GAA says Virgin Media not interested in buying rights

The GAA has issued a statement stating that it did contact Virgin Media Television seeking an expression of interest in acquiring broadcast right packages for games, but the broadcaster made it clear they were focusing on 'ready to go' rights.

On Tuesday, in the wake of the GAAGO controversy and why Munster hurling championship matches were put behind a pay wall, the independent broadcaster brought out a statement saying that no communication came from Croke Park on bidding for rights following Sky Television's decision to end their nine-year partnership with the GAA.

The statement read: "When Sky Television decided not to renew its GAA rights, the GAA did not approach other broadcasters to ascertain whether they would be interested in broadcasting these games but arbitrarily decided to put them behind a paywall."

"The question must be asked, did RTE pay anything for these rights or did they just agree to keep them behind a paywall to drive incremental revenues for both partners in GAAGO, i.e. RTÉ and the GAA.

"Given the multi-million increases in State funding to RTÉ over recent years, RTÉ now has more Sports rights than it can show on its channels, with licence payers now being forced to further subsidise RTÉ by paying for GAA Sports content through its joint-venture with the GAA."

In response the GAA say the above statement "contained several factual errors and misleading comments".

The organisation asked Virgin Media to correct their statement, but not having received a response it felt obliged to correct the record and to say that Virgin Media and other parties were contacted as to their interest in acquiring broadcast packages.

The GAA's response read: "From as early as February 2021, the GAA contacted VMTV and other