The departure of Sky Sports from the Gaelic games rights market hs proved as tumultuous as its arrival.
Nine years after contentiously selling some of their championship games to the subscription broadcaster, from 2023, the GAA will take over Sky Sports' former package on its own online streaming platform GAAGO, which is co-owned with main rights holder RTÉ.
Gaelic games historian and former Offaly football manager Paul Rouse was opposed to the Sky deal and feels the GAA faces some crucial decisions about its streaming service in the wake of Sky Sports' exit from the market.
"I was surprised," the UCD professor told the RTÉ GAA podcast of this week's developments. "Against that, Sky's viewership figures were very low and the world has fundamentally changed in terms of how people are accessing sport.
"I disagreed profoundly with the GAA decision to give its games to Sky. But my criticism was not of Sky, it was of the GAA. Ten years ago, the people who ran the GAA said they would never do this, and [then] they advanced reasons for doing it that did not hold water, that it was for emigrants. But it was already the case that all emigrants in Britain could see the games through Premier Sports at a much cheaper price than Sky offered.
"The changes in the market around the pandemic, the development of apps on phones, tablets and smart televisions have redrawn what's possible. So the context of the decision is what matters.
"It’s really exciting, the idea that there is technological change which can be harnessed to promote and develop Gaelic games, even games that are played everywhere, on the smallest field, in the smallest club. If it’s properly served by broadband and you have a camera you can stream.
"It’s the opening up of broadcasting of matches at every level and that’s what we learned in the pandemic. It pushed the boundaries. Crisis accelerates change that’s already happening and that’s the story of GAAGO."
GAAGO has previously only shown games that were not being broadcast on TV at all or RTÉ/TG4/SKY-televised games to audiences outside of Ireland/the UK. International viewers could sign up for season-passes, which were €119 in 2022.
Rouse would now like to see the association embrace the possibilities the new situation and new technology offer, rather than seeking to maximise it for on-demand revenue.
"The next question is whether the streaming technology is going to be more difficult and more expensive to use than Sky Sports was," he said.
"This depends on how it's used. If GAAGO is going to charge a tenner for everybody to watch any individual match then I’ll disagree with it. However, if GAAGO develops a season ticket, and it’s linked in some way to membership of the GAA and there are special deals done, then I can see the logic of it.
"What’s key here is the ability to see games. The idea that there would be access through this site to up to 200 games a year, I think there's the potential there to offer a really good service, over time.
"I don’t think it’s fair to expect that this service will immediately be what you want it to be. But if over the next four to five years, it’s developed in way that’s appropriate to both the promotion of the games and the provision of a service to GAA members and people who like Gaelic games, then I’ll support it."
"I think if somebody wants to show Offaly v Longford, people will willingly accept one camera or two cameras with a commentator, or even none"
While Rouse thought that Sky did a good job with their presentation, he doesn't see analysis as a necessary part of selling less high-profile games.
"I thought the Sky coverage was excellent. But the idea that they transformed the broadcasting of Gaelic games doesn't hold water and it’s an insult to people in TV3 [now Virign Media], who had those rights beforehand and did a thoroughly professional job, an insult to TG4… and to RTÉ.
"The NBA have an app where you can buy a pass for €208 for a year and see any game played anywhere on any night [in addition to selling rights to TV]. When the ball isn’t in play there is just music and a holding card or the camera sits there, and that’s fine.
"I enjoy [analysis] but what I enjoy most of all is the games and I think if somebody wants to show Offaly v Longford, people will willingly accept one camera or two cameras with a commentator, or even none, because they want to see Offaly playing football. I don’t think I’m unique in that."
Despite the advances in technology, Rouse does expect free-to-air broadcasting to retain its role beyond the 2023-27 scope of the current deal.
"For all that there has been a revolution in streaming, it is a basic fact, I think, that the broadcast on free-to-air television of major sports is a proven winner, and I don't see that changing, whether that is RTÉ or somebody else."
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
