Hurling folk weren’t happy. You can’t blame them.
Kilkenny Wexford was down to be broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event on Saturday evening. The Leinster championship clash was due to throw-in at 7.00 in Nowlan Park.
With the football first round qualifier meeting of Meath and Tyrone, which was being broadcast on Sky Sports Arena, going to extra-time, confusion reigned as to whether the Kilkenny throw-in would be delayed so as to facilitate the broadcast of the hurling.
The game went ahead as planned in the Marble City, throwing in at seven on the button. At this time, Sky Sports were showing the clash of Meath and Tyrone on both Sky Sports Arena and on Sky Sports Main Event.
So this meant that Sky Sports advertising that the hurling game would be shown live, viewers missed on almost the entirety of the first half of the game.
Presenter Rachel Wyse attempted to diffuse the situation by assuring spectators that the hurling would be coming up soon.
“We’ll be showing the action from Nowlan Park very shortly where Wexford lead Kilkenny by three points to two,” she said.
But one would have to question why Sky, who have about 500 different sports channels, didn’t have a contingency plan in place to deal with the event of a draw in the football game.
Hurling folk were the ones missing out, and they weren’t pleased with this. In an era where we complain about the number of games that we’re missing out on due to the GAA’s stingy television dealings, it’s inexplicable that even the ones that are meant to be shown are encountering difficulties.
To add salt to the wounds, anybody who had paid €10 to watch the game on GAA Go didn’t get to watch it because the stream get their feed from Sky Sports.
Eventually, they joined the action after 24 first half minutes.
.@SkySportsGAA if I wasn't illegally streaming your service, I would be outraged at the delay in showing the hurling.
— Aindreas Doyle (@aindreasdoyle) June 9, 2018
