Ex-GAA President Liam O'Neill: Better choices need to be made when broadcasting games

Former GAA President Liam O'Neill said "better choices" needed to be made regarding the screening of live championship games on free-to-air television amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the GAAGO pay-per-view platform.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said on Monday that the decision to broadcast championship games on a pay-per-view basis should be reviewed, saying that all GAA games should be shown free-for-air.

Minister Martin had been asked to comment on the fact that the weekend Munster SHC game between Cork and Tipperary was shown on GAAGO, a joint venture between the GAA and RTÉ. The previous Saturday, the streaming platform had also broadcast the Limerick-Clare Munster SHC game, in which the All-Ireland champions were defeated.

The GAA's five-year broadcast rights deal, announced last October, saw RTÉ retain 31 live championship matches, while GAAGO was granted exclusive rights to 38 games: 22 football championship games, nine from the hurling championship and seven Tailteann Cup games.

O'Neill, who served as GAA President from 2012 to 2015, during which GAAGO was launched and the association signed its first broadcasting rights deal with Sky Sports, said "better choices" needed to be made around coverage.

"It's very easy to say that all games should be free-to-air," O'Neill said on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland.

"We have 15 games next weekend. No television station could cover all those. And indeed, not every game is probably worthy of being put on national television.

"GAAGO was first introduced along with the Sky deal a number of years ago. I was part of that decision. It was for overseas people who wanted to access the games and it worked very well.

"It was a pay-per-view situation, as it is now. But there was no great