Ireland

Clubs are real winners from BT-Sky sharing deal for European rugby

The Gaelic Athletic Association is negotiating with pay-television broadcaster Sky Sports over the introduction of special discounted subscription deals for clubs, following on from Sky’s acquisition of GAA rights last week.

Irish public-service broadcaster RTÉ, pay-television broadcasters Sky Sports and Setanta Sports, and Irish-language free-to-air broadcaster TG4 have been awarded rights for the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, while commercial broadcaster Seven has acquired rights in Australia.

Public-service broadcaster RTE remains in contention with pay-television broadcaster Setanta Sports and commercial broadcaster TV3 for the Irish television rights to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, according to the Irish Times.

UK and Ireland pay-television broadcaster BSkyB is in advanced talks over acquiring rights for competitions operated by the Gaelic Athletic Association, according to Irish newspaper the Independent.

Pay-television broadcaster Setanta Sports has extended its media rights deal for the Football Association of Ireland and Irish Football Association’s Setanta Sports Cup club cup competition.

Specialist international equestrian sports and lifestyle television channel Horse and Country TV is to launch a TV Everywhere service that will allow viewers in the UK and Ireland to subscribe to and view the channel online, as well as on tablet or smartphone devices.

Pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has agreed a multi-year deal with the NBA for the exclusive live rights to the North American basketball league in the UK and Ireland.

Horse racing pay-television channel Racing UK has launched a television anywhere service.

UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport, a division of telecommunications company BT, and newspaper group News UK have acquired “co-exclusive” rights for on-demand online and mobile clips covering the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions.

Eurosport has been announced as a launch partner for the new Xbox One video game console in a deal that will offer customers in various European markets the opportunity to access the pan-European sports broadcaster’s coverage of sporting events.

Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association is considering launching its own internet-based subscription channel and a pay-television channel as it prepares for its next domestic rights cycle, from 2014-15 onwards, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB has become the exclusive sales agent for horse racing pay-television channel Racing UK’s commercial television service.

Irish amateur sports organisation the Gaelic Athletic Association is to target the North American market in its next cycle of media rights sales, according to sports news website TheScore.ie.

An Irish football fan living in Australia has bought the Australian broadcast rights to his country’s Fifa World Cup qualifier against Sweden in a bid to ensure the expat population do not miss the crucial game, according to the Reuters news agency.