Without changes to schedule, GAAGO row will roar back into life next year

The GAA's DG, Tom Ryan, played a blinder under the media floodlights at the Oireachtas Committee on Media today - displaying a few senior silky skills that RTÉ executives, trying to explain non-disclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy, might learn from.

As TD followed Senator followed TD in outlining their complaints about GAAGO, Mr Ryan appeared very much open to their concerns and suggested possible ways of dealing with them.

The €12 price-per-game for GAAGO will be looked at; tweaking the method of game selection will be examined; and he reassured everyone that the association is not deaf to people's concerns.

At the same time, Mr Ryan held the line.

He defended the RTÉ and GAAGO model as delivering more free-to-air games while also guaranteeing more matches were available to watch than ever before.

Mr Ryan stood by the manner in which games were selected, noting they were not picked on a revenue generating basis and adding that hard choices had to be made to ensure there was a range of codes and counties.

The GAA DG was able, to a certain extent, to bat away politicians complaining about the country not having broadband - given it was the politicians who were supposed to have delivered it a long time ago.

We know that GAAGO will generate around €4 million, with most of that revenue coming from the domestic audience.

Where Mr Ryan was in more difficulty was the GAA's decision to condense the championship season which increased the chances of top games clashing.

Danny Healy-Rae spoke for many in Kerry when he said that people in the county felt shortchanged, particularly those who didn't have broadband or couldn't use it.

The deputy called for the schedule to be changed next year.

Christopher O'Sullivan had stated earlier in the