Too much streaming could dim the GAA star

IN ALL FAIRNESS

There has been a lot said and written about GAA+ in recent weeks and whether it is a positive or a worrying development. First of all, anything that makes it possible to view more senior hurling and football championship is a good thing. The issue is whether too many games of higher profile are ending up on the GAA’s streaming platform.

Last weekend was a perfect case in point where there was just one senior football championship match on mainstream television, which arguably the weakest of the four between Monaghan and Mayo, although it ended up a good watch, with GAA+ having Westmeath v Cavan, Armagh v Derry and Dublin v Louth.

GAA followers were well served across the weekend in any case with the always wonderful TG4 outdoing themselves once again across their tv and online platforms including the Under 20 All-Ireland Hurling and Football finals, the Ring, Rackard and Meagher hurling finals, as well as the annual Comórtas Peil na Gaeltachta.

However, this is missing the point in that there was just one marquee senior championship game on television across the weekend. Yes, the GAA wants to grow its own streaming platform and to do that it needs to have some of the bigger championship games from time to time, including Tipperary v Clare in hurling, as well as Kerry v Donegal in football in recent weeks.

While is not comparing like with like, what the GAA did with both those games is, if the Premier League had their own streaming platform, it would be the equivalent of them telling Sky Sports that you cannot have these huge games, in which case there would be uproar.

While the GAA haven’t announced the viewership figures from those games yet, and regardless of how poor the games were as contests, that wouldn’t have been known in advance and you would have gotten a larger viewership on terrestrial tv rather than streaming.

There needs to be a balance where the GAA are not cutting off their nose to spite their face. For all its critics, RTE is still what first comes to mind when people think about how to watch championship hurling and football. There is no doubt that since RTE sold its stake in GAAGO to the GAA, rebranded as GAA+, the governing body are increasingly looking to go it alone and take as much of the financial pie as possible. They have got to be careful not to look too much in terms of what is coming in from subscriptions compared to how many eyeballs there are on their marquee games on a weekly basis.

The GAA are playing a dangerous game with their streaming platform first approach to the juicier games in the All-Ireland football championship in particular. Yes, they are their games but there is evidence from other sports, particularly in the UK from cricket where since the free-to-air aspect has been all but eliminated, the numbers playing the game at the grassroots level has fallen plus it isn’t getting the same profile as it would have on terrestrial tv.

Streaming is here now and is the way of the future, eventually terrestrial tv will be a thing of the past. You only have to see the way RTE, Virgin and TG4 promote all their tv shows to mention how they can be viewed through their “Player” system as they are cheaper to produce than analog tv which is what all stations want to move away from.

Mainstream television is still the best way to maximise viewership. FIFA are the biggest sporting organisation in the world and could easily put the upcoming World Cup behind a paywall to make even more money for an already money hungry sporting body, yet for all their many faults, all 104 games can be viewed on mainsteam television.

The GAA are in a strong position when it comes to RTE as the broadcaster doesn’t have a large stable of sports to show at weekends at the moment. They don’t have the rights to show any club rugby, be it the Champions Cup or URC, while they share the Six Nations with Virgin. After that, bar the Champions League finals and the odd race meeting, their cupboard at this time of the year is bare and the GAA needs to realise this and can ensure they are to the forefront each weekend from April through to early June when the knockout stages begin with at least one live game on a Saturday and two on a Sunday, with at least one of those three games from both codes to ensure a balance. This would keep a lot of the viewing public happy with the rest being viewed through GAA+

One area GAA+ could really come into its own is becoming a library for games people can’t see. Take Wicklow v Tipperary in the Tailteann Cup next Saturday for example, it is not being shown on GAA+ with the only footage likely to be a two minute highlights package on the Saturday Game. Why aren’t the full seventy minutes of all senior championship games available to watch within 24 hours on GAA+. It doesn’t even need commentary, just a way to watch a match in some shape or form