The GAA have reached a compromise with the BBC to resolve the controversy that led to the station not covering last weekend's Dublin-Tyrone National Football League fixture. As a result BBC Northern Ireland will be able to broadcast live coverage of this year's Ulster final and one of the semi-finals as well as its regular highlights package.
Previously the station could offer a more extensive schedule but since the decision by the parent broadcaster in London that all regional output must be transmitted on the BBC's digital platform that is no longer possible, as it means all broadcasts are available in Britain, access that cuts across the interests of Setanta, the GAA's international rights holder.
"Because of the digital platform we couldn't do the usual deal," said Dermot Power, the GAA's commercial and marketing manager. "It would have wiped out Setanta's coverage but we came up with a compromise acceptable to everyone."
This issue arose before when RTÉ became available on the Sky digital platform and Setanta had to be compensated for the dilution of their rights.
BBC Northern Ireland is not a primary rights holder but has over the years reached an accommodation with RTÉ, holder of the domestic rights for Ireland, which allowed access to most Ulster championship matches and involved reciprocal arrangements for highlights packages.
"There was another factor we felt needed to be addressed," said Power, "and that was RTÉ's distribution is not 100 per cent across Northern Ireland."
These difficulties reflect the complexity of broadcasting rights policy at a time of accelerating technological progress. Power said preparation will begin in a few months for the next round of rights, to be allocated by May 2008. "Negotiations will be a bit different this time around," said Power. "Because of the developing availability of floodlights the Saturday nigh package has become increasingly attractive."
When Setanta Sport (the sports channel that is part of the international rights owning Setanta group) won the contract to broadcast floodlit matches starting last season, the selection of fixtures was extremely limited, as only Dublin, Kerry and Cork had floodlights in grounds.
That gave some sort of a spread of options in football but in hurling there were no matches available, as counties were unhappy about travelling to Cork because it was believed the lights conferred an advantage on the home team. Now that the installation of lights has become more commonplace the Saturday night (and maybe Friday night) matches have the potential to offer a radically more varied programme. Last Saturday's Dublin-Tyrone broadcast is believed to have yielded Setanta Sport its largest audience to date.
Other media areas will also be up for grabs. Internet and radio rights are comparatively new areas of competition with the GAA expressing an interest in holding on to some of them. "We may look at retaining some of the streaming rights," according to Power. "It's a growth area and when RTÉ experimented with last season's Cork-Kerry match there was so much demand the system crashed. But overall, the domestic and international rights (television) holders are probably best suited to internet as well."
The television landscape has changed considerably since the days when the GAA used to lament the lack of competition in the market and the effective monopoly position of RTÉ.
"There are a lot of potential changes in television," said Power. "We've seen a link between TV3 and Setanta in relation to the rugby world cup and perhaps that might influence TV3 in relation to Gaelic games. TG4 is due to separate from RTÉ and this might have happened by the time negotiations commence."
Even in the medium through which RTÉ pioneered broadcast coverage of games there are possible options, he says. "Radio has opened up with Newstalk having gone national as well as having extensive sports coverage."
