Despite the hopes of many GAA fans, TG4 will not be broadcasting GAA championship games in 2025, according to reports in the media on Wednesday evening.
John Fogarty in the Irish Examiner has reported that the Irish language broadcaster has been unsuccessful - as has online streaming platform Clubber - in acquiring a broadcasting package for the Championship.
Fogarty has reported that GAAGO will retain its package for broadcasting Championship games for the next two years.
The GAA had advertised a two-year broadcasting package for tender late last summer. This is essentially the package that Sky Sports once had before their rights deal with the GAA ended in 2022.
This all indicates that the GAA’s broadcasting landscape is set to remain unchanged in 2025.
Another summer of GAAGO rancour?
GAAGO’s broadcasting of exclusive games in the Munster Hurling Championship behind a paywall - like the Cork-Limerick classic of 2024 or the Limerick-Clare classic of 2023 - has caused massive consternation amongst the GAA public.
There was hope in some quarters that TG4 would win the rights to broadcast GAA Championship matches for the first time since it started broadcasting in 1996.
The tender had opened the doors to free-to-air broadcasters like TG4 and Virgin Media Sport to bid for GAA games. TG4 had confirmed to the Examiner in September that they had lodged a bid for the rights.
We now know they've been unsuccessful. It will be interesting to see how the news is received politically.
Speaking in July, after Galway’s huge upset of Dublin in the All-Ireland senior football championship was shown exclusively on GAAGO, then-Taoiseach Simon Harris was strong in his criticism of GAAGO.
“The last time I raised this there was a lot of tut-tutting from top brass in the GAA, and they were very disappointed with my comments, but I’d say this to them, respectfully, far more people are disappointed with how this season has been shown in terms of GAAGO.”
“So don’t listen to me if you don’t want, that’s grand, but please do listen to the grassroots of the GAA. The GAA is an amazing organisation and its beauty has been that it is a grassroots organisation.
“And I’ve said many, many times that the GAA needs to listen to the grassroots. I was at the Cork-Limerick match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh earlier this summer, unfortunately many people across the country did not get a chance to see the game because it was behind a paywall. The same, indeed, was true for Galway and Dublin last weekend, as well.
“So this is a matter for the GAA, it’s also, I think, a role that we talk about public service broadcasting and RTE, I think there is a role in that dimension too.
“But there has to be a better way of doing this."
It seems like another summer of GAAGO rancour lies ahead of us.
