The 2020 Camogie Association Annual Congress took place over the weekend with delegates joining from around the country in a virtual format for the very first time.
Over 100 dialled in to the session which was originally to have been held in Clonmel earlier in the year but was switched online due to Covid-19 restrictions.
This year’s Congress saw the election of Kildare native Hilda Breslin as Uachtarán-Tofa. She will take up her position as Uachtarán, succeeding Kathleen Woods, at the 2021 Annual Congress which is scheduled to take place next April in Armagh.
Read more about the Financial Year within Camogie
Broadcast Story
One of the core elements of the current strategic plan was to raise the profile of the sport in the public eye and the Annual report highlights a number of ways in which this was a success in 2019.
“As well as a record attendance on the day of September’s All-Ireland Finals – an increase for the fifth year running – the Finals also drew in a huge television audience which was the largest audience for a live women’s sporting event in Irish sport in 2019 with an average of 254,800 viewers tuning into the live coverage of both Finals on RTÉ with a peak of 323,400 viewers representing a 32.4% share of the television audience.”
“Sky Sports also showed deferred coverage of the Senior Final for the first time. These increases were assisted by a continued, consistent schedule of live matches and highlights packages both online and on television by the Association in 2019. In addition to all knockout matches in the Senior Championship being broadcast live once more this was also supplemented by increased digital content by both the Association, RTÉ and Championship sponsor Liberty Insurance.”
“This schedule has ensured consistent, high-quality coverage and commentary of our game to a large audience. In 2019 the Association once more commissioned highlight packages of feature matches throughout the All-Ireland Club Championships, National League and All-Ireland Championships that were published online via Social Media as well as regularly being featured on the RTÉ Six One News and the Sunday Game.”
“The longstanding and strong relationship with RTÉ Sport is vital to the promotion of the game. The significant audience figures of RTÉ’s The Sunday Game Live serves to bring the game to a wider audience and our positioning with RTÉ’s GAA coverage ensures that we are viewed at peak times and to key audiences.”
“March’s Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues Division 1 Final was broadcast live on TG4 as part of a triple-header bill with the GAA Allianz Division 1 Hurling and Football League Finals in Croke Park. It marked the sixth consecutive year of the broadcast of the Division 1 Camogie Final and by pairing the game with the Division 1 Hurling and Football Finals, it allowed the game to not only feature as part of a live broadcast but also brought it to a wider GAA audience, who were in attendance, and also to those who were viewing the games at home.”
Online and Streaming
“Online resources, particularly social media remain an important and continuously developing avenue for the Association to grow its audiences for viewing our games. In March the AIB All-Ireland Senior & Intermediate Club Championships Finals were once more broadcast live online from Croke Park with thanks to support from the competition sponsor AIB. In November AIB also broadcast the All-Ireland Junior and Junior B Club Championship Finals live online which reached over 16,000 viewers. This match ended in a draw and AIB streamed the replay with over 13,000 viewers. The Intermediate and Senior Finals were played in Croke Park and AIB live-streamed both of these games with an audience of over 60,000 viewers.”
“AIB had also live-streamed the Senior Semi-Final between St. Martin’s and Inniscarra with over 16,000 viewers. 2019 saw a major increase in the broadcast of National Camogie League Division 1 fixtures thanks to support from the competition sponsor Littlewoods Ireland who invested in the live streaming of a fixture during each round of the group stages as well as a Semi-Final fixture.”
“In total over 140,000 viewers watched their coverage throughout the competition. This increase in coverage has brought the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues on to an even greater level in terms of coverage in general and awareness of the competition in the national media in particular.”
“Similarly, our All-Ireland Championship sponsors Liberty Insurance invested in live streaming a match during each weekend of the All-Ireland Senior Championship which once again brought the coverage of the competition to new levels and helped to build the momentum around the competition in general.”
