RTE and Sky Win Rights To GAA Championships

It was announced today that Sky Sports has secured the exclusive rights to broadcast 14 GAA matches for each of the next three years. Meanwhile RTÉ has secured the rights to broadcast 31 games in the All Ireland Championships.

In a major new development, however, Sky will also screen live the All-Ireland hurling and football semi-finals and finals simultaneously with RTÉ, bringing the total championship games screened by the subscription broadcaster to 20.

Páraic Ó Dufaigh, Director General of the GAA, commented: "In the negotiation of these rights, the GAA was guided by a wish to drive the promotion of Gaelic games and we believe the new rights' contracts will provide Gaelic games with their widest-ever global audience reach.
"We look forward to working with all of our broadcast partners in television and radio, and are enthused by the prospect of having our games presented to the highest standards of sports' broadcasting.

Meanwhile, TV3 issued a statement confirming that it will not be broadcasting any of the GAA football or hurling championship matches this year – or for the following two years.

TV3’s Director of Broadcasting Niall Cogley expressed his disappointment at the outcome of a recent GAA tender for Media Rights. “TV3 has been proud to broadcast the GAA Championship free to viewers throughout the country over the past six years,” he said. "TV3 made a very commercial bid for the next three years, but this appears to have been superseded by the GAA’s preference for a pay television strategy.

“While this was obviously not our choice,” Cogley added, "it leaves TV3 in a better position to secure other sports properties to sit alongside our prime-time Champions League coverage like tonight’s Manchester United v Bayern Munich fixture. We hope to be in a position to make announcements in this regard in the near future.”

Here's Mario Rosenstock's Gift Grub suggestion of what the Sky Coverage will be like!