RTE's sponsorship deal with GAA a scandal
Thursday March 20 2008
IF one of the responsibilities of Government is to ensure that public money is spent wisely and prudently, then Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan should this morning summon RTE Director-General Cathal Goan to a meeting and demand an explanation for the station's decision to buy in as one of the three sponsors of the All-Ireland hurling championships.
Firstly, the Minister should query how much exactly RTE's self-indulgence is costing for the next two years. He should then ask since when did it become the remit of the state broadcaster to engage in expensive sponsorships of major sporting events.
And finally, he should inform Mr Goan that if RTE is so well off that it can divert large sums of money towards the GAA -- or any other sporting organisation for that matter -- future requests for an increase to the licence fee will be treated with the contempt they deserve.
Arrogant
By any standards, this is an astonishingly arrogant decision by RTE, an organisation that enjoys the best of all financial worlds through its public funding and advertising streams. As for the GAA, it looks like a good deal as they will now get separate cheques from RTE for broadcasting rights and sponsorship, but is it appropriate to cosy up to one channel in a special arrangement just after breaking its monopoly in another?
And surely there must be some disquiet among the other five sponsors, who will be relying on RTE, in part at least, to promote their involvement in the championship when they find that the main broadcast channel just happens to be a co-sponsor. Who, for instance, will monitor how fairly RTE treats the other sponsors?
While the GAA insists that it's strictly business, will the sponsorship not give RTE special status when it next comes to re-negotiating broadcast rights? Presumably RTE believes it will, so is it a case of speculating licence payers' money now so as to improve the climate conditions for the re-negotiations in three years time?.
According to confidential documents seen by the Irish independent last December, the GAA pitched their asking price for sponsorship of the hurling championships at €4.6m per company over three years and €5.1m for football.
Hurling was subsequently changed to a two-year deal and even allowing for the probability that the initial target wasn't reached, it's still likely that each of the sponsors have paid up to €1m per year. In RTE's case, part of the payment may be in the areas of advertising/promotion.
Nevertheless, it has to be put down as an expense to the station who will also be required to spend other monies supporting the sponsorships, so in real terms, it could cost them up to €2m a year. That equates to the licence fees of 12,500 people, the approximate capacity of Hill 16.
So, the next time you look at a packed Hill 16 consider this. It has taken that many licence fees to finance RTE's venture into an area a state company has no right to go.
Come on, Minister Ryan, do ask the hard questions, because RTE should not get away with this expensive extravagance at the licence payers' expense.
- Martin Breheny
