More free-to-air sport considered under Martin plan

More sports events could be broadcast on free-to-air television under plans presented to Cabinet today by Minister for Sport Catherine Martin.

Some 14 new events have been identified and these will now be subject to a public consultation that will run until 20 February.

These include the quarter and semi-finals of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football and Senior Hurling Championships and the finals of the Senior Football and Hurling Provincial Championships.

Nine women's events are to be considered for a designation in an effort to achieve equivalence for women's sport.

On the list are the quarter and semi-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' GAA Football Championship and the finals of the Senior Ladies’ Provincial Football Championship.

Also included are Ireland's home and away qualifying games and tournament games in the UEFA European Women’s Football Championship.

The qualifying and tournament games in the Women's FIFA World Cup and Ireland’s games in the UEFA Women’s Nations League are included too.

Under these proposals Ireland’s games in the men’s Six Nations Rugby Championship would change from the current "deferred" broadcast designation to "live" broadcast.

While the final of the European Rugby Champions Cup would be free-to-air here if an Irish provincial team was playing.

Government says the aim of designating events as free-to-air is to try to balance the rights of the sporting bodies to exploit commercial opportunities and the needs of society to engage with culturally significant events.