The GAA community has spent another week debating the merits of pay-per-view intercounty games.

On Wednesday, it was reported that GAA+ would be broadcasting the mouthwatering Kerry v Donegal clash in round one of the All-Ireland senior football championship.

We are in year one of GAA+ being a fully GAA-owned entity and this fixture decision was a clear signal that the GAA is going to prioritise its own subscription service over getting its games to the biggest possible audience.

The decision to put intercounty games behind a paywall has proven an emotive subject over the past decade. Hardly a summer passes without some uproar about important GAA games not being made free to air.

What’s changed this year is that the GAA and RTÉ are broadcasting rivals now.

There has been vocal criticism this week from GAA greats like John Mullane, who wrote in today’s Independent that “it is clear that we are at a crossroads and GAA+ is the straw that broke the camel’s back. “

Offaly great Michael Duignan was one of the most vehement critics of the pay-per-view model when the GAA launched its broadcast deal with Sky Sports.

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Interestingly, his position has evolved over the years, as he acknowledged today on RTÉ.

On the Sunday Game in 2017, Duignan was vociferous in his criticism of the GAA after the Kilkenny-Waterford qualifier that was shown on Sky, calling it the ‘biggest disgrace’ of that particular GAA weekend.

“The Sky deal is so wrong on so many levels. My parents are at home, my father is 83 years of age, a savage hurling man, why should he have to go to a pub? He doesn’t go to the pub. There’s enough money in the GAA – what about the people who have supported the game all their lives and can’t watch it?”

Ahead of today’s Wexford-Dublin game in the Leinster round robin, Duignan joined Anthony Daly and Ursula Jacob and explained why he’s more accepting of GAA+.

“First of all, from a financial perspective, Sky is way more expensive. 150-200 quid a month. This is €95 per year and there’s a 10% discount for GAA members as well. A club pass is 150 euro a year and a venue or a pub is 300 quid a year. ..It’s a couple of euros a game if you choose to get it in.”

I was very excited about the GAA GO with RTÉ and I thought there might have been an opportunity to get it on a channel and get your code if there was going to be a cost.

Covid changed everything from a streaming point of view. If you take any club game right now, it’s 10, 15, 20 euros a game. So the value for money is there. The people I talk to now, they’d be happy to pay the 90 quid and we’d be happy enough to sort it.

His complaint with GAA+ pertained to broadband access and other infrastructure issues.

You can watch the debate here.

Duignan – who said he serves on the GAA’s media advisory committee – described the GAA+ revenue as ‘nominal’ for the association at its current price and added he expects the GAA will face a decision in terms of pricing the service in the future.

“The GAA will have to make up their mind whether they want GAA+ to be a funding revenue or whether they want to promote the games. It can’t be both. Will the €95 stay at €95? That’s my worry. Will it go to €200, €300, €400 per year? I don’t think the nominal money they’re going to make from GAA+ is going to fund anything major.”

Of course, it’s surreal to hear this kind of debates on RTÉ, who have been so enmeshed in the GAA for so long.