TELEVISION FIGURES:THE GAA has confirmed an increase in television viewer figures, on both RTÉ and TV3, for the first three months of this year's football and hurling championships .

Recorded figures for the months of May, June and July show a year-on-year increase of 44 per cent, one per cent and nine per cent respectively.

The aggregate viewer figures for the 2010 campaign show an increase of 29 per cent, up from 8,466,000 for 37 games to 10,947,000 for 43 games. The average figure, game by game, showed an 11 per cent rise.

“The June figure was recorded at a time when 64 World Cup games were televised live,” read a statement from Croke Park.

“The most watched games in the first three months of the championships were the Munster hurling final replay of Cork versus Waterford on July 17th (469,000 average/655,000 peak) and the All-Ireland football quarter-final meeting of Dublin v Tyrone on July 31st (412,000 average /507,000 peak).”