GAA president Larry McCarthy is confident that the association will not lose money as a result of the expansion of GAAGO, arguing that the public's resistance to online paywalls had diminished following the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Thursday afternoon, the GAA announced the details of the GAAGO broadcast schedule for 2023, with a total 38 games to be shown exclusively on the streaming platform.
The 2023 programme consists of 22 Sam Maguire games, nine Liam MacCarthy matches and seven Tailteann Cup fixtures across the championship season.
The streaming platform also unveiled its team of pundits, with recently retired Donegal superstar Michael Murphy, five-time All-Ireland winning Kerry defender Marc O Sé and Dublin's seven-time All-Ireland winner Paddy Andrews forming the football analysis team.
In hurling, nine-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny Tommy Walsh, 2018 All-Ireland winner with Limerick Seamus Hickey, and former Cork dual star Eoin Cadogan will be providing the insight.
Gráinne McElwain, formerly of Sky Sports GAA broadcast team, fronts the coverage.
Among the games listed as exclusively available on the platform are the Munster senior hurling championship meetings of Limerick-Clare and Cork-Tipperary, while two football quarter-finals will also be behind the paywall.
The GAA disclosed that season passes can be purchased at a rate of €59 until the 31 December 2022, after which it moves to €79. GAA members will receive 10% off the full price subscription.
Individual pay-per-game matches will be available at €12, while a '3-for-2' bundle deal is available at €24. GAA clubs can avail of a group pass for €150.
Care-giving locations can watch games for free via complimentary login codes distributed by county PROs.
The platform is a 50/50 joint-venture between RTÉ and the GAA, with profits and costs split equally.
McCarthy, speaking to reporters at the launch in Croke Park, was particularly pleased at the discount offering to members and said the association has learned a great deal from the prevalence of streaming during the Covid period.
"It's a pay model but we learned over Covid that people are quite willing to pay and the resistance to paying and having stuff behind a paywall diminished significantly," said McCarthy
"Counties are doing it all the time and people don't have any hesitation in paying whatever they're paying. The value is incredible and what I like about it in particular is that we're giving GAA members, through Foireann [the GAA's Online Registration System], a discount and we're giving clubs a discount.
"We're identifying our own members as being important in this, even though it is a commercial entity.
"Our resistance to paywalls diminished over Covid. Then you kind of have to maybe ask the question, was it the paywall or was it because it was going to Sky?
"So many of us now are paying for streaming services that I think that resistance has diminished significantly."
The platform has committed to giving outside broadcast treatment to at least 25 of the 38 games on offer, with multi-camera set-ups, graphics and replays.
McCarthy says the association's commercial managers are confident that the product will prove a financial success and that it will at least "wash our face".
"Obviously we'll know an awful lot more at the end of the year.
"But Noel Quinn [GAA marketing and broadcast manager] and Peter McKenna [commercial director] are quite confident, and the GAAGO team and RTÉ are quite confident, that the price points are good and that we're going to wash our face at the very minimum.
"Also, I'm assuming, without knowing the details of it, that we'll have ad revenue so the figures, they will work.
"It's a logistical challenge essentially putting a television network out in the fields around the place. It'll be good, I have no doubt."
The expansion of GAAGO's coverage comes after Sky Sports' exit from the market after nine years.
A fixture on the GAA broadcasting landscape since 2014, Sky confirmed that it had failed to reach an agreement with the association "despite a strong willingness to continue our partnership".
McCarthy said the expansion of GAAGO hadn't been envisioned prior to Sky's decision to withdraw but said their commercial team are always keeping an eye on the market.
"No, I don't think we had. This came out of discussions when we were talking about the whole market and it was raised as we said, 'OK, investigate it’.
"And the proposal was brought to Coiste Bainisti and brought to Central Council and they were happy with the proposal."
McCarthy insisted that the GAA would not lose money due to the new arrangement.
"No, we're not. Because there was a rights bid made by GAAGO and that was somewhat close to the equivalent of what we would have been getting from Sky.
"We're not losing anything on it."
Writing recently in The Currency, former Dublin All-Ireland and GPA President Paul Flynn argued that Sky's withdrawal related to the shortening of the inter-county season and what he alleged was the GAA's determination to "rein in" the inter-county game. He also expressed doubts that the association would invest enough in GAAGO to bring it up to broadcast quality.
"Well, I'll stick with the split season any day of the week," McCarthy said in response.
"First of all, because I think it brings so much benefits, particularly to our club players, obviously.
"And at the end of the day, we're not going to lose money, we're not going to lose money at all really in terms of the split season.
"Even though, Sky perhaps moved on because of that... I don't know what their rationale is, but we have an equivalent service and we're going to do as well out of it."
The GAA president insisted he didn't know why Sky was unhappy with the latest broadcast deal.
"Well their offer, was it 13 or 14 games, was their package? I don't know specifically what they were looking for that they didn’t like. Ultimately they didn’t make a bid for it."
In the press release, the GAA said more analysts would be added to the package in due course, with commentators and sideline reporters brought on board.
Despite the funding model, McCarthy insisted that the GAA would exercise no editorial control over the product and there would no attempt to "sanitise" the coverage.
"I'm not going to be sitting there listening and then go, bang, press a button or something [to cut off the feed]... If we need to be criticised we should be criticised.
"Technically GAAGO is not within, it's a joint partner. It's another company essentially. If they want to criticise us, and it's justified, then by all means criticise us.
"These games are live so we're not going to sanitise them in any way. I think you’ll get it warts and all. We’d be doing something of a disservice if we didn’t do it right."
GAAGO Exclusive Matches
Sat 8 April
CSFC New York v Leitrim (10pm Irish)
Sat 22 April
USFC Cavan v Antrim/Armagh, Breffni Park / Corrigan Park (6pm)
LSHC Galway v Wexford (5pm)
MSFC Tipperary/Waterford v Kerry (time tbc)
Sun 23 April
MSHC Clare v Tipperary (4pm)
LSFC Dublin v Wexford/Laois (time tbc)
Sat 29 April
USFC Ferm/Der v Tyr/Mon (5pm)
MSHC Limerick v Clare (7pm)
Sun 30 April
LSFC Semi Finals (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sat 6 May
MSHC Cork v Tipperary (7pm)
LSHC Dublin v Wexford (5pm)
Sun 7 May
LSHC Antrim v Kilkenny (time tbc)
Sat 13 May MSHC Waterford v Clare (6pm)
Tailteann R1 'Game of the Week' (time tbc)
Sat 20 May
SFC Rd1 (2 x games) (time tbc)
LSHC Kilkenny v Dublin (6pm)
Tailteann Cup Rd2 ‘Game of the Week’ (time tbc)
Sat 27 May
SFC Rd1 (2 x games) (times tbc)
Sun 28 May
MSHC / LSHC round robin (1 x game) (time tbc)
Sat 3 June
SFC Round 2 (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sun 4 June
SFC Rd2 (1 x game) (time tbc)
Tailteann Cup Rd 3 'Game of the Week' (time tbc)
Sat 10 June
Tailteann Preliminary Quarter Finals (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sat 17 June
SFC Rd 3 (Simultaneous T/I times) (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sun 18 June
SFC Rd 3 (2 x games) (time tbc)
Tailteann Cup Quarter Finals (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sat 24 June
SFC Prelim Quarter Finals (2 x games) (time tbc)
Sat 1 July
SFC Quarter Finals (2 x games) (time tbc
