RTE Sports boss Declan McBennett has insisted that more live sport is being shown on free-to-air TV than ever before as controversy over the GAAGO platform rumbles on.
The streaming service has shown a number of Munster Senior Hurling Championship fixtures this summer, including Clare's classic win over Limerick, and has left those without a subscription unable to watch the games.
Defending the position of RTE, which is a joint owner of GAAGO, McBennett denied claims that high-profile games were being put on the streaming service in a bid to increase subscribers, and explained why Limerick v Clare could only be shown on GAAGO.
READ MORE: Former GAA president Liam O'Neill questions choices made in GAA broadcasting controversy
"The reality of it is we did Cork v Waterford and we’ve done Limerick v Waterford so far in terms of RTÉ," said McBennett, "The Limerick-Clare game was initially scheduled for the Sunday and that was an RTÉ game.
"Due to circumstances in Limerick which were entirely outside of the control of certainly RTÉ and I imagine the GAA (The Great Limerick Run was held that Sunday), that game was moved to Saturday and hence went to GAAGO.
“RTÉ picked up Cork-Waterford. Now, Cork-Waterford, unfortunately, did not meet the iconic status of the Limerick-Clare game but that’s the nature of sport. If we knew the results before the games...”
The pay-per-view streaming service will show a total of 38 Championship games this Summer, the majority of which will take place on Saturdays.
Despite this, McBennett insists RTE is still committed to providing as much live free-to-air sport as possible.
“We’re doing that and we’re doing that across rugby, soccer and GAA where there has never been more free-to-air sport."
It will be the turn of football fans to be stung in a similar manner in a couple of week's time, with a number of high- profile All-Ireland openers set to be shown on GAAGO as opposed to RTE.
“We will be doing Clare v Cork and Limerick v Tipperary in two week's time (May 21) when GAAGO will be doing the key football matches which have emerged, which will be Kerry v Mayo and Galway v Tyrone (May 20).”
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