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Boro+HD to be closed this summer


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This: "Phase Two features a new matchday service that will include audio commentary, a live blog, live photos, added video features, including all the match reaction and the post-match press conferences, and will offer the most comprehensive match coverage available."

 

There is already a solution on the table for live HD streaming through the EFL iFollow. Its available to all football league clubs and requires that a fan just logs on through the Boro website. To claim that pictures and live audio is the best available is just a lie. Who wants to look at pictures in this day and age.

 

iFollow might help you out BD but for the majority of us, living in the UK, we won't benefit. Only half the clubs in the Championship have signed up to iFollow anyway, it's not just us. And when you look at who it caters for, can we be so surprised?

 

From how I see it, even if we wanted to, all this work on the digital solution will have started late 2016 at best. We were still in the Premier League and would not have been preparing our digital solution for the worst case possible. Guess who else didn't sign up for it? Hull City and Sunderland. Same deal there too.

 

It would have been pointless and cost inefficient to build our website to cater for a solution that we might not have been able to provide. Given the level of changes made, this was clearly a lot of work and could have been around 6 months worth minimum, including all the development and user agent testing phases. Can tell you now that the hardest and likely most expensive work done on websites comes when trying to integrate third-party services, which is precisely what this is.

 

And that's all there is. iFollow which caters to supporters explicitly outside the UK. There's nothing else from what I've seen. I'm pretty sure setting our own up would involve all sorts of licensing commitments and would also likely be a very expensive deal, not your typical £4.49 subscription.

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This: "Phase Two features a new matchday service that will include audio commentary, a live blog, live photos, added video features, including all the match reaction and the post-match press conferences, and will offer the most comprehensive match coverage available."

 

There is already a solution on the table for live HD streaming through the EFL iFollow. Its available to all football league clubs and requires that a fan just logs on through the Boro website. To claim that pictures and live audio is the best available is just a lie. Who wants to look at pictures in this day and age.

 

iFollow might help you out BD but for the majority of us, living in the UK, we won't benefit. Only half the clubs in the Championship have signed up to iFollow anyway, it's not just us. And when you look at who it caters for, can we be so surprised?

 

From how I see it, even if we wanted to, all this work on the digital solution will have started late 2016 at best. We were still in the Premier League and would not have been preparing our digital solution for the worst case possible. Guess who else didn't signed up for it? Hull City and Sunderland. Same deal there too.

 

It would have been pointless and cost inefficient to build our website to cater for a solution that we might not have been able to provide. Given the level of changes made, this was clearly a lot of work and could have been around 6 months worth minimum, including all the development and user agent testing phases. Can tell you now that the hardest and likely most expensive work done on websites comes when trying to integrate third-party services, which is precisely what this is.

 

And that's all there is. iFollow which caters to supporters explicitly outside the UK. There's nothing else from what I've seen. I'm pretty sure setting our own up would involve all sorts of licensing commitments and would also likely be a very expensive deal, not your typical £4.49 subscription.

 

I am obviously gutted we didn't sign up for it either, but iFollow is for everyone but people in the UK. We have no idea how much this solution would cost for Boro, and what such a contract entails. Maybe the infrastructure was comprehensive and expensive. Maybe that infrastructure didn't translate well to the PrL. 

 

For now, I'm willing to give Boro the benefit of the doubt.

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From what I can get via the iFollow website is that users simply just log on through their club website and then iFollow does the rest. It's a 110 pounds a year and they can see how many supporters come from each club, so could be an extra income for boro. I'll admit I dont know the finer details and maybe it's not possible to integrate with the boro website.

 

I understand that it's not possible for boro to make their own streaming due to broadcasting rights etc but when there is an option to broadcast live to fans outside I really think they ought to look into that. It's extremely difficult and expensive to get to games with flights, hotels and whatnot when you live outside England, so this was a real possibility to cater for the fans who live abroad.

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But again, not something that Boro will have even known they could have access to until they were relegated. I mention again that we are not alone there. Both Hull and Sunderland didn't sign up for it either. I'm 100% convinced that is not a coincidence. We weren't a member of the EFL when they will have been speaking to clubs about it.

