Fresh from the success of last weekend’s AIB GAA All Ireland Club Championship Finals, the tournaments in hurling and football have been given another significant boost with news that eir Sport has signed a five year deal to broadcast an additional 30 live games from this May.
The deal is additional to the existing contract with TG4 who will continue to have first pick of games at County and Provincial level.
This will be the first time eir Sport will broadcast Club Championship games on its channels. It will mean additional opportunities for matches that would otherwise have gone unseen, to be viewed by fans around the country.
More: eir Sport’s Game Changing Trio for Allianz Leagues
It is also likely to mean additional content for GAAGo which broadcasts to over 180 countries around the world and who for their audience, club matters more than anything the further away from home you are.
It might though mean fewer opportunities for the live streaming of games through Facebook which AIB had enabled through coverage of the Ladies Football Finals and which may yet become a significant part of the overall broadcast landscape.
The expansion of the coverage comes across a five year period in which club and county fixture planning will be front and centre stage as a result of pressure from players and the need to create a structure that suits all parts of the game.
This could mean a change of the calendar to enable the Club Finals at All Ireland level to be played in November or December as opposed to February and March but there are many moving parts to that equation.
More: What it Means to win the AIB All Ireland Club Championship
Today’s announcement marks a significant increase in the GAA offering available through the eir Sport pack, which is already home to live coverage of the Allianz Leagues with 23 games shown this season.
In addition to broadcast rights, eir Sport has online clip rights for the Club Championships, Allianz Leagues and Senior Championship games. eir Sport also has archive rights to show replays of classic GAA matches and eir is an official sponsor of the GAA Football All-Ireland Championship.
“Today’s announcement is a moment of immense pride for eir Sport,” said Glen Killane MD of eir TV & Sport.
“Our goal has been to show the live sport Irish fans want to see and this season we will show up to 30 AIB GAA Club Championship games which will significantly expand the number of games fans can watch on TV and mobile.”
“These are matches that haven’t previously been shown, and we are delighted to open them up to a wider audience. We will show some big clashes within the AIB GAA Club Championships while broadcasting from parts of the country that the cameras don’t often visit.”
“This will bring eir Sport into the heart of communities all over the country, bringing local stories to life. These rights build on our already existing Allianz Leagues, GAA online clip rights and archive rights.”
“Our ambition is to continue being Ireland’s number one sports broadcaster on TV and mobile and this ambition is only strengthened by today’s announcement.”
eir Sport is available free to all eir broadband residential customers who will also receive four BT Sport channels plus BoxNation as part of the eir Sport pack.
