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All-Ireland hurling final between Cork and Clare to be broadcast to its biggest-ever audience

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The Liam MacCarthy Cup pictured with jerseys of Clare and Cork

The All-Ireland hurling final on Sunday will be broadcast to its largest live audience ever with the game being shown on BBC 2 for the first time.

Last year was the first that incorporated BBC as part of the new rights distribution with both All-Ireland senior finals being shown on the BBC Northern Ireland and the iplayer.

Tomás Mulcahy previews Clare v Cork

The semi-finals have also been shown on BBC Northern Ireland for the last two years.

But now the reach is set to extend across the wider network, potentially pushing the game into 27.3 million homes.

Even a fraction of that could double the numbers watching the game between Cork and Clare, opening up the sport to a new audience.

Last year an average of 830,000 watched on RTE 2 as Limerick completed four-in-a-row against Kilkenny with 1,125,000 million overall viewers. More watched it on RTE2+1.

The All-Ireland finals were broadcast live by Sky Sports since 2014 but the reach on a pay-per-view channel would not be close to what it is on the BBC network.

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