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Some clubs definitely stream their own games though don't they so it clearly can't be impossible?

 

Like who? Was it Fulham we saw on their streams 2 years ago or something? Who else do we know who have domestic websites with their own streaming service?

 

The fact is though that we're not falling behind other clubs digital offerings. We're actually very much up to date given that we've just moved from one entity to another for the 2nd year running (between the PL and the EFL).

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But again, not something that Boro will have even known they could have access to until they were relegated. I mention again that we are not alone there. Both Hull and Sunderland didn't sign up for it either. I'm 100% convinced that is not a coincidence. We weren't a member of the EFL when they will have been speaking to clubs about it.

 

They will have known. There's no way they didn't know about this feature. I think they simply didn't find enough grounds for investing in it. I assume Boro would have to pay some sort of fee, or invest in infrastructure. I doubt iFollow would have the capital to implement such an infrastructure in all clubs in the Championship (and below?) Let's not forget it's not a free feature with iFollow forwarding free money to clubs based on how many members sign up.

 

EDIT: https://worldsoccertalk.com/2017/05/09/efl-ifollow-faq-need-know-football-leagues-new-streaming-service/

 

Maybe I should just shut up. It does say, however, that clubs can choose to provide their own streaming service for overseas fans. Here's hoping.

 

From EFL's website:

"Those clubs who have not will have access to the same live streaming opportunity and will be able to provide their fans with access through their own club digital services.

 

We are therefore unable to provide subscriptions to fans of Accrington Stanley, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Bristol City, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Fulham, Hull City, Forest Green Rovers, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, QPR, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Please contact your club for more information."

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Why would the club spend money on a feature that can only be used by people outside of the country in which it's based?

 

Surely if you're going to provide live streams of matches for people outside the UK then you have to provide the same service for people within it?

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Why would the club spend money on a feature that can only be used by people outside of the country in which it's based?

 

Surely if you're going to provide live streams of matches for people outside the UK then you have to provide the same service for people within it?

 

Well I mean..obviously not or the service wouldn't exist (:

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Why would the club spend money on a feature that can only be used by people outside of the country in which it's based?

 

Surely if you're going to provide live streams of matches for people outside the UK then you have to provide the same service for people within it?

 

That's not in the power of the club though. But, EFL have effectively sold the TV rights to overseas fans on the cheap, but are unable, or rather unwilling to do so for UK fans. 

 

It's a lot more complex than we make it out to be. For instance, if Nottingham Forest, who has opted in on iFollow, is broadcasted in the US or Europe, fans subscribed to iFollow will not be able to see the match on iFollow as the rights have been sold. 

 

I assume this is EFL's way of penetrating an untapped market that is overseas fans of EFL clubs. They are unable to secure a nice deal as the interest is generally low, but by offering the services/rights on a subscription basis allows them to gain some interest/money, clubs can raise goodwill, and in general raise awareness of the league overseas. 

 

As I understand it, Middlesbrough are free to do this themselves and not through iFollow. I assume EFL have largely left the rights to the games free for everyone to negotiate with their own overseas fans, only limiting the availability should any match be picked for overseas coverage (remember how it was always an American/Canadian/Saudi TV station showing the games?)

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I've sent an e-mail to the club, will notify you all if I get a response.

 

I have mailed he club about it twice in two months without reply. I even spoke to AV about it over Twitter and he couldn't get an answer (if he actually asked). He thinks the club have gone with the Premier League solution, or something like that.

 

When iFollow came out I think they said surveys showed that hundreds of thousands of fans from EFL clubs live outside UK so there is a pretty big market there for a subscription based solution. They've done the groundwork and boro only need to provide a login for fans through their website. It is very easy to see how many subscribers boro generate so I assume they will get a cut.

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It's still got to be part of the plan to develop the website though. It's got to be within the scope of development. And that scope, if managed correctly by the company who developed the site, would not change drastically throughout the phases.

 

There's also the aspect of non-disclosure that we haven't mentioned. It's entirely possible the club has already enquired about setting such a service up and are discussing it with their development partner but can't speak about it at the moment because it's not costed or signed off by people within the club to speak about. Which could explain why no answers have been provided from within the club either.

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