Mickey Harte has backed Sky’s coverage of gaelic games and says armchair GAA fans have no “God-given right” to see every big game on free-to-air TV.
RTE claimed it was inundated with complaints from viewers unhappy that Saturday’s Super 8s clash between Mayo and Donegal in Castlebar was only available to Sky subscribers.
Harte, who has boycotted interviews with RTE since 2011, says the state broadcaster has “a vested interest” in the debate and praised Sky for raising the standard of analysis.
He insisted: “The introduction of Sky has helped. There were no graphics much until Sky brought them in – did they not exist in the last 10 or 15 years? I think they did.
“We’re getting more insightful analysis, all sorts of diagrams and arrows and highlighting that didn’t happen before, so there’s something good in what’s going on there.”
RTE pundits Tomas O Se and Conor McManus chose the platform of The Sunday Game to slam the fact the big game of the weekend between Mayo and Donegal was behind a pay-wall.
However Harte said: You would think they (RTE) must have some kind of vested interest.
“Why should anybody have the God-given right to see all games on television?”
“That was never the case back in the day and we all survived.
“Just because it’s a luxury and some people can pay for it, other people may choose not, we all have the luxury of seeing highlights afterwards if we didn’t go to the game.”
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
