MARK GALLAGHER: Put down your pitchforks and get off Liveline... here's why GAA+ is a much better product than RTÉ's Gaelic Games coverage

Published: 22:45, 9 May 2026 | Updated: 22:45, 9 May 2026 Are we ready for all the outrage? Maybe, it would be better just to hide for the next couple of weeks and rise for air when the Kerry and Donegal footballers take to the pitch at Fitzgerald Stadium for the rematch of last July’s All-Ireland football final.  Throw-in is still 13 days away, that’s a lot of time for the Liveline switchboard to light up in anger and redden Kieran Cuddihy’s ears. Prime Time fired the first salvo last Thursday night. RTE were formerly 50% shareholders in the GAA streaming service before the cash-strapped national broadcaster gave up that market advantage for a song (just €3million), so their flagship current affairs show felt they now had the editorial independence to test the temperature about Kerry v Donegal being a pay-per-view event. Overseers: The RTE panel look on as Donegal take on Mayo in Hyde Park last year The segment checked every box when it comes to this kind of controversy and basically it boiled down to ‘will someone think of the children and the elderly’.  The observation was made that putting the game’s superstar, David Clifford, behind a paywall benefits nobody (except GAA+ subscribers) and will actually hurt the promotion of the game, into the future. There is some validity to that argument, but it also ignores the reality of the world in which we live.  The first leg of PSG’s Champions League semi-final with Bayern Munich will be talked about as long as we talk about sport, but the only way to see it in this country was to pay for it.  What about those households without a subscription to Premier Sports, TNT or Amazon Prime?  Don’t remember much concern for little Johnnie who felt left out in the playground the next day as his mates pretended to be Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Michael Olise? Of course, we will be told that’s a global game which has never been afraid of displaying its avaricious side while the GAA is who we are, woven into our social fabric, more than just a sport.  Which is all true. It is a community organisation, but the GAA is also a business – and that’s fine, too.  To serve its community as best it can, the Association needs to maximise its commercial potential, something it was slow enough to do for decades. As we are told ad nauseum by Croke Park, 83% of the revenue it generates goes back to its members – that includes almost €20million on grants for county teams, €15million on coaching and games development and €8million on an injury fund for more than 6,000 players. It makes commercial sense that it would use the biggest GAA game of the year to try and drive subscription numbers for its streaming service – which at €95 for a year, and a discount for members, represents decent value.  It would almost be a dereliction of duty if they didn’t. And here’s the thing that you won’t hear on Liveline next week or was mentioned on Prime Time last Thursday – the product is good on GAA+, and it tends to be far superior to what we get on RTE. The national broadcaster has had its fair share of troubles lately, largely self-inflicted, so it feels like an open goal to criticise it.  But it’s hard to escape the fact that the cosy relationship that RTE had enjoyed with the GAA for years resulted in stale and unimaginative coverage of Gaelic Games.  Fortunately, some within Croke Park recognised that a while ago, which is why they welcomed Sky Sports with open arms. Sky were a welcome addition and even had a midweek magazine programme that RTE never even had the imagination to run in all the years that they were the only show in town – and it’s something that the GAA streaming service has continued with its excellent, The View.  And Sky did make RTE up their own game, at least in the early days. A big draw: The Munster hurling championship is hugely popular among GAA enthusiasts To give RTE its due, it has to fulfil the national broadcasting remit, which means it has to cover everything on the Saturday Game or The Sunday Game, which means those shows often have a bloated feel.  By trying to be everything to everyone, RTE, more often than not, end up pleasing nobody – and it’s worth pointing out that there will be extensive highlights of Kerry v Donegal on RTE 2 that Saturday night with pundits who have been able to digest and reflect on the action in Killarney. And the thing is that GAA+ is not going anywhere. As pitchforks are being sharpened at either end of the western seaboard this week, that’s a simple fact that people should remember.  The GAA have entered the streaming space and they are not going anywhere. Nor should they. They have embraced the reality of sports broadcasting in 2026 – given that for years, the Association were distrustful of putting too many games on television, they should be commended for how swiftly GAA+ has become part of the furniture. There are issues, but it’s not up to the GAA to sort out the mess that is patchy rural broadband.  The next step for GAA+ is to get itself available on the likes of Sky and Virgin Media platforms. Once it becomes that much easier for people to access, maybe the outrage would die down. When Sky came into the market, many of its ardent critics pointed to the demise of county cricket in England when it went behind a paywall as evidence of how promotion of the game was going to be affected.  But that was more than a decade ago and the world has moved on a lot since then. Hot topic: GAA president Jarlath Burns addresses the GAA+ issue at Congress this year These days, youngsters generally consume their sport differently, they watch bite-sized segments on YouTube and TikTok. Even little Johnnie, who didn’t see PSG 5-4 Bayern live was able to watch highlights of Kvaratskhelia and Olise on his phone the next day. Jack McCarron’s extraordinary equalising sideline kick in the Athletic Grounds was on the GAA streaming service last weekend but there wasn’t a GAA fan in the country who hadn’t seen it countless times by that night, as it was over everyone’s timeline. If David Clifford or Michael Langan do something magical in Killarney, everyone will get to see it that evening.  The promotion of the game will not have suffered. The younger generation view things through the prism of YouTube and TikTok. The more interesting aspect of the GAA flexing its muscle this past week is that it was planting a flag.  Showing that they are here to stay and that the cosy relationship it once had with RTE is severed. The two bodies are competitors and rivals now, but hard to see our down-trodden, cash-strapped national broadcaster being up for much of a fight. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. 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