Broadcasting revolution set to continue

On Gaelic Games:This is the last season of the GAA's current three-year broadcasting rights agreement. At the end of the year discussions will get under way for a new distribution of rights. It's an area that has seen enormous change in the past two decades.

Less than 20 years ago there was just one rights holder, RTÉ, for everything: radio, television and overseas rights. Now, whereas the national broadcaster remains the most significant player in audience terms, TG4 and Setanta share the domestic television rights, the overseas rights haven't been RTÉ's for 15 years and even the radio rights are being spoken about as up for grabs.

A figure of €20 million has been speculated as the total value of the various packages to be negotiated in the coming round. But aside from the financial implications of the GAA's media product, there are issues of promotion and quality of coverage that are just as important.

This was recognised in the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) report of five years ago, which recommended the appointment of a television officer specifically to keep an eye on coverage and monitor it and audience ratings.

The biggest change is the long-awaited advent of competition. At the moment it's a fragile plant, in that RTÉ still dominate the live championship rights and the other packages have been of more limited appeal. But it has at least created options.

Television has aroused suspicion over the years, frequently on the basis that it would damage live attendance at matches. The Report of the Commission on the GAA, a sort of earlier SRC, actually recommended that All-Ireland semi-finals be taken off air, at a time when those matches, the All-Ireland finals and Railway Cup finals were the only live broadcasts in a given year.

A quarter of a century later that was still the concern when the GAA eventually decided to embrace a full weekly programme of live match coverage - to the extent that the first year of such coverage was largely made up of deferred broadcasts.

In his annual report for that year, 1995, GAA director general Liam Mulvihill acknowledged these misgivings, but made a characteristically prescient point about the nature of television coverage.

"On the other hand, the medium of television is so vital in publicising games and in popularising them that the association cannot afford to enter into another contract which doesn't guarantee better quality coverage for a longer period of the year.

"We must also seriously examine our competition structures to see if we are organising a package which allows us to promote our games to the maximum extent possible."

Those structures began to evolve immediately with the addition of fixtures to both the hurling and football calendars.

The tendency of television to amplify big sports events and diminish smaller ones was in evidence from the start. Maybe the emergence of new teams was a helpful adjunct to this in raising interest levels, and the impact of the Guinness advertising campaign for the hurling championship, which they were sponsoring for the first time, has been acknowledged.

Arguments over attendances would surface again in relation to club fixtures, and there was a push to restrict the number of Saturday evening matches, which were seen to affect county championship crowds and consequently the revenue of county boards.

Interestingly, the value of television in promoting the games and giving the GAA a presence in the schedules has been implicit in some of the protests about the contract given to Setanta three years ago.

The station is a subscription service but, because of a deal done with NTL, is available at no extra cost in many areas of the country; in others it has to be paid for.

Although it has always been politically impossible for the GAA to do a major deal with satellite companies and force championship matches onto a subscription or pay-per-view basis, the association has been careful never to rule out the possibility.

The occasional complaint that a gala occasion like the Dublin-Tyrone NFL opener under lights before 82,000-plus at Croke Park should have been available free-to-air overlooks the importance of Setanta's presence as a competitor.

In last week's annual report, Mulvihill spelled the situation out in some detail: "The entry of Setanta into the market has brought a fresh dimension to coverage of Gaelic games. Last year they were awarded rights to the floodlit Saturday night games in the Allianz Leagues and, while their audience share remains limited, it continues to increase and more people have access to the channel by the week.

"In addition to their commitment to the leagues and the hours committed to showing replays of Championship games midweek, Setanta have expanded their coverage to include less high-profile competitions, such as the O'Byrne Cup, Leinster Colleges, Féile na nGael and even Cumann na mBunscol finals, all of which had previously struggled to receive any television coverage.

"This can only be a positive development for the association, and while issues remain in terms of the station's restricted availability and the fact that in some parts of the country it is only available as a subscription channel, I believe that ultimately the channel's development will lead to more competition in the market, more choice for GAA supporters and ultimately better coverage of our games."

Ironically it has been the activity of the sports channels in remorselessly eating away at available television rights that has intensified the value of the GAA to RTÉ. Assuming that the bulk of championship action stays with the State broadcaster at the end of this year, it will be one of the few shots left in the Montrose locker.

With the Rugby World Cup gone to Setanta and even radio rights to Newstalk 106, the Gaelic games schedule is of increasing importance.

But the GAA also recognises that sport is at a crossroads in terms of Irish broadcasting.

There has recently been some almost metaphysical pondering on the potential difference between subscription and pay-per-view. This may prove significant when the goodies are handed out at the end of the year.

Current levels of coverage are not far off the maximum that a terrestrial broadcaster can plausibly carry.

As Mulvihill mentions above, smaller-scale events like colleges and secondary provincial tournaments, or even blanket coverage of senior competitions, are never going to justify schedule spots on RTÉ, and consequently those who want access to everything will have to pay for it.