On July 12, RTÉ, along with Virgin Media, Sky Ireland, TG4 and the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland have been invited before the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Media and Sport for a hearing into ‘The Future of Sports Broadcasting’.

While all of the invitees have yet to confirm their presence, the hearing holds far greater importance now than before the RTÉ secret payments controversy came to light, crucially in terms of the role Dee Forbes played in the company and the decision-making at GAAGO.

The hearing will certainly focus on three key issues:

1) Should all GAA coverage be free-to-air?

2) Were Sky Ireland’s rights offered back to the market in an appropriate way?

3) Should RTÉ have a 50% stakeholding in a private enterprise, which rivals its own channels?

The danger already is that the committee – which is made up entirely of politicians and public representatives – will become ravenous in the frenzy of ‘the evils of Pay-Per-View’ and that ‘all GAA coverage should be free’.

The most crucial element, from a transparency position, is whether RTÉ has properly declared its ownership of a private enterprise platform, which charges licence fee payers extra to watch hurling and football championship matches, which it previously delivered for free.

There will be other elements discussed, including what role Dee Forbes – if any – took in the commercial side of the GAAGO business, given what we have learned so far about the secret payments she approved for Ryan Tubridy.

We’re not suggesting for a moment that Forbes’s side-dealing ever entered the GAA pitch, but there will need to be greater oversight in all of RTÉ’s historic commercial dealings, given the wild west approach to business operations.

Also, was the idea for a joint venture between RTÉ and the GAA a Dee Forbes idea? Or did Croke Park go to Montrose and say: ‘We have a great idea for something which will make both of us lots of money’. And what did the Board of RTÉ know, given they seem to know very little about anything to do with the business?

Dee Forbes won’t be at this hearing on Wednesday week, but Group Head of Sport Declan McBennett is expected, and he may point to the station’s dual mandate as a public service broadcaster, first, but also a commercial business entity.

Someone from whom it would be most interesting to hear would be the RTÉ Director of Content, Jim Jennings, an executive who has so far managed to remain outside of the Tubridy conversation but who signs off sports rights at the network.

The problem with all of this is that we cannot see a full separation of both businesses – RTÉ and GAAGO – because from RTÉ’s side there is zero transparency and accountability around its investment in GAAGO.

How much, for example, does GAAGO use current RTÉ inventory to cover its games? This includes cameras, engineers, staff, technology, streaming services, transport and even storage.

Also, is it right that two large organisations – both in receipt of public money – can simply suck up a tranche of rights left on the table by Sky Ireland, add more assets (many of which would have been shown on RTÉ for free) and then repackage as a new subscription service?

This bit will be key to the July 12 showdown.

Last November, Sky Ireland decided to walk away from negotiations to extend its existing set of rights for GAA games, leaving a package of 14 exclusive matches and six additional fixtures (covered by RTÉ, also) on the table.

Those rights were then scooped up, with some going to TG4 and BBCNI, but the bulk forming the newly evolved GAAGO subscription platform.

Over the following weeks, more games were added to the service – twice what had been in the original deal with Sky – and suddenly you had the birth of a GAA PPV channel – one which had existed primarily for international audiences, but is now a serious player on the domestic market.

That new service went straight to the centre of the marketplace, occupying half of all championship games broadcast each weekend – and presenting a serious rival to RTÉ and other broadcasters.

In other words, that RTÉ owns and runs a service which is not in the best interests of the audience it exists to serve, and is allowed use it as a kind of side hustle to bring in extra cash is questionable at best.

Conveniently this arrangement has never been fully disclosed or presented to the public or the media for forensic analysis by RTÉ, and the whole process lacks clear accountability and transparency.

We don’t know, for example, how much GAAGO will earn this year – previously The Pitch forecasted that it could make as much as €10m throughout this season.

And we don’t know how many people are watching games on GAAGO every weekend, nor the values of the revenues being generated on a per-game basis, or just how many games next year will be PPV.

The problem here is we don’t know much about GAAGO, how it is run, who decides what goes where, who came up with the idea, and why RTÉ exercises so little visibility around the enterprise.

The Pitch asked RTÉ about Dee Forbes’ role with GAAGO, transparency around the platform from an RTÉ perspective and other questions, and we were told to contact GAAGO on these matters.

We did, and GAAGO told us that questions should be referred to the GAA, at which point we stopped – the idea of the GAA being a spokesperson for RTÉ was too preposterous a notion to consider, even in this week of broadcast news.

Why does it matter how much Adare Manor is paying for Ryder Cup?

WE NOW know that the Irish taxpayer is footing almost €60m towards the Ryder Cup in 2027.

For those of us who welcome blue riband sporting events to these shores, it does appear an investment well spent, given that the extra return from inbound and future visitor numbers is predicted by Government at more than twice that value.

However, politicians are not happy with the level of detail around the spend – particularly how much the public is paying against the financial outlay by Adare Manor.

Why is that so important, given we know JP McManus and his team at the Co Limerick resort have spent and continue to spend a considerable amount of money on producing one of the world’s top parkland courses?

Alan Kelly TD believes it is essential that we know this breakdown, indeed he said it was “absolutely extraordinary” that Department of Sport officials did not know the full cost of hosting the event, or the breakdown of how much the public is paying.

At a recent Public Accounts Committee hearing he asked Katherine Licken, Secretary General at the Department of Tourism and Sport, what the cost of public versus private spend would be.

“I don’t actually have the figures,” said the top-ranking public servant.

When asked how much Adare was paying, she responded: “We’re not privy.” 

The former Labour Party leader added: “I would find that to be absolutely extraordinary if you don’t have the quantum amount.” 

Chairman of the PAC Brian Stanley has requested that the Department presents a full breakdown of costs in the short term, while Adare Manor declined to comment when contacted by The Pitch.

Is Tennis Ireland finally past breaking point over governance?

IRISH tennis, long since one of the more challenging sports in administration and governance, has taken a significant step towards real change.

Clubs throughout the country have given “resounding support to proposals to change the way their sport is governed” following an EGM of Tennis Ireland earlier this month, when members voted by 10-1 (100 votes to 10) to implement several improvements.

Significantly, and a central difficulty at TI in the past, is the reduction of a previously split Board, which will go from 15 to 10 directors.

Tennis Ireland, which is now under the executive lead of former Leinster Rugby head of commercial Kevin Quinn, said the move will allow the organisation to move on from the “periodic difficulties” of the past.