As biblical weather swept over huge swathes of Ireland on Saturday, there was a notable impact for spectators of sporting events, both inside the terraces and back home.
Anyone attending a match in the south or west of the country today would have been drenched due to the deluges that crossed the country. GAA fans watching the afternoon's Sam Maguire Round Robin and Tailteann Cup quarterfinals would have also faced disruption to their streaming service on GAA GO.
No men's games in hurling or gaelic football were broadcast on live television today.
Instead GAAGO served up four matches. Viewers of Offaly v Tipperary in the hurling as well as Down v Cavan and Monaghan v Donegal all faced periods where the service dropped out as the bad weather passed over the country.
Coverage dropped in the 63rd minute of Tipp's historic defeat over Offaly and did not return until the post-match man of the match interview with Mark Kehoe.
We apologise for loss of signal on the Offaly and Tipperary game. This is due to adverse weather conditions at the game venue. Our technicians are working to resolve the issue.
— GAAGO (@GAAGO) June 17, 2023
Coverage of the first half of Monaghan v Donegal was also impacted.
Coverage has resumed for the below. https://t.co/r5ix5mFRMh
— GAAGO (@GAAGO) June 17, 2023
Similar happened with Cavan v Down.
This is Cavan v Down on @GAAGO pic.twitter.com/ckPlxOvMuu
— Paul Colgan (@paulcolgan) June 17, 2023
Teething problems for GAA GO
Today's storms were quite serious as evidenced by Met Éireann's orange weather warning and the scenes in Tralee.
While there have many enjoyable innovations with GAA GO, these disruptions will again raise questions about whether the streaming service was fully ready to take on such a heavy load in terms of the overall GAA broadcasting approach.
The country's poor broadband infrastructure presents genuine challenges for flawless broadcasting on a good day in Ireland.
The decision to put so many mouthwatering Munster SHC games behind the paywall brought an added layer of scrutiny that it probably didn't need in its first year streaming exclusive Championship games.
It will be interesting to see what tweaks the GAA make for the 2024 Championship for the service. In the mean time, the streaming service will broadcast games with even higher stakes over the coming weeks.
Let's all hope for good weather.
