LIVE COVERAGE OF this summer’s European Championships will be split between RTÉ and TV3 after a ‘historic’ licence agreement was reached between the broadcasters.
RTÉ will sub-licence 22 of the 51 games at Euro 2016 to TV3 following the conclusion of a tender process.
The state broadcaster has retained the rights to screen 30 games on RTÉ2, including all three of Ireland’s group fixtures, while they also have first choice on matches in the knock-out stages.
Under the deal, TV3 will exclusively screen 16 group games, three round of 16 ties, two quarter-finals and share coverage of the tournament’s final.
“RTÉ is delighted to partner with TV3, another Irish broadcaster, to ensure that the UEFA Euro 2016 Finals are delivered to Irish audiences free-to-air,” Ryle Nugent, Group Head of RTÉ Sport, said.
TV3′s coverage will be hosted by Tommy Martin while Graeme Souness is expected to be among the pundits in the Ballymount studio.
It’s another significant statement of intent in the sports rights market from TV3 after it outbid RTÉ for exclusive coverage of last year’s Rugby World Cup and the Six Nations from 2017 onwards.
Additionally, it retained its broadcast rights for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League until 2017/18.
“This has been a busy and an exciting few weeks for TV3,” the stations’s managing director, Pat Kiely, said. “We are very happy to be collaborating with our old rivals in RTÉ this summer and I am personally very happy to be announcing the start of what is a new era in Irish sports broadcasting.
“We are grateful to everyone who has made it possible including Uefa, with whom we work so well on Champions League and our colleagues in RTÉ.
“This deal further demonstrates TV3’s commitment under our new owners Virgin Media to bring the very best live sport to Irish viewers. We are very much looking forward to being part of Uefa’s football family for Euro 2016.”
The tournament, which is being staged in France, commences on Friday 10 June with the hosts facing Romania in Paris.
RTÉ’s Euro 2016 fixtures:
- 10 June: France v Romania (kick-off 8pm)
- 11 June: Albania v Switzerland (2pm), Wales v Slovakia (8pm)
- 12 June: Poland v Northern Ireland (5pm)
- 13 June: Rep. of Ireland v Sweden (5pm), Belgium v Italy (8pm)
- 14 June: Portugal v Iceland (8pm)
- 15 June: Russia v Slovakia (2pm)
- 16 June: England v Wales (2pm), Germany v Poland (8pm)
- 17 June: Italy v Sweden (2pm), Czech Republic v Croatia (5pm)
- 18 June: Belgium v Rep. of Ireland (2pm), Portugal v Austria (8pm)
- 19 June: Switzerland v France (8pm)
- 20 June: Russia v Wales (8pm)
- 21 June: Northern Ireland v Germany (5pm), Czech Republic v Turkey (8pm)
- 22 June: Iceland v Austria (5pm), Italy v Rep. of Ireland (8pm)
TV3′s Euro 2016 fixtures:
- 11 June: England v Russia
- 12 June: Turkey v Croatia, Germany v Ukraine
- 13 June: Spain v Czech Republic
- 14 June: Austria v Hungary
- 15 June: Romania v Switzerland, France v Albania
- 16 June: Ukraine v Northern Ireland
- 17 June: Spain v Turkey
- 18 June: Iceland v Hungary
- 19 June: Romania v Albania
- 20 June: Slovakia v England
- 21 June: Ukraine v Poland, Croatia v Spain
- 22 June: Hungary v Portugal, Sweden v Belgium
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You’ll probably need a new kettle after the euros with the amount of ads tv3 show…
You might actually hear some insightful analysis though. Rte’s coverage of football and rugby is amateur and lazy. They simply didn’t bother their arses with Kiev v City last week
The city’s game pre match coverage was awful. Brady is the worst pundit in Ireland.
Could nearly cook a meal..do the washing up..then have the tea..before the adbreak ends..
A bad day for football fans. RTE’s coverage of big tournaments has always being excellent.
No Giles and dunphy deserve that honour .both pundits called Ronaldo a clown .how wrong can u b.
In all fairness Ronaldo was a clown in his first couple of years at Utd. Not many people could for-see the monster of a player he would turn into. Both of them freely admit they were wrong.
When they don’t know much about one of the teams their coverage is awful, they seem to do little or no research
That’s the thing. Usual Irish obsession with crap English football but never bother with other leagues
Coming up after the break, the big kick-off……
Eir —- headin da ball, I’m headin da ball, you headin da ball……….
Under the deal, TV3 will exclusively screen 16 group games, three round of 16 ties, two quarter-finals and share coverage of the tournament’s final and no rep ireland games lol
Dunphy actually said he was wrong recently about him.
Delighted with this news! Every game free to air in Ireland!
But every game was free to air anyway??
Do RTE actually want any sport anymore? They can’t wait to give it away
They can’t afford to keep it.
Say what you like about RTE, but their sports coverage is far superior to TV3.
Their rugby coverage is not superior to TV3. Absolutely no way.
Hope both of them have Brian Kerr on can’t wait to hear about every player he managed an under 16s match against at some stage in his life
We played them once with the Faroes, and they did the exact same routine…
Considering all the sports coverage RTE have lost over the last number of years,how is Ryle Nugent still in a job?
D4 privilege.
A Bidding war in Ireland would be a complete waste of money. Sensible decision to share the broadcast.
Seems fair enough
Only that tv3 is rubbish
Once we don’t have to listen to Ryle Nugent who cares
Jesus does that mean Trevor Welch commentating for TV3? The man’s a disaster.
Hope they have someone other than Tommy Martin, he’s very poor in fairness
He was very good at RWC.. Or maybe he was just good compared to Matt Cooper
What, Dara is brutal on rte
So Martin O’Neill’s on panel duty for the Euros???
He will be after the group stages sadly :(
The Greeks probably said the same thing before the 2004 tournament. Don’t give up hope.
“Under the deal, TV3 will exclusively screen 16 group games, three round of 16 ties, two quarter-finals and share coverage of the tournament’s final.”
Having the final on 2 stations at the same time is a bit of overkill if you ask me.
“Share coverage of the final” Maybe rte will do the 1st and tv3 will do the 2nd half !
Yeah there’ll be 4 options as i think bbc and itv both show it as well.
Is Tony interviewing a priest in that photo…?!
It states it retained rights for the europa league. Does it have the rights at the moment?
I think they have rights to the final. Doesn’t really make sense. They should have at least one game each knockout round like they had in the past few years.
Thank God for the BBC and ITV .won’t have to listen to Trevor Walsh or Wwwelshhh as he says
I’ve always loved RTÉ’s coverage of big tournaments. They always seemed toget interesting pundits, like Ozzie Ardilles, Michael O’Neill, Brad Friedel, even Gooch Cooper in 2014. The real enemy now though are subscription based companies. If RTÉ and TV3 have to team up to keep things free to air, so be it.
Rte HD for free, TV3 SD is utter potato quality.
Where does RTE’s budget go to?? Their sports coverage as a whole has gone to the dogs
Smart move by rte theirs alot more games this time round so probably to many to cover and apart a couple of England games rte hav kept the best quality games like would many of us really watch Austria Hungary or Romania Albania game
It should be a condition of the contract that Tv3 have to go HD on saorview.
Thank f*** they’re not getting any Ireland games..
Valley Rangers fc , it’s Fr Jim Beglan I think.
tennis?