The OLD fear that television would hasten the ruination of Gaelic games has been rendered even more hollow by the news that RTE are to broadcast 33 matches live this year, beginning with the All-Ireland club-finals on St Patrick's Day and concluding with the International Rules series at Croke Park in October.

Gaelic games have come to dominate RTE's summer sports schedule to such an extent that the viability of live Monday games has been discussed and will be on the agenda next season. "We made the original proposals quite late, so in a way it was academic in terms of this season, but we have given people plenty of food for thought," confirmed Niall Cogley, the deputy head of RTE sport.

"Obviously the fact that the games are amateur poses potential difficulties in terms of crowds travelling and for players themselves," he added, "but we have been working with the GAA in trying to establish ways around any drawbacks. And everyone could see the sense of the proposals. So I do think that it's possible for Monday games to come about."

One of the main advantages of a live Monday slot for the network would be that it would ease the considerable scheduling congestion caused by the commitment to live sport and would allow them to spread the product rather than cram it into any given Sunday.

For instance, on July 2nd, the day of the Munster hurling final - second only to the All-Irelands in terms of interest and prestige - RTE will also broadcast live coverage of the French Grand Prix, the Irish Derby from the Curragh, the final day of play at the Irish Open, and the final of Euro 2000, with pre-match coverage starting at 6.30 p.m. The Sunday Game highlights show will be transmitted as usual.

"That day is exceptionally heavy, but there are quite a number of Sundays when you could literally spend the day watching live sport," Cogley said. "I suppose the message we want to communicate on that is `Don't believe Sky, don't believe that terrestrial channels can't provide quality live coverage'. "But in terms of Gaelic games, it would be nice to spread it a little. And it ought to be remembered that while Sunday is a good day for audiences in terms of their time being free, people also like to get out and get fresh air on sunny Sundays. So again, the advantages of Monday broadcasts come into play."

At present, GAA coverage is represented on that day through The Game on Monday, a highlights show similar to the flagship Sunday Game. It had been felt that RTE were not happy with the return on the Monday evening slot, but it has been confirmed that the series will be aired this summer, albeit with a new approach.

"It would be true to say that the Monday Game does not draw the same viewing figures as The Sunday Game, but that's not quite the whole story. Matches have only got a certain shelf-life, and if the material has already been used then naturally the figures will go down. The plan is to use material which didn't have a live billing and hasn't featured on Sunday, so that it will be fresh," added Cogley.

One revolutionary aspect of the transition from no more than a half dozen GAA games being aired live to the current mass coverage is that video evidence is becoming an increasingly central reference source at many GAA disciplinary and appeals procedures. In that sense, RTE are effectively incidental arbiters of the games.

On-field incidents are often proven by television evidence, most famously during the Kerry-Tipperary football semi-final last summer when pictures illustrated that the ball had gone clearly wide before Kerry scored their controversial goal.

"Naturally we would prefer to remain reporters of the story, but such is the contractual relationship between ourselves and the GAA that they do have proprietorship on the images for such cases," said Cogley.

That TG4 have been airing county finals and club championship games from October means there is now virtually a yearround season of live televised Gaelic games.

Audiences abroad will also receive saturation coverage. RTE once owned the overseas rights subsequently acquired by Chrysalis and companies like Setanta are thriving on a burgeoning market.

They feed off the RTE signal at games across the country and thus matches being filmed by RTE for highlight broadcast can theoretically be aired live abroad.