TG4 and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association have announced that the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Semi-Finals and Finals will be streamed, worldwide, live on Facebook Live beginning next Saturday afternoon 26th August with Dublin v Kerry in the Senior Championship semi-final and Meath v Tipperary in the Intermediate Championship.
Both games will be streamed live from Semple Stadium in Thurles in a first for the broadcaster and for the sport at inter-county level.
Matches from the AIB Club Championship in Camogie were streamed from Croke Park earlier this year and TG4 broadcast each of this summer’s Provincial Finals live on YouTube.
The numbers from those were relatively low but the potential with the right level of social media promotion for expanding the reach of the games to a worldwide audience is immense.
This will be the first time ever that matches will be available on the Facebook Live platform and in total seven TG4 Championship Ladies Football knock-out matches will be streamed live on the TG4 Sports Facebook page.
The GAA has also utilised social media for its GAA Now service offering clips, highlights and additional content. Live games though have been held for mainstream broadcast partnerships through RTÉ, Sky Sports and their online versions such as the RTÉ Player.
In overseas markets, the push has been for GAAGo, the joint venture between RTÉ and the GAA, a combination and an approach that has proven to be a real winner over recent years.
The seven matches will also be broadcast live on the TG4 Player and online on www.tg4.ie as well as the normal linear platforms that TG4 is available on such as Saorview, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, eir Vision and Vodafone TV.
The live coverage will be presented by Gráinne McElwain and will be produced by NemetonTV.
“TG4 is proud sponsors and broadcasters of Ladies Football since 2001 and we look forward to streaming these matches on Facebook Live,” said TG4 Head of Sport Rónán Ó Coisdealbha.
“Facebook now has 2 billion active monthly users and streaming Ladies Football matches can help improve engagement beyond the traditional linear experience and could potentially bring larger audiences to this great sport.”
“The live streaming on Facebook has the potential to attract a larger audience while generating more online visibility for the LGFA and TG4. The four provincial Finals of the TG4 Senior Championship were broadcast on TG4’s YouTube site earlier this summer and we have always worked very closely with the LGFA to provide coverage of matches on as many platforms as possible while also ensuring that games of all importance are broadcast including Senior, Intermediate, Junior, Minor, All-Ireland Club Final and the O’Connor Cup third level colleges final.”
“We are delighted that the remaining TG4 Championship matches that are scheduled to be broadcast live on TG4 will now also be streamed on Facebook Live,” added Ladies Gaelic Football Association President Marie Hickey.
“As sports audiences and supporters’ habits continue to evolve we believe that streaming these matches on Facebook will attract a new audience to our game. I would like to thank TG4 for their support and commend them for being ahead of the curve as always.”
The line-up of matches which will be broadcast on Facebook Live and Peil na mBan Beo are as follows:
Saturday 26 August
Live from Semple Stadium, Thurles
4:45pm Meath v Tipperary, TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Championship Semi Final
6:30pm Dublin v Kerry, TG4 All Ireland Senior Championship Semi Final
Saturday 2 September
3:00pm Tyrone v Sligo, TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Championship Semi Final
4:45pm Mayo v Cork, TG4 All Ireland Senior Championship Semi Final
Sunday 24 September
Live from Croke Park
11:45am TG4 All Ireland Junior Championship Final
1:45pm TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Championship Final
4:00pm TG4 All Ireland Senior Championship Final
