Eyebrows were raised earlier this week when it was revealed that Sky Sports would no longer broadcast GAA game moving forward.
The broadcaster had been in partnership with the Association since 2014, broadcasting a number of championship games each summer. However, that will not be the case in 2023 after the two parties could not come to an agreement on a deal moving forward.
RTÉ will now show the vast majority of games each summer, with the BBC also playing a part. It seems as though Sky's role will be filled by GAAGO, although how that will work remains to be seen.
While it is a good resource to have, the streams on the site are not exactly broadcast quality. It would also lead to an extra subscription (or pay-per-view) service for those who want to watch games, many of whom may have already had a Sky Sports subscription to view other sports.
In all, this change does not seem like a good one for GAA fans.
Paul Flynn questions motives of GAA broadcasting change
In a summer where we will see more championship games played than ever before, we are now faced with the prospect of having less games broadcast on television in comparison to 2022.
That feels like a backwards step, although Paul Flynn is wondering whether it was an intentional one.
Speaking on Second Captains, the former Dublin star and ex-GPA president said that he got the impression from the GAA at times during his discussions with them that they were hoping to lessen the profile of the inter-county game moving forward.
I think this is a big mess. I think it's a missed opportunity.
What probably transpired here, without knowing, is that Sky may have had a vision, may have wanted to expand and grow their relationship, with that their coverage and the amount of games they were showing. Maybe it wasn't met with the same vision.
I feel like this has been coming for a while with the GAA, in relation to reining in inter-county and trying to pull things back to the roots. Maybe this is another step in it.
My initial gut feeling when I seen Sky come out with their press release was that this was a negative for the game overall...
I would have sat at the table a lot for these discussions when I was in the GPA. I just seen the sentiment shift in the views of the GAA that inter-county was a cost centre that was spiralling out of control, that's the way it was phrased...
I feel like the split season was a component of that. If you look at the All-Ireland finals, you had the President of the GAA up there saying pretty much 'thank god the inter-county season is over because now we can get onto the good part, which is the club game'.
Whether that's your view or not, it's a mindset in there like 'let's keep tabs on this inter-county stuff and not let it get ahead of itself'. I'm not saying this is what happened, but I don't think that mindset is similar to what Sky would have.
Paul Flynn would go on to say that he had his doubts that the GAA would invest the funds required to get GAAGO up to broadcasting standards. You can listen to the full episode here and it is certainly an interesting discussion.
The idea of 'reining in' the inter-county game seems like a farcical one, with the commercial opportunities available to the GAA vast if it is managed correctly. Whatever about a split season, but not capitalising on its most attractive would certainly be a missed opportunity for the Association.
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