A Unionist Councillor has criticised the BBC for covering the latter stages of the All-Ireland football and hurling championships while axing its midweek programme dedicated to the Irish League.

TUV Councillor for Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Allister Kyle described the decision as 'bizarre' and claimed there is an “ongoing agenda” to divert funding towards GAA coverage. A peak audience of 800,000 tuned in to watch BBC’s coverage of the recent All-Ireland SFC final between Dublin and Kerry which was broadcast live across the UK for the first time. 

"As an avid Irish League fan I always enjoyed watching our local presenters comment on the highlights of the local game throughout the province,” Kyle said in a social media post.

"Year on year this coverage has been cut from a Final Score programme showing the goals at 5.30pm on the Saturday night and an in-depth analysis on the Monday evening to a late night programme held on BBC2. We now find that the BBC have axed the programme completely.

"Engagement with the Irish League has been growing year on year with spectators and interest rising through the hard work of the clubs themselves and new initiatives organised by NIFL, the League’s governing body, which would make one think that the BBC as a publicly funded broadcaster would be increasing their coverage of the brand that is Northern Irish football."

He continued: "What makes the BBC decision to cut this broadcast all the more bizarre is that they just recently managed to find the funds to run live broadcasts at the two All-Ireland semi-finals which only showed one county out of the four (Derry) that can actually pay the licence fee."

"It certainly seems that there has been an ongoing agenda by the BBC to divert funding from as many different areas as possible towards GAA.”

 

Disappointed in the BBC Irish League decision https://t.co/oQydt5gbBE

— TUV (@TUVonline) August 7, 2023

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