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pie-no-sauce
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| Post subject: Live broadcasts (radio) |  |
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We have a fairly large community of ex-pat members who rely on the live radio broadcasts for their pie top up each week during the season.
It is a must for me, and when I'm able to combine it with Nicks bully board sharing the highs and lows with Mike, Fradam, Swanny etc it does become a lot more "live" than reading ever could.
So then, to cut the waffle, I just clicked on the "Cummings Interview" (right hand side of CFC web site - under multi media)and was totally unimpressed at being faced with a "members only entry box". Shikes whats going on. Investigation soon revealed that the membership (circa $50 AUD) is centred around radio broadcasts.
What is the latest policy, does anyone know ? Are the AFL taking over all Radio broadcasts or will the independent radio stations be allowed to broadcast ? Presumably if they are they'll have to pay the AFL rights for same. All I want is to be able to listen - for free. I don't mind the AFL peddling radio, cummings type interviews and such like to make a buck but I just hope that the 3AW's and ABC's will still be available and freely available at that.
If anyone know I'd appreciate a quick info update...
While I'm on my soap box I must throw in a comment on the new "Collingwood Offical Web Site"(NOT). It is NOT a CFC site, it is an AFL site. It is a Telstra site. It is a bloody mess.
a) sure CFC have probably paid or contracted or whatever but it has lost ANY personal (club) identity.
b) the organisation and structure is hopeless.
c) it doesn't function correctly on a frequent basis. eg the Austentayshus interview drove me nuts as it would not load, and being a big fan I was shortchanged. Read todays injury update (under full page news / injury update on rhs) and you'll see Nathan's ankle of july 2001 being reported.
z) I'm browned off because we had the best site possible right here and it was (and still is) comprised of totally 100% CFC'ers and yet we've (well not us but our beloved CFC) sold out to the bland magastore image which is a vastly inferior product. (and the superior product is suffering tough times which have forced it to be curtailed).
Am I the only one who feels this way. I noticed a few squarks on the board but generally it was accepted... maybe it's just me.
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Mike 
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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My guess is that the contract between the AFL and Telstra grants exclusive broadcast rights to either the AFL or Telstra and licensees. Remember that Telstra is actually handing out cash to the AFL for the rights to official web services. Telstra are not, last time I checked, a charitable organisation and will expect a reasonable return on that investment. We all know, well... most of us, that the web does not carry a licence to print money, not in the way that was previously thought to be the case anyway.
Your experience, pns, and the following statement which has appeared on the ABC site tells us just where that revenue is expected to come from.
| Quote: | | And while the ABC's contract with the AFL means we can no longer provide calls of the game live on the web, you can log on to hear both the radio team's pre-match and post-match coverage live. |
The ABC either cannot justify the licensing cost or has been precluded in an attempt to guarantee an audience for the webcasts that generate revenue for the AFL or Telstra or both..
My experience is that people won't spend money on the web. There is an almost subconscious belief, that has grown out of free services supported by advertising, that services provided via the web should be free and there is consequent resistance to paying. People will spend money via the web, but not on web-provided services. For instance they will use an online auction site to find a material (tangible) item that they want and will then buy it online. Magpie Mail is a good example. If I had decided to build the business by offering free addresses to establish the customer base, I'm sure that we would now have thousands of subscribers and would have a very valuable asset for on-sale. The fact is that Magpie Mail is not for sale so we weren't interested in building an asset, we just needed some income. So we charge for the service, only a minimal amount, but a charge nevertheless, and people stay away in their droves.
I think that Telstra have been caught up in the hype and will discover to their cost that they cannot recover their investment in this exercise. Time will tell whether I'm right or not, but that is my prediction. We may never know, or at the very best will not know for years, because Telstra has the resources to run this at a loss for a very long time, budgeting on the operation becoming profitable years down the track.
In the meantime you can't blame the AFL or the clubs for taking advantage of commercial stupidity. There is no way that we can compete with an organisation that has the resources to hand out millions of dollars as well as providing the service. The quality of the service is almost irrelevant. Sportsview saw the writing on the wall and capitalised early by offering to do the sites for nothing and gaining 10 year contracts for five clubs. They then held very valuable commercial property as demonstrated by the quick and highly profitable transfer to Telstra.
