Five Super 8 games will be exclusive to Sky Sports

Conan Doherty

This is the summer of the Super 8s but over 41 per cent of those games won’t be free-to-air.

The All-Ireland football championship has been revamped for 2018 but Sky Sports are going to be the subject of much debate yet again.

Nobody really argues that they don’t do a good job or that James Horan and Jim McGuinness aren’t insightful pundits but a lot of Gaels question the validity of a station that charges them to watch their national games. And Joe Brolly just questions how many people actually watch Sky Sports.

Well, if you want to watch five of the Super 8 games in the senior football quarter-finals, you’ll have to subscribe to Sky Sports.

The station will broadcast 20 live games this summer with 14 of those exclusive to the channel.

GAA fans can only watch those exclusive live fixtures on Sky Sports via Sky or TV streaming service NOW TV. Whilst the Super 8 groups and which fixture is playing in what round – 1, 2 or 3 – it isn’t clear which of the big clashes will be affected just yet but, already, two Galway hurling games will be on pay-per-view.

They’ve announced just one new addition to the pundit team in Mick Fennelly.