What it means for club GAA as eir Sport get into bed with TG4
eir Sport’s GAA coverage now includes club games.
It has been announced this morning that Irish sports broadcaster eir Sport has bought the rights to air coverage of AIB Football and Hurling Club Championship games for the next five years, kicking things off in May of this year.
This deal comes in addition to the Allianz League coverage they already provide, with 23 intercounty games in total to be aired on the channel throughout the campaign in both hurling and football.
The news comes as a bit of a surprise for the GAA viewership, seeing club coverage move alongside the old-reliable TG4 for the first time ever. TG4 has faultlessly covered club competition for many years — and did a superb service to both the club hurling and football finals on St Patrick’s Day.
The important thing to note is that this coverage is not exclusive of TG4, as the Irish language channel retains its Sunday afternoon coverage of club competition.
This can only be a good thing for club GAA competition, with more readily available coverage of club games. Despite sitting behind the eir Sport paywall, this does not conflict with TG4’s already outstanding coverage and your club Sundays will continue unscathed. The GAA viewership are getting 30 extra live games in 2017, not to mention the heightened quality the eir Sport cameras will provide for clips and highlights surrounding the game.
In addition, there will be the heightened buzz and marketing which will follow the eir Sport train as it rolls into a town near you. This shouldn’t deter people going to the games, given the passion and community of the club scene, but offer an ideal compliment for those around the country that are unable to attend the games or simply want to indulge in some televised club action.
Many will criticise the increased number of GAA games now behind digital subscriptions, making it very expensive to follow a lot of the GAA live coverage. Along with the much maligned Sky Sports’ rights ownership for a number of senior hurling and football championship games, folks at home would have to shell out over €80 per month to subscribe to both the Sky offering and the additional eir Sport’s package to quench their GAA thirsts. Not to mention viewers with Virgin Media will have no access to the eir Sport package whatsover.
But there’s no denying more live games on television is only good for the promotion and branding of the club scene, as well the GAA as whole, opening our eyes to some of the mostly hotly contested club fixtures around the country.
It’s a fantastic bonus that the deal doesn’t step directly on the toes of TG4’s already well established coverage, but merely offers a justifiable compliment of broadcasting for the GAA community.
