Welcome to our regular look at the world of the Irish and international sports media, the stories, the numbers and the organisations that are, more than ever before, our window on the world of sport…
This week we look at free-to-air coverage of the Olympics through to 2032, a new entrant to the GAA streaming arena, the most-watched TV sports events of 2022 and more…
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RTÉ SECURES FREE TO AIR OLYMPIC COVERAGE TO 2032
RTÉ has secured extensive broadcast rights to the Olympic Games up to and including 2032, across all its platforms, including television, radio and digital as part of an agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Warner Bros Discovery.
This means there will be free-to-air television and digital broadcast coverage for Los Angeles in 2028, Brisbane in 2032 and the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 and 2030. RTÉ had previously confirmed coverage of Paris 2024 through the same collective agreement across public service broadcasters.
There will be more than 200 hours of coverage of each of the summer editions of the Olympics and 100 hours of the Olympic Winter Games on free-to-air television together with extensive coverage online and on radio.
RTÉ has been the broadcast rights holder for Irish coverage since the first Olympic television coverage in Ireland in 1964 during the Tokyo Olympic Games, with RTÉ being one of only 40 countries worldwide to show the event.
Brisbane 2032 will be the eighteenth Olympic Games to be broadcast on Irish television.
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MOST WATCHED SPORTING EVENTS OF 2022
Nine of the Top 10 most watched events on Irish TV in 2022 were from the world of sport, with only the Late Late Toy Show making a dent on sports dominant position.
The All Ireland Football and Hurling Finals filled two of the top three sporting places and the GAA featured another six in the extended Top 30 programmes to be viewed, with both Football and Hurling Semi-Finals as well as Kerry against Dublin in the Allianz League and the Munster Hurling Championship Final.
The Guinness Six Nations clash between France and Ireland split the two All Ireland Finals taking third place overall and second in sport, while the other Six Nations games all came in the Top 20, three more of them in the Top 10.
The FIFA World Cup produced 13 of the Top 30 events that we watched with marginally more watching Argentina’s Semifinal win over Croatia than tuned in to the Final. That’s presumably the effect of midweek primetime versus the lure of shopping on the final Sunday before Christmas.
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CLUBBER TV THE LATEST ENTRANT TO STREAMING SERVICES
If you were looking for coverage of the Dublin Vs Galway match in the Walsh Cup on Saturday you wil have been steered towards the relatively new Clubber TV streaming service.
It has signed the first media rights deal in Leinster GAA history, commencing with the broadcast of the 2023 Walsh Cup and O’Byrne Cup competitions.
One of the men behind the new service which has an ambition “to cater for sports fans across a wide range of domestic and international sports codes,” is former RTÉ and United Rugby Championship executive Dermot Rigley.
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NETFLIX TREATMENT FOR THE GUINNESS SIX NATIONS AND MORE
Sports fans will consume content like hardly any other coherent group. Nine of the Top Ten programmes on Irish TV last year were sports events and the live experience demands exactly that, to be seen and experienced live.
But for dedicated fans, we want more, and more. And so there is Netflix. This morning we carried the teaser for Full Swing, the series following last year’s PGA Tour. We are excited.
And within hours, our senses are tingling again with breaking news from Hollywood that Netflix has greenlit two new docuseries: an as yet untitled series at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, featuring exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage of all 32 teams from the tournament; and Six Nations, an exclusive, inside look at the international rugby tournament.
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GUINNESS SIX NATIONS MEDIA LAUNCH TODAY
RTé and Virgin Media will host a joint launch of their Guinness Six Nations TV coverage at the Aviva Stadium this morning. Sport for Business will have full coverage later in the day.
