2026 was another positive year of growth for GAA+

By John Harrington

2026 has been a red-letter year for GAA+, the Association’s wholly owned live and on-demand streaming platform.

40 championship matches were shown exclusively on the island of Ireland, 180 were available to stream worldwide, and 90 ground-breaking midweek analysis shows were produced in the new GAA+ studio in Croke Park.

Multi-camera set-ups brought a high production quality to the platform’s offering, and the fresh and distinctive editorial style has proven popular with subscribers.

“It's been another really positive year,” says Noel Quinn, Head of GAA+ and GAA Marketing.

“With about 200 Championship matches broadcast over 30 match days, I do think we're starting to see the benefit of GAA+'s flexibility as a streaming platform as opposed to linear TV. The team certainly stretched itself with the OB and crew resources it had available to them on a given week to bring additional coverage to fans this year. We did that within the confines of our existing media rights agreement that we have in place with the GAA until the end of the 2027 Championship and we will aim to grow our digital footprint beyond that point.

“We have broadcast multiple games on certain days, we had overlapping games on certain days, and our format just facilitates that really well.

“There was continued growth in the numbers of our members at home and abroad adopting the service which is very positive, and the big development for us at the start of the year was the studio launch.

“We can stick our chest out in that regard because it's best in class. It has allowed us to chart our own show programming destiny because it enabled us to do a lot of midweek shows and not just match-day stuff.

“We introduced at least a dozen new faces to the analysis teams this year across match day and midweek. The midweek programs again allowed us to invite more people onto the shows, let them cut their teeth, and just get a diversity of voice onto the panel as well.

“Analysts like Paddy McBrearty and ‘Soupy’ Campbell are recently retired and Niamh Rockett is still playing, so they’re very close to the modern game which we believe gives a better experience for the viewer.

“Our editorial style and tone is very different to the other existing broadcast partners and that's a good thing because people can get a variety across RTE, BBC, TG4 and GAA+.”

The output of GAA+ increased significantly this year with the advent of the Croke Park studio.

Available for free on GAA+ YouTube and social media channels every Monday and Friday at 1pm, ‘The View’ delivered the latest GAA news, opinion, and expert analysis on all the weekend’s action.

This was supplemented by ‘The Hurling Analysis Show’ on Wednesday and ‘Football in Detail’ show on Thursday when former players like Noel Connors, Seamus Hickey, Podge Collins, Paul Galvin, Michael Meehan, and Shane McEntee provided the sort of in-depth analysis that the feedback from a comprehensive subscriber survey suggested there was a big appetite for.

The scale with which the GAA+ output has grown in a very short time has been considerable, and a testament to the hard-work of the 10 full-time staff who make it happen behind the scenes.

“I think there was a there was a concern initially about would the GAA have the competency and the capabilities to deliver on this,” says Quinn.

“At the start we were learning but we quickly scaled up the team with some significant experienced new hires this year.

“We now have a production team and an operation technical team that would be best in class in Ireland. If you have the people who know how to get it done it's a big help.

“The other part of it is the GAA at Coiste Bainistí management level have backed this relentlessly and it's the path that they said we're happy to go down.

“The free-to-air coverage versus subscription debate is something that will continue and always will of course, but the GAA is happy with the balance they've struck between free-to-air linear television with 300 plus games per year and this streaming model of subscription which unlocks additional games.

“Okay, there are some high-profile games there but that's the nature of subscription, you need to mix certain games with higher profile games. This hybrid model is now the norm in global sportscasting best practice.

“In terms of scaling up I don't think we had expected to have been this far advanced in terms of the midweek programming at this point.

“We've made quick gains which is great, and next year we'll go again try and try and do more of the same and continue to give the membership what they want.”

Heeding feedback from the GAA’s membership has played a big part in the direction GAA+ has taken to date.

It’s why almost 30,000 free GAA+ annual passes were made available to nursing homes and a further 5,000 to hospitals this year, why GAA members can receive a 10% discount on annual passes via Foireann, and why a partnership was struck with National Broadband Ireland to give free annual passes to new customers who signed up to their broadband service before March 31^st this year.

On a more granular level, GAA+ is also user-led in terms of the type and style of content they produce.

Once again, this year they have issued a survey to subscribers asking them for their feedback on the platform’s offering.

“We've had something like 7,000 people respond to that in the last two weeks and it looks at five different areas,” says Quinn.

“We’ve asked for people’s opinion on our programming style, our value for money sentiment, the customer care they've received during the year, the range of products they've got, and the stream reliability.

“All of them are trending in a positive direction year on year as well. It's important for us to track that so we see are we making gains or are we stalling in certain areas and it’s also a way for people to give their opinion on what they want to see more of.

“Previous nuggets from that would have unearthed particular analysts that we were using irregularly that people really enjoyed and so we gave them more air time. Similarly, the feedback might have said, look, we'd love to see more of the Leinster Round Robin games because they're not covered, and so we would have done more because of that.

“The good thing about GAA+, no more than GAA in a general sense, is when you ask people for their feedback and their opinion they're more than happy to give it and it's generally very constructive. So that will help us plan for next year.”

83 cents of every euro of profit generated by GAA+ is reinvested directly into the development of the Association across clubs, schools, counties, and provinces.

A combination of a growth in subscribers, future third party hire of the Croke Park studio, and new brand partnerships should ensure that, going forward, the streaming platform will become an even more important contributor to coaching and development initiatives, club support, and capital infrastructure projects.

“We will look to maximize the studio next year and when it isn’t being used for Gaelic games purposes we will make it available for third parties if they want a HD quality TV ready studio with the latest equipment and an experienced crew to produce white label content for anyone who is interested,” says Quinn.

“Basically, anyone who wants to create something like an audiovisual podcast series. That would be our expertise now - creating content and planning for that, recording and editing.

“And in terms of the midweek content series, we're open to discussing some partnerships there with brands who want to associate with the GAA's streaming arm and speak to what is a very diverse GAA demographic.”