BBC NI viewers left in the dark over Hawk-Eye GAA decisions due to ‘restrictions on use of commercial branding’

It is the week before the announcer reports on the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final between Armagh and Galway at the stadium.

Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling and volleyball.

It visually tracks the trajectory of the ball and displays a profile of the statistically most likely path as a moving image.

RTE has been using the technology for over a decade to broadcast GAA matches at Croke Park.

However, when the BBC broadcasts the same match, no replay is shown, leaving viewers in the dark about key decisions in the matches.

When the Hawk-Eye replays are broadcast, the logo of current Croke Park sponsor Specsavers is shown on screen for TV viewers.

A BBC NI spokesperson said it cannot broadcast replays using the technology to show replays of parts of GAA matches due to “restrictions on the use of commercial branding”.

Hawk-Eye was initially given a two-year trial at Croke Park in May 2013, and was given a place at Semple Stadium in Thurles in 2016, before a temporary spell at Páirc Uí Chaoimh the following year.

The GAA had hoped for a good start to 2012, but a number of controversial decisions added to the pressure, including a Colm Cooper try that looked like a point in a 3-10 to 1-15 Allianz Football League defeat to Dublin the previous year.

Last year the GAA discontinued the Hawk-Eye score detection system for the All-Ireland quarter-finals at Croke Park in July.

The existence of an error became apparent when Monaghan’s Michael Bannigan had a kick referred to Hawk-Eye. It looked like it had gone wide on the replay, but the stadium’s screen flashed the message “Hawk-Eye data unavailable”.

In the end, there was no major issue as Monaghan beat Armagh on penalties. The Orchard County side have redeemed themselves, however, and will face Galway next weekend — their first final since 2003.

Boss Kieran McGeeney praised his bench after the extra-time win over Kerry. He said: “It was good to see a lot of guys coming off the bench, especially in extra-time — that was really decisive for us.”

In the other semi-final last Sunday between Donegal and Galway, Hawk-Eye were brought into play when Michael Langan’s shot was confirmed wide for Donegal. The match ended 0-15-0 to Donegal and 1-14-0 to Galway.

The start of next Sunday’s final is at 3:30 PM.

The match will be shown live on both RTE and BBC Two NI