RTÉ last week sold its 50% stake in GAA Plus née Go for €3 million. The news was met with a shrug, but Sinead's brow is furrowed.
With Gav on leave, she's joined by technology and media professional Steve Dempsey to dig into the deal. Was €3 million a fair price for half of a profitable, growing streaming business, or did the GAA just walk away with a goldmine?
Steve runs the numbers and builds a model showing what GAA Plus could become: a business generating €10 million in revenue and €6 million in profit within five years. They discuss why RTÉ may have been happy to trade away a headache for cash and political breathing room, and whether the GAA can now transform a broadcast app with a paywall into something closer to a super-app, folding in ticketing, merchandise and a direct line to the diaspora.
What happens to the journalism when the GAA is covering itself? And should we expect more games behind the paywall as the rights deal nears its end in 2027?
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