Championship Live

Championship Live
Presented by	Matt Cooper
Starring	Commentators: Mike Finnerty Seán Walsh Reporters: Sinéad Kissane Kieran McSweeney
Country of origin	Ireland
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	39
Production
Producer(s)	Ciarán Ó hEadhra
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Variable
Production company(s)	Motive-Asgard
Distributor	TV3 Ireland
Release
Original network	TV3
Original release	1 June 2008 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Championship Throw-In The GAA Show

Championship Live is TV3's main Gaelic games television programme. Typically, it is shown on TV3 on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons during the All-Ireland championships in both hurling and football, showing live coverage of the day's match.

In 2007 it was announced that TV3 had signed a three-year deal with the Gaelic Athletic Association which would see the independent station broadcast thirty games between 2008 and 2010. While Setanta Sports and TG4 had shown National League and club championship games before, this was the first time since 1962 that senior inter-county championship games would not be screened exclusively on RTÉ. TV3 also announced that Championahip Throw-In, a weekly magazine programme, would also be broadcast. All of TV3's new GAA-themed programmes were launched at Croke Park on 15 May 2008.

Following the completion of the initial three-year deal in 2010, the GAA were satisfied to give TV3 an expanded role in Gaelic games broadcasting. A second three-year deal saw TV3 get exclusive rights to broadcast eleven matches, albeit only one match more than the original deal, however, the deal now included All-Ireland football quarter-finals and both All-Ireland minor finals.

For the first series the programme started an hour before throw-in and remained on air for an hour after the end of the game. Championship Live was broadcast for the first time on Sunday 1 June 2008. The programme was broadcast live from the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick and featured the Munster Hurling Championship quarter-final between Clare and Waterford. The other games broadcast during the first series were the Leinster Football Championship quarter-final between Dublin and Louth, both Leinster Football Championship semi-finals, the Leinster Hurling Championship final, the Connacht Football Championship final, the Ulster Football Championship final and one game each from the three rounds of the All-Ireland football qualifiers.

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