RTÉ Sport

"RTÉ Sport" is a cross platform, integrated business division of Irish broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann.

In 1926, RTÉ broadcast the first field game in Europe. The GAA match was live on the radio, 2RN, RTÉ's predecessor. RTÉ Sport is probably the second most significant of the categories since often hundreds of thousands would watch The Sunday Game, with probably more than a million watching on All-Ireland day. The Premiership was RTÉ's flagship Premier League programme until 2008, when Premier Soccer Saturday was launched. The Premiership was shown on Saturday nights at 7.30pm. There were sometimes Premiership Specials which would normally be shown on a Sunday evening at 8.00pm or on a Monday night.

Republic Of Ireland mathces were shown live on the channel for Euro 2004, 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008, all of which, they failed to qualify. RTÉ also screen a lot of horse racing, including the Galway Races, Punchestown and Cheltenham. OB Sport is a sports programme designed to highlight games of less intererst in the country, like basketball or tennis. Sport is shown on RTÉ News as well, as it is a common pastime.

A programme for the Beijing Olympics was shown on RTÉ Two before the games, called 'Ireland's Olympians'. RTÉ broadscast most of Ireland's candidates for gold during the games as well as the finals in which the Irish did not take part in.

Criticism

RTÉ Sport have been criticised in many football circles in Ireland due to their lack of coverage and media attention focused on the FAI League of Ireland, opting to largely ignore the indigenous league in favour of games from The Premiership. In fact, the Public Service Broadcasting Charter calls for "sports programming that reflects the demands for national, regional, minority, amateur and local sports in Ireland today," [http://www.rte.ie/about/organisation/psb.pdf] yet the emphasis on football reporting always keeps English football top of the agenda.

A new FAI League of Ireland highlights programme, Monday Night Soccer, was launched at the start of the 2008 season, which although an improvement on past efforts, does not seem to contain the production values reserved for Premier Soccer Saturday or The Sunday Game.

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