RTE Sport has secured exclusive Irish free-to-air broadcast rights to the Republic of Ireland’s competitive soccer international qualifiers for the 2016 European Championship and 2018 World Cup cycles. The finals of these tournaments will take place in France and Russia respectively. The rights for the qualifiers, both home and away, cover television, radio, online and mobile and guarantee top sporting action across a period of time that is likely to see great change in broadcasting.The Republic of Ireland’s current FIFA ranking and likely seeding means that there will be one guaranteed marquee opposition from among the top seeded nations and probably two.
This deal is part of a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) agreement involving 30 countries broadcasting national team matches extensively on free-to-air television in addition to radio and digital platforms.
This new agreement represents a continuous progression from RTÉ’s existing contracts under which RTÉ Sport is the current broadcast rights holders to the Republic of Ireland’s competitive international matches up to, and including the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
In October 2012 the station secured similar rights to the RBS Six Nations tournament for an additional four years through to 2017.
It is currently negotiating the next three year package of rights with the GAA to cover All Ireland and other Gaelic Games Championships.
That would secure coverage of the three major sports and their key events from an international or major national perspective and is encouraging given the commitment by the Director General of the broadcaster last year that spending on sports rights would be curtailed by 25 per cent by 2016.
Ryle Nugent, Group Head of Sport RTÉ, said “RTÉ is proud to be able to secure coverage of our national side in these major international fixtures which guarantees that Irish fans will be able to follow their team’s journey to qualify for these key tournaments free-to-air.”
Up coming key events like the Heineken Cup Semi Finals and Final as well as the British and Irish Lions Tour to Australia will be broadcast on Sky Sports who announced yesterday that broadcast coverage of the Lions Tour would be sponsored by HSBC.
Read more of our recent coverage and analysis of broadcasting here.
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