Kerry call for all televised games to be free-to-air

Some sort of debate on the future of the GAA's pay-per-view TV rights is now headed for next year's Congress after the Kerry County Convention passed a motion on the issue.

Indeed it proved one of the more lively issues s at the annual convention, and despite advice from the county secretary that convention should be wary of tying the hands of the GAA negotiators, the motion from the Beale club was unanimously passed.

Presented by Beale club representative Maurice Mannix, the motion reads: "At the conclusion of the current TV broadcast rights contract, that all televised games be available on free-to-air TV."

A similar motion passed by the Clare County Board last year failed to make it onto the Congress Clár, after the GAA’s rules advisory committee deemed it did not amend a rule nor enact one.

Best way

However, the issue generated a lot of debate in Kerry, and delegates felt that the best way to get the message to “Croke Park” was to pass the motion .

It’s almost two years now since Croke Park made the decision to sell exclusive rights for 14 live hurling and football games to Sky Sports, opening up the market to satellite pay-per-view broadcasters.

That three-year deal comes to an end following the conclusion of the 2016 season, and the GAA must then decide to extend the contract with Sky or revert to free-to-air only.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Kerry motion actually makes it all the way to Congress, which is set for Carlow next February. Last year's decision to withdraw it from Congress in Cavan was greeted with considerable surprise, with Croke Park instead deciding it was a matter for central council.

Kerry also reported an overall profit of €907,417 in 2015, a rise of some 112 per cent on last year’s figure and largely attributed to the €722,051 pocketed through international funding. Total expenditure stood at €4,437,279, marginally up from the 2014 figure of €4,105,127, while team expense ran to €998,495, a 3 per cent rise on the 2014 total.

Meanwhile a new report from the GPA has called for a more competitive Christy Ring Cup, a dedicated promotions officer, and a promotional campaign to raise the profile of the Ring, Rackard and Meagher hurling competitions.

Former Cork hurling manager Donal O'Grady was tasked with compiling the report, which included discussing all aspects of the competitions with relevant stakeholders and carrying out an extensive survey of hurlers currently playing in the three Cups.

Players canvassed for their opinions placed great importance in the three competitions, but believe administrators and those tasked with promoting hurling are falling short in terms of developing the Ring, Rackard and Meagher cups. Extending the competitions to seven weeks was considered important by a large number of respondents while improving media coverage and broadcasting of games was seen as essential to further develop the profile of hurling in the relevant counties.