Sky and GAA defend the merit of their broadcasting deal

Both the GAA and Sky have dismissed concerns about worryingly low viewing figures in the opening four live matches of their new broadcast deal.

The three-year agreement, which is worth in excess of €10 million per annum to the GAA, has seen viewing figures decrease from 32,000 in the match between Kilkenny and Offaly on June 7th to an average of just 10,200 for last Saturday's Armagh versus Monaghan draw.

In between, the average figure for Wexford against Dublin in hurling and Galway versus Sligo in football were reported to be around 18,000.

It was also recently revealed that an average of just 9,000 British viewers tuned into Sky Sports 3 for the Connacht semi-final.

Sky reiterated their initial statement yesterday that this does “not include the thousands of households across Ireland who watched the game on Sky Sports 3 in high definition. Nor do they include, pubs, clubs/hotel viewing across Ireland.”

High definition

Sky are unwilling to reveal how many high definition subscribers they have in Ireland, saying that information is “commercially sensitive.”

They stress that, anecdotally, that feedback regarding customer satisfaction has been positive.

“In addition, there were many other ways to watch the game live via mobile, tablet and online which are not included in the figures,” a Sky spokesman added. “For example, the figures do not include those who viewed the match via Sky Go or Sky Sports mobile TV.

“In Sky, audience viewing figures is just one way of measuring our success and forms only part of the story. We focus on the quality of our coverage and the breadth of quality sport across our six channels and measure it through customer satisfaction. We are pleased with the extremely positive reactions from customers and others that we have received so far for our GAA partnership.”

It’s unclear if Sky expected initial figures for non-high definition subscribers to be so low.

They do, however, remain "very happy" with their partnership with the GAA and noted the two million viewers who tune into Sky Sports News on a daily basis, where highlights of Gaelic games are regularly shown.

This Saturday evening’s exclusive broadcast of the hurling qualifier between Tipperary and Galway may provide a spike in viewers as it will be Sky’s most significant live match to date.

Never worried

“We were never that worried about the people in Ireland watching the game on Sky,” said GAA president Liam O’Neill. “It was for Britain we did the Sky deal effectively and the numbers there are standing up very well.”

This statement was not supported by figures.

“We seen their Twitter reaction to it and we are getting anecdotal evidence from our clubs in Britain that it’s proving a huge success because they are now able to show, the parents of young people . . . that this is the game and this is what it looks like.”

“The deal has been done and I think the reaction to it . . , initially, some people spoke against it but the majority of people realise it’s for the good of Gaelic games and it will publicise our games,”said O’Neill.