This discussion has been going on at From the Outer for the past couple of weeks and I have followed it with great interest. They have been saying exactly the same things as you pns - that is "From the Outer has the skill and the passion that Telstra obviously don't have. Why aren't these guys doing the official site?" It's a fair question, but a naive one. Quality is no longer the priority in the commercial environment in which the clubs now operate. With Telstra establishing a monopoly and paying handsomely for it they are no longer under pressure to provide quality. You might say that the unofficial sites provide competition and that if Telstra fail to deliver then the traffic will go to them. A reasonable argument, but not supported by experience. You might remember that in the couple of months before Sportsview took over, the Club site was dead, all that you got was a 500 error message. At that time this site was fully functioning and carried live scores, live stats, the bulletin board, chat etc., but we only ever got a fraction of the traffic that that error message got. That experience is still relevant today. When the official forum was running, occasionally someone would mention Nick's or Hottie's or FTO and the majority of people there had never heard of any of them. People go to the official site and rarely get any further - that is the truth of it, so we will never be competition for anyone who has the right to use the official addresses.
Essendon obviously did not sign an exclusivity contract with Telstra because they are still running their own site - they have both. They were pioneers in recruiting the fans to do the job that only fans can do and back in 1997 gave the job of creating the official site to a guy who ran a fan site. No other club has done that. The closest has been Geelong who adopted the unofficial fans forum as the official forum for a short while, but then abandoned it because they were scared shitless of the legal exposure that resulted from running a live forum, they were also expected to answer difficult questions. Collingwood dabbled with it (thanks to Eddie) by running a link to Magpies Net from the front of the official site last year. That has now gone.
Sorry pns, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I've been bashing my head against this particular brick wall for years and have now become a cynic. One day I'll tell the story (I think I've already told you some of it), but not yet.
[This message has been edited by Mike (edited 02 March 2002).] |
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London Dave 
Ješte jedna pivo prosím
Joined: 16 Dec 1998
Location: Iceland on Thames
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Strange world, I was discussing the internet radio and other related things at dinner last night. A few bottles of chateau détruisez mon estomac left me none to confident of free web radio in the foreseeable future.
I'm pretty sure the AFL charged for this service a year or two back, only to drop it last year, presumably because they made no money out of it. I thought about paying the $50 bucks but won't on principle. All I want is match broadcasts...couldn't give a fig about the other bits and pieces, and seeing the state of the AFL site, can I actually trust them to provide a quality feed?
I actually do pay $US10 a year for baseball audio thru MLB. It used to be free, but I get any game I want, on a reliable stream. (I actually listen to baseball when working late/early. I find it fun, believe it or not)
Last year, the ABC was reliable, but 3AW's was very ordinary. The price isnt the issue, its the principle that it should be free, and the inability of AFL/Telstra to provide a quality product.
The only people using the internet broadcast would be expats like myself, and people who are "in the wrong state", where they wouldnt get terrestial radio coverage of the match. I may be corrected here, but I don't see a massive market for net audio casts. With every match being on some form of TV, I can't see many people in Oz having to rely on a net based service for their dose of fooball. As Mike correctly pointed out, Telstra wont make any dough with it (especially if their 'quality' remains as it is), but they probably aren't all that concerned about that at the moment.
Again, its pretty obvious Telstra rode into town with a sack load of cash, the AFL (and all clubs bar Ess) took the moolah, and 'the fans' get 'screwed'. I don't blame the clubs, it's a business after all, but you need to tread carefully in order not to alienate your 'customers'.
Well, still feeling the effects of last night, so I'm rambling, but nonetheless pretty hacked off about having to pay for this service. (Which, if you are listening AFL, I wont.)
[This message has been edited by London Dave (edited 02 March 2002).] |
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pie-no-sauce
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Mike. Yes you are 100% spot on re the business issues driving the club-net-product,,, I was just bring it up as frankly I hadn't heard or read too much objection to the abyssmal effort produced by Telstra. And mate yes, you have sent me the inside story so I can verify what a chaotic course the whole evolution has taken. Long term though, I hope you are wrong as I'd love to see a cfc dedicated site or working association of nick's/hotsters/drivers/fto ,,, anything other than a stereotyped mess as we have at present.
Dave. Agree entirely nad feel somewhat jaded at the prospect of a long season without coverage. I paid 100 AUD some 2 years ago and then it only worked very infrequently. Ironically they'll not receive my contribution either but NAG (name a game) and Nick and Hotty will all receive my support coz their products are better and reliable. [previews and instantaneous event information from the sites and a wonderful video recording posted over from Oz] I almost forgot, we now have ABC Asia Pacific back in production so we get football from Aunty all week-end. Some weekends I'll be lucky enough to see the black and white. Adieu. Trust it was a pleasant drop.
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