RTÉ missing the bigger picture

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 09:39

goalie In a few weeks time we will be bombarded with the Premiership Soccer Saturday, and also highlights on Sunday and Monday nights. By Christmas, some of us will be sick to the teeth of it given the huge amount of time devoted to soccer on television in general in both Ireland and Great Britain.
Our national broadcaster, RTÉ, to whom we pay our television licence fee, will have live coverage of some of the top games from the Premiership along with highlights from the entire weekend, while I think it is fair to say rugby gets more than its fair share of the national broadcasting cake.
The coverage is there to fulfil the demands of a huge viewership in the Irish Republic for British soccer and the superb Heineken Cup and Magners League.
That is fine. I have no problem with that. In fact, I will once more for my sins be shouting Liverpool to victory in some form or other and we all wish Connacht well.
In fact, without Manchester Untied our lives, and particularly those of the ABUs club, of which I am a fully paid up member, would be a lot duller.
Even the personal lives of many of the soccer stars are a source of entertainment and with so much dirty linen now being washed in public, who needs to watch any of the British soaps when you have real life drama unfolding every other day.
What I do have a problem with is RTÉ's disgraceful coverage of GAA activity in general and last weekend in particular.
I talk of their failure to provide some television coverage of the top hurling qualifier between Cork and Galway while in football there were a number of attractive games that surely deserved consideration when the weekend coverage of matches was being planned.
It was left to TV3 to provide us with some live entertainment on Saturday from the Kildare versus Louth game and if it wasn't for radio, and it has to be said RTÉ Radio 1 in particular who ran an excellent programme all Saturday afternoon and after 9 o'clock until the Wicklow versus Armagh game concluded, several games would not have been covered properly at all.
The question I am asking is why are the Premiership games in Britain given so much exposure and yet our national game, which is equally, if not more attractive, in terms of passion and skill, are given such poor treatment when it comes to RTÉ television?
Our national broadcaster has a duty to promote our national games of Gaelic football and hurling.
The figures attending Gaelic games and soccer games in general in Ireland hardly bare comparison. Gaelic football is the most popular and strongly supported game by some streets ahead of all others at club and county level.
Not only have Gaelic games an important role to play in developing our youth, but they are part of our national heritage and deeply rooted in our social and political history.
The GAA for its part must also help in the promotion of games on television by being more accommodating in allowing access, at reasonable rates, to the top games.
Despite the tough economic times we are living in GAA figures are holding up. I'm just beginning to wonder how long that is going to last given the cost now of attending a major game.
Sunday's Connaught final in Hyde Park, for instance, will cost a couple who travel from Mayo €70 straight up for two stand tickets, around €30 for petrol, and if you have to travel from Belmullet, you could almost double that. A bit of food, say €30 and, assuming you have a non-drinking driver, a modest €20 for a few pints while obligatory post-match analysis is done. That comes to around €150.
That is not sustainable, particularly if your team is out, which most are at least three times, while the more useful teams could be playing up to six times before they reach the All-Ireland final.
As our Taoiseach Enda Kenny might say:' This is not sustainable in the present economic climate."
Yes, RTÉ and TV3 do cover the provincial finals and the main games leading into the All-Ireland finals, but our national broadcaster has a duty to cover more of the qualifier rounds.