Controversial GAAGO's future in doubt as GAA seeks new bidders for rights to All-Ireland games
GAAGO is a joint commercial partnership between the GAA and RTE and is only available to subscribers, meaning many Gaelic games are not shown on free-to-air television. But RTE revealed yesterday that a new contract, which will be for the games curre
Streaming channel GAAGO could lose rights to broadcast the GAA’s controversial €79 pay-per-view service – but not to RTE. It emerged yesterday that the GAA is seeking "expressions of interest" from broadcasters which want to buy the right to air All-Ireland senior football and hurling championship games in Ireland.
GAAGO is a joint commercial partnership between the GAA and RTE and is only available to subscribers, meaning many Gaelic games are not shown on free-to-air television. But RTE revealed yesterday that a new contract, which will be for the games currently broadcast within Ireland on GAAGO, is up for grabs.
However, a station spokesperson confirmed to the Irish Mirror that RTE does not currently intend to bid for the rights. He said: “RTE does not envisage making a bid for the media rights to games currently broadcast on GAAGO.
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“RTE welcomes that this process will enable other organisations who have a genuine interest in showing GAA games to make a bid. As an entity with its own board, GAAGO will decide on its own bid participation independently.”
The tender for the games currently shown by GAAGO will not affect RTE's existing deal. It has the rights to 31 championship games across the island of Ireland until 2027.
Virgin Media, which last year accused the GAA of not approaching “other broadcasters” about the GAAGO matches, was asked for comment on the new broadcast tender.
Analysts believe that other interested stakeholders could include Sky Sports, which gave up the rights to its previous GAA package, and broadcasters that already operate in Ireland, like TG4, the BBC, Amazon, Premier Sports, and TNT Sports.
The latest development follows the State’s competition watchdog recommending that elements of the original GAA-RTE deal should be put out to tender at the end of GAAGO’s initial two-year contract, which was announced in October 2022.
Sinn Fein Dail TD Imelda Munster, who is the party’s media spokesperson, wrote Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) last month to query clearance of broadcasts for GAAGO to stream GAA matches within Ireland. Deputy Munster said RTÉ and the GAA confirmed to her in the Dail Committee on Sport and Media that GAAGO had not yet been cleared by the CCPC to broadcast within Ireland.
She said: “In 2017, GAAGO sought and received clearance from the CCPC to stream games abroad for the Irish diaspora and for those who want to watch games while on holidays. But they have not received clearance to show games in Ireland, behind their paywall.”
A full season GAAGO pass for 38 matches last season cost €79, with single matches at €12, and bundles of three for €24.
The controversy is ongoing about high-profile matches of the national game being put behind a paywall on the subscription service instead of being shown on free-to-air TV. After Sky Sports ended nine years of broadcasting GAA matches, GAAGO won the rights in 2022 to exclusively broadcast 38 championship matches behind a paywall.
But several critics, including Virgin Media Television, have criticised the commercial partnership deal between the GAA and RTE. Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tanaiste Micheal Martin, ex-GAA president Liam O’Neill, and the charity Age Action have also criticised GAAGO.
Virgin Media has claimed the GAA “arbitrarily decided to put [games] behind a paywall” and called for clarity about the deal between the GAA and State-funded RTE.
Ex-GAA president O’Neill said: "Games shouldn't be behind the paywall.” Former Mayo GAA captain Alan Dillon, who is now a TD, called for GAAGO to be sent “to the sidelines”.
But GAA president Jarlath Burns defended the service and challenged critics, especially government leaders Harris and Martin, to justify their barbs.
He said: "I will be asking for an early meeting with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to get them to explain exactly where they are with regard to the criticism of our association. If you try to imagine a world without GAAGO, the rest of these games just would not be broadcast because we only have one broadcast partner.”
The GAA has stated that the controversial commercial venture is a financial necessity for the future of the sport through subscriptions and the sale of broadcast rights. Association boss Burns said on RTE radio: "I will make absolutely no apologies for trying to extract as much commercial revenue as we possibly can from our games.”
He cited the lucrative broadcast rights raised for England’s Premier League when top clubs like record all-time champions Manchester United play rivals like Arsenal.
Burns said: “They will make more from that game from broadcast rights than the GAA will make over five years.”
The latest domestic Premier League media rights deal is worth a total of Stg£6.7bn (€7.8bn) over four years from next year’s 2025 season. Burns added: "That's their number one source of revenue. Their second major source of revenue is from alcohol companies.
“We refuse to accept any revenue from alcohol companies. Their third is from gambling companies. The GAA has blacklisted all gambling companies in terms of commercial revenue. That only leaves our games. Our games are the most important things that we have."
He continued: "In order to make GAAGO financially viable, we can't have the peripheral, small games, so we do have to have some games to attract people that they'll say, 'There are a couple of big games on, that will justify my purchase of €[79]'. If we only put the big games on free-to-air, GAAGO is less attractive and it won't pay for itself.”
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