A KILLARNEY councillor who is a former All-Ireland winner with Kerry has repeated his call for the GAA to consider setting up its own television channel to broadcast games.
Cllr Michael Gleeson said it would allow supporters an opportunity to gain greater and less costly access to their favourite sport.
He was speaking after thousands of Kingdom fans were deprived of watching Peter Keane’s side in Super 8’s action against Meath in Navan because the game was broadcast exclusively on a Sky Sports channel to which many supporters do not subscribe
Cllr Gleeson said the supporters have given a lifetime of support, membership and leadership in their own clubs and in their own communities and they deserve to be rewarded.
The Kerry Independent Alliance councillor, who has two All-Ireland medals with Kerry and a Club Championship medal with East Kerry, said supporters who are unable to attend games look forward to the GAA season and to following the games on TV and it is time for the GAA to give some consideration to his proposal.
Another former Kerry star, Tomás Ó Sé, also insisted that inter-county games should be free-to-air in order to preserve the GAA’s community-based, amateur ethos.
He said many people – including bar owners – can’t afford to pay for Sky Sports.
Last weekend’s Kerry v Meath and Donegal v Mayo games were among 14 exclusively broadcast on Sky Sports this season and the broadcaster has a total of 20 live inter-county games secured.
Outspoken analyst Joe Brolly also maintained that the current system is grossly unfair to the majority of people in the country.
“Thank God for every GAA person that the All-Ireland semi-finals are free-to-air. It doesn’t matter to me whether it is RTÉ or not, as long as it is free-to-air.
“So many of our people are in hospitals, nursing homes and in rural areas. The 90 per cent of people who can’t afford Sky Sports are cut off from watching the games,” he complained.
Back in December 2015 club delegates at the Kerry GAA convention in Killarney a motion from the Beale club that all televised games be available on free-to-air TV was widely supported and passed.
Tyrone manager, Mickey Harte, however, maintains that Sky’s coverage has enhanced the promotion and presentation of Gaelic games and, he stressed, the GAA deals with who it wants to deal with.
“We’re getting more insightful analysis, all sorts of diagrams and arrows and highlighting that didn’t happen before so there’s something good in what’s going on there,” said Harte who will attempt to deny Kerry a place in the All-Ireland final ion Sunday afternoon.
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