The FAI for good or ill has taken the Sky shilling, so can the GAA and the IRFU be far behind, asks Emmet Oliver
Rupert Murdoch has often described televised sport as the "battering ram" which will put pay-per-view television ultimately in everyone's front room.
The phrase probably seems somewhat ironic now to battered and bruised RTÉ executives, who yesterday evening were coming to terms with the news that one of the few remaining jewels in its crown had been snatched by Sky television.
The national broadcaster's menu of top-class football was already looking a little skimpy in parts, with TV3 grabbing the rights to the Champions League last year and Sky buying the rights to live Premiership football several years ago.
TV3 has rubbed further salt into RTÉ's commercial wounds by getting its hands on the rights to broadcast the Irish internationals about an hour afterwards.
While RTÉ sport, because of its heavy reliance on live GAA, has no need to raise the white flag just yet, the loss of four years of home internationals is a crippling blow to the station, particularly at a time when its financial future is clouded in uncertainty.
What is particularly corrosive about this development for RTÉ is that it undermines its whole identity as a national broadcaster.
The Irish home internationals, while not as popular as World Cup games, are still the kind of events that draw whole families and communities around their television sets. In the atomised media age in which we live, there are not many events like that any longer.
The loss of such important events, whether you describe them as cultural or sporting, to a pay-per-view channel like Sky Sports makes RTÉ's attempts to remain a truly national broadcaster extremely difficult.
That was one of the reasons the FAI's decision cut so deeply last night. If public service broadcasting is meant to mean anything, it is meant to mean broadcasters reflecting and covering truly national events which bind the country together.
As BBC Sport has found, obscure disciplines such as bowls and curling do not fall into that category. RTÉ's British counterparts have also found that after losing the big battles to the per-per-view stations, there is little left to attract the crowds.
What increases the pain is when top presenters, such as former BBC stalwart Des Lynam, also leave the station because there are few big sporting occasions for them to front any more.
Some RTÉ staff were in no doubt who was to blame last night. The failure of the last Government to fund the station through an increased licence fee was given as a key reason why RTÉ now found huge parts of its schedules being picked off by foreign vultures.
However, those directly in the sports department said money was not the issue. They claimed that negotiations were continuing with the FAI when the Sky announcement was made and they used the words "bad faith" about the FAI approach.
Whatever about RTÉ's disappointments, ordinary sports fans will not be popping open the champagne this weekend either. Earlier this year it was estimated there were about 232,000 subscribers to Sky Sports. Most of these are hard-core fans of the Premiership to which Sky also has live rights.
While this group, which in fairness includes many loyal Irish supporters, will not have to change their viewing habits too much, the vast army of casual Irish supporters will have to pay for the pleasure of watching their heroes Damian Duff and Robbie Keane.
This will stick in the craw for many. There is nothing more dispiriting than having to stump up for something you have been getting for free for years.
Also sports fans who are familiar with the American and British sports markets will know this is unlikely to be the last time they have to put their hands in their pockets.
The FAI for good or ill has taken the Sky shilling, can the GAA and the IRFU be far behind?
In recent years the GAA has talked to other broadcasters and RTÉ has had plenty of heart-stopping moments getting the association to sign on the bottom line.
The idea of Sky Sports or some off-shoot broadcasting the Munster Hurling Final, however unpalatable, could become a reality if terrestrial broadcasters continue to get squeezed out in the bidding war for big sporting events.
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