Sky must take ‘proper’ look at coverage
PUTTING a stop to gimmicks should be the priority for Sky for the rest of this Championship. It might seem a modest aim, but it would be a big leap forward for the broadcaster.
Their decision to show extra time in the TyroneMeath game last week, meant they came to the Kilkenny-Wexford hurling match 22 minutes late.
That was a consequence of dreadful scheduling and it looked ill-prepared and sloppy. For a station struggling badly for credibility, it was dreadful.
But as damaging was the half-time gimmick in the hurling, when Jamie Redknapp and Freddie Flintoff were part of a challenge filmed for another Sky show.
‘This is a proper hard man’s sport,’ was Redknapp’s verdict, praise that had the predictable hypnotic effect on those GAA fans that crave nothing more than the approval of the wider world.
This idiocy followed last season’s nonsense when Chris Kamara and Jeff Stelling, Sky stalwarts, were exposed to Gaelic games in a promotion involving another GAA sponsor.
Enough. Spare us. Sky’s GAA coverage attracts tiny numbers, and building credibility should be the priority. The quality of its analysts remains its strength.
But the efforts of Peter Canavan, James Horan and the rest are undermined by crass gimmickry elsewhere.