The GAA will say that “the expectation that every single game should be on television is just not realistic” during an Oireachtas sport committee on Wednesday.
The comments will be made in reference to the controversy surrounding GAAGO - a subscription-based sports streaming service set up by the GAA and RTE in 2013 to show Gaelic football and hurling matches.
The service, which has exclusive rights to nearly 40 championship matches this year, has been heavily criticised after a number of high-profile games were put behind a paywall and not shown on free-to-air TV.
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In their submission titled The Future of Sports Broadcasting in Ireland, the GAA will say: “GAAGO has existed and flourished for eight years. The new arrangements and schedule were launched six months before a ball was even pucked.
“But a date change for one game that was beyond our control, the fantastic match followed, and some unfortunate commentary around coverage set us on a difficult trajectory this summer.”
It continued: “It is great that people want to see our matches, and the hurling and football this summer have been remarkable.
“But the expectation that every single game should be on television is just not realistic. It’s not in our interest, and not in our plans.”
They will also say that it is “laudable” that the organisation is trying to be independent and stressed they want to “generate a fair return from matches”.
The GAA also said at present there are more free-to-air games on TV now than ever before.
Diving into the controversy even further, they will tell how "successive years have seen more games on TV, and increasing commentary about how and where those games should be shown.
“The Covid pandemic caused us to again re-consider our approach. People couldn’t go to games, but the need to enjoy matches in our homes was never more acute.”
They will say that during lockdowns they re-cast the GAA model completely and “showing every game became the norm and streaming became the accepted way of catering for diverse demand”.
The GAA will go on to say: “Sale of media rights in 2022 presented us with an opportunity to learn from that. Thus, for the first time, we assigned the rights for live matches within Ireland to GAAGO.
“But that should not have obscured the fact that the number of free-to-air games on TV is actually higher than ever before.
“Furthermore, those games that are on GAAGO would previously either have been on Sky TV or more probably not shown at all. So, the advent of the new service is an exciting and positive departure.”
