'We've come a long long way together, through the hard times and the good.'
There will be even more reason to praise GAA's finest starting from next year after today's announcement of footage rights for the next five years.
In announcing a new, five-year deal for the Allianz Leagues, eir Sport confirmed it had secured rights to broadcast on-demand GAA clips of live and archive footage. This will be made available across mobile and online.
This means GAA fans should be able to revel in flashpoints, goals and magic moments as the live games are being played out. we can already see this in eir Sports' Europa League coverage.
https://twitter.com/eirSport/status/806929391934644225
The broadcaster has also added GAA archive rights. It will broadcast four 'classic' games per week and show clips from these archived games on mobile and online.
The long-flagged Sky Sports deal for an extra five years of GAA coverage was finally confirmed this afternoon, too. Sky's annual deal will include 20 live matches, 14 of which will be shown exclusively. For the first time ever, the broadcaster will exclusively broadcast a Munster Hurling Championship match.
There are no specific plans to show exclusive match clips on social media but Sky has confirmed match footage and highlights will be available on its app.
As ever, when it comes to GAA coverage not being available for free, there was healthy discourse online.
https://twitter.com/Oneofourown10/status/807213168959299584
https://twitter.com/conormckenna98/status/807199155970068481
https://twitter.com/nickyoff/status/807217860003106816
Diarmuid Connolly makes his long overdue GAA Hour debut and talks to Colm Parkinson about everything from the black card to his rivalry with Lee Keegan and how he honed the ability to kick accurately with either foot.
