Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 12 July 2023
Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media
Future of Sports Broadcasting: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Declan McBennett:
We have increased our League of Ireland coverage in recent years. We are the only broadcaster that has done so. I think Mr. Jonathan Hill said earlier that the FAI would welcome a second broadcaster to come in there. In recent years we have done the women's national team, the under-21s and the under-17s. Nobody does more soccer than we do. Through my department in RTÉ Sport, we have paid for the production of women's international games in Ukraine, Montenegro and Greece because none of those countries would actually broadcast a match involving the same women's national team that will go proudly to Australia and New Zealand in a couple of weeks. That is what we do. That is the public service element of what we do.
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