Sky Sports came to Gaelic Games on Saturday night and the world kept spinning. At least unless you were an Offaly hurling fan.
An animated sequence flying low over the counties likely to be involved at the business end of this season’s Championship cut away to anchor presenters Rachel Wyse and Brian Carney standing in the goals at Nowlan Park.
Carney’s suggestion that the games were less a sport and more a way of life led into a mood piece on the players and the fans but perhaps surprisingly was actually the only reference to this being anything more than a regular broadcast of a serious sporting event.
There were no ‘how to play’ guides for a new audience, no ‘dumbing down’ to address an audience that might have been unfamiliar with the sport.
What we got were pictures of the live action, very well directed and catching the speed and flight of the sliotar better than some in the past, and analysis from a studio overlooking the pitch.
It was a tough game to start with and not much by way of competition to get excited about but Jamesie O’Connor took to the match analyst role like he was born with iPad in hand.
The technical skill that Sky has developed over 20 years was brought to Kilkenny and managed well by O’Connor who put his teaching skills to good use and added to the sense that Sky was serious, was here to stay and was going to be a great addition to the broadcasting of the sport both here and in the UK and further afield.
Centra had the stings in and out of each break, as is the case with RTE, while Liberty Insurance bolstered its Championship sponsor status by being given the Man of the Match sponsorship and gaining name checks throughout.
A straw poll on GAA Corner showed that of those who watched the coverage 43.5% felt it was on a par with that of RTE, the same number felt it was better and only 13% that it was poor.
All in all a strong start and one that made it feel they had been around for a long time already, which of course is exactly the case in terms of the committed sports fans viewing habits across every other sport.
