated that “plum ties” were being shown on Saturdays and questioned if there was a “conflict of interest between GAA and RTE in terms of trying to maximise subscriptions by putting them on Saturdays”.
Ryan denied this, saying: “That perception, and I can understand it and I get it as well, but I think it’s a little bit unfair because if you look at the Championship as a whole, finals in both codes, semi-finals in both codes, quarter-finals in both codes with the exception of two games, the games that are at the really crunch end of both Championships, they’re on RTE and they’re free-to-air.”
Dillon responded by saying that six out of the last 11 games of the All-Ireland SFC would be available on GAAGO only, though the correct number is actually five out of 11 as the Galway-Mayo preliminary quarter-final reverted to RTE.
Ryan confirmed that 22% of GAA revenue comes from broadcasting with GAAGO generating €4m and, for top end games, the subscription service commands up to 120,000 viewers, such as for the recent Tyrone-Kerry tie, though he said that there would be a review into which games go behind the paywall in future.
Fine Gael TD Ciaran Cannon put it to Ryan that, given that production costs for GAAGO are being incurred in any event, the GAA may consider making it available free-to-air for those that don’t have access to the app or have poor broadband.
He responded: “We play 400/500 games in a year. We have maybe 40 or 50 that generate some kind of return and similar to my colleagues in rugby, the imperative is to try and generate a reasonable return for that 40 or 50 so that then funds your Nickey Rackards and your Christy Rings.
“We have a responsibility to try and earn a decent and a reasonable income in whatever means, whether it be through the turnstiles or broadcasting for those games.”
Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick, who is also chairman of his county board, acknowledged that the €79 annual GAAGO subscription was “very good value”, but questioned the cost of €12 per individual game, to which Ryan said the GAA would be “looking at our pricing again”.
Elsewhere, Peter McKenna, the GAA’s commercial director who attended along with Ryan, confirmed that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) still hasn’t approved GAAGO for the purposes of broadcasting within Ireland having earlier given in the green light only on the basis that it would be transmitting coverage overseas only when it was first introduced in 2014.
“We’re currently in discussions with the CCPC so they’ve asked a number of questions about it,” said McKenna.
