Many Irish TV viewers who found themselves unable to watch Ireland’s "historic rugby victory over New Zealand on Saturday night will also be shut out from certain live coverage" of the football and hurling leagues should the extension of the Gaelic Athletic Association’s existing media rights deal for another five years go ahead, according to Ian O'Riordan of the IRISH TIMES. Saturday’s rugby match live from Soldier Field in Chicago "highlighted changes to the availability of the eir Sport TV package, formerly Setanta, which is no longer available on the Virgin Media platform." Virgin, which has just over 300,000 mostly urban subscribers, "dropped the eir Sport package, which includes BT Sport, at the end of July after it failed to agree commercial terms on a wholesale arrangement for the six channels." The Ireland-New Zealand game "was shown on the subscription channels eir Sport 2 and BT Sport." It "also went out free to eir broadband customers." As a result, and "in some cases previously unbeknownst to them, many Irish television viewers were unable to watch the game, even if they were willing to pay for it." The GAA’s current media rights deal across all platforms -- TV, radio and online -- expires at the end of the '17 league, "with the new agreement now expected to run for five years," '17-21, starting from next summer’s championship. In the meantime, eir Sport has "taken over the remaining existing rights to the live Saturday evening games in the Allianz Leagues, which previously went out on Setanta Sports." Eir's decision to offer its sports channels free to all of its own customers with a broadband bundle is "understood to have played a role in Virgin's decision not to make the channels available" on its platform (IRISH TIMES, 11/8).
