Hard station

RTÉ colluding with GAA to rip off the public

RTÉ’s GAAGO deal is the best argument for abolishing the TV Licence. The government should force the broadcaster to give up its share in the platform before getting any more public money.

Otherwise the complaints of Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and others about GAAGO will be revealed as the worst kind of hypocrisy.

Our leaders have RTÉ by the sliotars at the moment. Battered by scandal, losing public trust and toting a begging bowl, the Donnybrook Cartel is in no position to play hardball.

RTÉ don’t have a leg to stand on. There’s no public interest reason for them to have a 50-50 commercial partnership with a sporting body. The partnership may actually go against the public interest.

Both partners have a vested interest in making GAAGO as successful as possible. The easiest way of doing this is to divert attractive games to the platform. That’s currently happening with the Munster Hurling Championship. Games which might have been expected to feature on terrestrial TV are confined to the RTÉ/ GAA streaming service.

This may be commercially justifiable for the GAA, although it does raise ethical questions for an Association backboned by voluntary effort. But it puts RTÉ in the position of conspiring against the general public rather than serving it.

Former Cork hurling star Tom Kenny lashed out against a deal he describes as “a money-making racket.” His former teammate, Donal Óg Cusack, has flagged the conflict of interest problem. Wexford great Tom Dempsey says the deal prevents the GAA promoting hurling properly. Social Democrat TD Jennifer Whitmore says the GAA and RTÉ “have essentially come together to privatise the viewing of our national sport.”

Irish people aren’t stupid. They recognise a dodgy deal when they see one. They can also see that GAAGO is another of the cosy little arrangements which got RTÉ into so much trouble.

The state broadcaster apparently believes the moral of last year’s scandals is that it deserves even more money. A remarkable conclusion to reach for an organisation which landed itself in this mess by grossly overpaying mediocrities.

Disillusionment with GAAGO is currently a bigger story than ever. So is the mess the GAA has made of the championships and the falling crowds which have resulted. People are talking about these issues.

They’re not talking about them on RTÉ. Joanne Cantwell’s clumsy attempt to slap down Donal Óg Cusack for questioning the worth of the Tailteann Cup last year seemed a case study in RTÉ’s tendency to take the Croke Park side in any argument.

This is a very unhealthy position for a national broadcaster to be in vis a vis the country’s largest sporting organisation. The commercial link between the two makes it impossible for RTÉ to take an independent position on the GAAGO controversy. That’s another reason the deal should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence that RTÉ’s coverage has taken a definite turn towards the sycophantic and the toothless since the GAAGO deal began. Out went controversy and debate, in came the kind of bland ‘positive’ coverage which gladdens the heart of officialdom and noone else.

The problems affecting the current championship go largely unexamined, perhaps because RTÉ has contributed to them. But GAA analysis shouldn’t be confined to the question of who won the most opposition kick-outs in the first half. You don’t have to defend the interests of your employer. There’s a great freedom in not doing so. Live a little folks.

Anyone can see that severely limiting the audience for enthralling high profile encounters like CorkClare and Waterford-Tipperary is a promotional disaster. Especially when practically pointless and uncompetitive Munster and Leinster football finals are screened in prime Sunday slots.

GAAGO in its current form is indefensible, which is why the arguments in its favour tend to be irrelevant or ill-founded:

‘You can’t expect every game to be shown on live TV.’ No-one ever said they want this. ‘RTÉ are showing more matches than ever before.’ But not the ones which would be shown if public interest rather than GAA interest was the main criterion applied. ‘There were hardly any matches shown in the 1980s.’ The ’80s with massive unemployment, emigration and only two TV channels? Those ’80s?

‘All RTÉ’s profits go into buying the rights for other sporting events.’ Thus enabling RTÉ to outbid its competitors with money it shouldn’t be earning.

Or, best of all, ‘The GAA are entitled to make money from their games.’ Indeed they are. That’s why you don’t get in free. The logical conclusion of this argument is that the GAA are entitled to put every championship game on its streaming services. Maybe that’s the long-term plan.

The same mentality has given us cruel rents, soaring house prices, an insane cost of living and hotels gouging people on busy weekends. It lends a cheap and nasty edge to Irish life. There’s a feeling that the Irish Dream is to get in a position where you can extort the living daylights out of your fellow citizens. As top RTÉ ‘personalities’ did for many years.

When Sinn Féin proposed axing the TV licence in the Dáil recently, Micheál Martin spoke against the idea. He said he’s a big fan of public service broadcasting. So am I. It’s a pity we don’t have any.

RTÉ’s current mantra is that Trump/Brexit/Ukraine/Fake News/ Global Warming/Racism/Basically Everything means they should get more money. The Full Irish Hidden Camera Show is apparently all that stands between us and fascism. If Joe Duffy and Claire Byrne get less than €300,000, a year the bad guys will have won.

The GAAGO cartel arrangement is RTÉ’s kind of racket. It’s been fleecing the public for years. The government should stop it helping the GAA to do the same.

Practically pointless Munster and Leinster football finals are in prime Sunday slots.