Fianna Fáil TD in Clare Cathal Crowe, has called on the GAA and RTÉ to abandon their costly pay per view GAAGO service
Deputy Crowe was speaking following the launch of GAAGO's game schedule for next year.
He said, "I understand that GAAGO will stream 38 championship games in total, with exclusive games including four Munster hurling championship matches, all four football preliminary quarterfinals as well as two football quarterfinals.
"I am of the view that the broadcasting of senior inter-county hurling and football games on pay-per-view television must be reviewed.
"Having our games behind a costly subscription service will ensure that many genuine GAA fans will not get to see their county play next season.
"It is time to abandon this pay-per-view service and ensure all fixtures are shown on a free to air basis. I believe the GAA and RTE have a cultural obligation to ensure that all of our Gaelic games are available to a maximum audience so participation across all codes can increase. We must try and reach as broad an audience as possible, whereas GAAGO will by definition restrict the audience to those who are following a particular county or a particular club.''
Deputy Crowe concluded by saying, "Last year, some of the titanic Munster championship clashes were behind a paywall, meaning very few people got to see them, including many of our senior citizens. If we want to continue to brand hurling as one of the great iconic identifiers of our country, as one of our great games played at a very high quality and at a very high level of professionalism, you have to reach out to as broad an audience as you possibly can in terms of profiling the game.''
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