Cooney Commits To Making Improvements To Clare GAA Live Streaming Service

Chairman of Clare GAA Joe Cooney is hopeful improvements can be made to the streaming service operated by Clare GAA.

It comes after numerous complaints were made on the opening weekend of games which were streamed live by the county board, with several users citing issues with picture quality on the pay-per-view service.

Several issues were identified including problems accessing deferred coverage of games, with problems reported in viewing back games which had been paid for but not watched live. Clare are the only county board in Munster not using a professional production company to run their streaming service.

The system was announced by Clare GAA last week with a charge of €7.80 for live games while deferred coverage of games was set at a cost of €3.50. Cooney apologised to anyone who encountered problems with the service and said the board would be working to make the necessary improvements.

“There have been concerns that the reception was not great for some of the matches. I believe that the streaming was very good for some games but more of them were not. Some people also had problems getting logged on to the system but there will always be teething problems when you do something new. We apologise to anyone who had any inconvenience and my belief is that there was a lot of streaming going on over the weekend in different counties so whether the network was able to take all that or whether it was too much of a load, I am not sure. I believe we will have an improved system for the upcoming games at the weekend. It is tough on supporters to have those games behind closed doors so we are hoping to make those improvements so people can enjoy watching the games through the streaming system”, he stated.

It is also understood that some people applied though PayPal for a refund after being unable to watch their chosen game having already paid for it and Cooney said while that is not ideal, he accepts work needs to be done in order to avoid further instances of that.

“There has been a big investment in this so if we are getting an income from it, it is important that people are getting a proper service. We will be looking to make sure they get that and whatever Clare GAA need to do on our side, we will be doing it. The option to apply for a refund is there and if people want to use that option, that is no problem. If they did not get the games on the evening they paid for it then naturally enough they are entitled to be refunded”, he noted.