Queen’s University has launched a Gaelic games festival which begins today(February 13th).The event has been created to mark the fact that Queen’s University is making history by hosting the Sigerson, Ashbourne, Fitzgibbon and O’Connor Cup finals – in the same year, at the same venue. It is expected to be the largest sporting event in Northern Ireland this year. Also for the first time ever, live streaming coverage from online TV platform, Aertv, will be available for 14 of the matches, marking an innovative digital direction for Queen’s.
Queen’s GAA Festival will run across consecutive weekends, beginning with Camogie’s Ashbourne Cup. Live streaming coverage will be available for Ashbourne Finals day (16th February), Sigerson Semi Finals Day (21st February), Fitzgibbon Semi Finals Day (28th February) and O’Connor Cup Semi Finals Day (21st March). Fans will be able to watch on mobile devices and it is accessible worldwide through Aertv and the GAA festival website on a Pay-per-day basis (Ashbourne and O’Connor are priced at €4 per day; Sigerson and Fitzgibbon are priced at €6 per day. A full Festival pass for all the live streaming coverage is available for just €12).
Speaking about the addition of live streaming coverage this year, Queen’s University organiser, Karl Oakes said: “Queen's are proud to work with Aertv to bring some part of the competitive action to the comfort of people’s homes. For too long, some key sporting events have been difficult to access to a wide audience of keen sports men and women. We hope this innovative schedule of live streaming will enhance what is already one of the largest sports events to take place in Ireland in 2014. We also aim to create opportunities for our students to provide commentary on games which should be interesting for the viewers, far and wide!”
When talking about the partnership with Queens, Aertv’s director Philippe Brodeur, stated: “We're delighted to be partnering with Queen’s University to give fans the ability to watch the biggest sporting festival of the year wherever they go. This is a historic event and we are constantly looking at new and innovative ways of providing exciting content for our customers in 2014. With over 2,000 players and thousands of supporters converging on Queen’s playing fields, we think there is a real appetite for live streaming and on demand access.”
Aertv has covered over 30 sports and over 500 games since their first live sporting event in July 2012 (a live stream of Ireland v South Africa in association with Irish Hockey). The site gets an average 500,000 streams per month with live Sport being the number 1 driver of traffic with over 40% accessing the service on mobile devices.
Aertv Sports are currently viewed in 180 countries. The company has strategically positioned themselves in the online sports broadcasting industry in Ireland by working with organisations including Cricket, Basketball, Squash, Tennis, Athletics and clubs including Fingallians GAA to achieve TV coverage online like never before. Aertv provided exclusive coverage of Katie Taylor’s homecoming fights in Dublin and Bray, stepping in when other channels refused to broadcast the Olympic Gold medal winner’s return to the ring.
To follow the event on Twitter, use the Hashtag #GAAFestival and follow @Aertv @AertvSports and @QUBGAAFestival
Live streaming coverage will be available to purchase on http://sportslive.aertv.ie/
For more information on aertv.ie or to arrange interviews or photos contact:
The Aertv Press Office:
Orlagh Marnane – omarnane@aertv.ie
-NOTES –
Queen's University is making history with the creation of a GAA Festival. No other university or college has ever hosted all four of the major higher education Gaelic Games tournaments in the same year
A select number of matches from across the festival will be live streamed for the first time ever, marking a new digital direction for Queen’s
Aertv SportsLive offer a one-stop shop for sporting organisations, universities and clubs to showcase their events to a worldwide audience through its live and video on demand platform
Aertv is Ireland’s only free alternative to Saorview where viewers in the Republic of Ireland can watch all the Irish channels online for free on their PC or laptop.
Aertv is the winner of a Digital Media Award – winning the Best in IT & Telecommunications and also picked up a Bronze certificate for the Best in Innovation.
Aertv is available to watch online on PC/laptop by visiting www.aertv.ie. It currently streams 15 channels live: RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3, 3e, TG4, RTÉ News Now, RTÉjr, RTÉ one+1, France 24, DCTV, Dail Eireann, Aertv Music, Aertv Movies, Aertv Sports, Aertv Live and Unravel Travel.
Aertv Plus is a subscription package that you can sign up to for only €5.99 a month and get access on all your devices, 9 extra channels including BBC One, BBC 2, BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News, CBBC, CBeebies, France 24 and Russia Today and HD quality streams – https://www.aertv.ie/register/
The new Aertv SportsLive brings together all sports on one platform. Organisations and clubs have the ability to own their own page, interact with Social Media and attract advertisers and sponsors with their online video to monetize their content. Each sport can take control, increase their reach worldwide and gain TV exposure by signing up to the new service – http://sportslive.aertv.ie/
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**Visit: http://sportslive.aertv.ie/queens-gaa-festival-2014-schedule/
