Limerick’s win over Kilkenny in Sunday’s All Ireland Hurling final was watched by an average of 774,000 viewers and a share of 72 per cent of those watching TV at the time.

The Final was the first to be played in the month of July and the figure is strong considering the number of people who would be away on holiday and the fact it was going hesad to head with the final day of the Open Championship with Rory McIlroy in contention for the prize at St Andrews.

That was exclusively live on Sky Sports which will have reduced the clash for more casual sporting viewers but it would be interesting to see the amount of dual screening that was going on through the afternoon.

The number watching on RTÉ1 peaked at 17.05 with 882,000 watching as the final whistle was blown and the celebrations began for fans of Limerick.

There were 113,000 live streams on the RTÉ Player, up from 92,000 last year, and perhaps boosted by holidaymakers tuning in from abroad.

GAA Go is also likely to have seen a boost over the course of the frantic summer of activity.

The GAA and Championship sponsors will be pleased that the number watching stood up well to those watching in 2021. In a remarkable symmetry the number of 774,000 is exactly the same as that from last year which was itself up eight per cent on 2020 when the final was held in December.

This is a continued bounce back towards the 854,000 who watched Limerick’s first win in generations in 2018 and the 829,000 who tuned in for Tipperary and Kilkenny in 2019.

This coming weekend sees bumper RTÉ GAA coverage continuing. Marie Crow will be joined by Anne Marie Hayes and Paudie Murray for live coverage from Croke Park of Saturday’s All-Ireland Camogie semi-finals. In the first clash, Cork will meet Waterford, throw-in 3.15 pm followed by Galway v Kilkenny, throw-in at 5.30 pm. The Saturday Game Live will begin at 2.45 pm on RTÉ2.

On Sunday, Joanne Cantwell will be joined by Ciaran Whelan, Pat Spillane and Sean Cavanagh for live coverage of the All-Ireland Football final between Kerry and Galway. The commentary will come from Darragh Maloney and Kevin McStay.

The build-up on The Sunday Game Live will begin at 2 pm with throw-in at 3.30 pm. Later that evening highlights of all the weekend’s Championship action can be seen on The Sunday Game.

 

Sport for Business Partners