RTÉ will not televise Shelbourne’s Europa League second-leg qualifier against Croatian champions HNK Rijeka from Tolka Park next Tuesday due to budgetary and personnel restraints.
Joey O’Brien’s team lead 2-1 from the first leg following a surprise victory in Rijeka on Wednesday night.
If Shelbourne win the tie on aggregate they are guaranteed group stage football in either the Europa League or Conference League, and at least €4 million in Uefa prize money.
Shels have never reached the group stage in European competitions.
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The national broadcaster provided live coverage of their 1-0 victory over Linfield at Tolka Park on July 9th, in the Champions League first qualifying round, with RTÉ disappointed by an average audience of just 120,000.
The second leg at Windsor Park in Belfast was available on the BBC iPlayer in Northern Ireland and subscription channel Premier Sports in the Republic.
RTÉ committed to showing the women’s Euros in Switzerland this summer and the GAA Championship along with the Dublin Horse Show, Euro Hockey, the women’s Rugby World Cup and the World Athletics Championships from Tokyo in September.
All these commitments, plus the short six-day window of the tie being scheduled, were factored into the decision to not cover the League of Ireland champions at this juncture. The cost to RTÉ of screening the game would be in excess of €70,000.
RTÉ lost the League of Ireland rights to Virgin Media this season, butthey didretain exclusive coverage of the FAI Cup.
Shelbourne have also approached Virgin about providing live coverage of the second leg against the Croatian champions as only 3,650 fans can be accommodated inside Tolka due to Uefa’s restrictions. There will be no travelling Rijeka fans as they are currently banned due to crowd trouble at previous games.
The game will be live on LOITV with the FAI confirming that Shelbourne will receive 100 per cent of the revenue from the streaming service.
For every European game the club negotiates the cost with the rights holder. So, for Tuesday at Tolka Park, LOITV and Shels have come to an agreement on cost for a two-camera production.
LOITV is platformed by Premier Sports which is owned by Mickey O’Rourke, who is a shareholder and chairman of the Shels board.
RTÉ production costs are significantly higher than Premier or Virgin, as they use six cameras and a drone.
Shamrock Rovers fans can pay €9.99 to watch tonight’s Uefa Conference League qualifier against Ballkani in Kosovo.
With Rovers, Shels and St Patrick’s Athletic still on course to earn group stage football this season, RTÉ have not ruled out purchasing the rights for another European game in the coming fortnight.
