Anyone who's watched the club channel in the past year will know all about the routine amateurism, erratic scheduling and shambolic technical cock-ups that have made it such an embarrassingly inferior outlet to most other top clubs' channels. Well now it's supposedly being 'upgraded,' meaning that there are no live programmes, just re-runs of old games, whilst fans are urged to be 'patient'. But behind the scenes several people have been laid off, a few presenters have quietly dropped any mention of the channel from their twitter and facebook pages, and the rumour is that coverage of reserve and youth games will end due to the cost of it all.
But instead of a clear and honest explanation of what is really going on, the club has gone all Kremlin-like and kept quiet. This after loads of poor punters have gone to the expense of paying for a new, much-hyped, TV/online package that was mainly sold to them, only a couple of months ago, for its exclusive access to live coverage of reserve and academy games, along with news and studio discussions, most of which is now inaccessible during the supposed 'upgrade'. (And who the heck 'upgrades' a club TV channel during, rather than before, a new season?? That's as witless as trying to repair a road during rush hour.)
The club's always been piss-poor in communicating with fans, but this is supposed to be a bright and shiny new age of FSG PR-savviness. So why don't they just explain things? Is that so hard? They're being bombarded by angry and confused fans asking what's going on, and they're remaining silent. And in spite of being part-owned and run by a man, Tom Werner, who is a hugely experienced TV executive, the media side of the operation - the one aspect that you'd imagine he'd have an interest in showing his expertise - is a bloody shambles.
Relatively trivial in the great scheme of things, I know, but it still depresses me a bit. We rightly laugh at the laminated fakery of Chelski and City but at least they now behave, in this aspect, with far more professionalism than we do.
But instead of a clear and honest explanation of what is really going on, the club has gone all Kremlin-like and kept quiet. This after loads of poor punters have gone to the expense of paying for a new, much-hyped, TV/online package that was mainly sold to them, only a couple of months ago, for its exclusive access to live coverage of reserve and academy games, along with news and studio discussions, most of which is now inaccessible during the supposed 'upgrade'. (And who the heck 'upgrades' a club TV channel during, rather than before, a new season?? That's as witless as trying to repair a road during rush hour.)
The club's always been piss-poor in communicating with fans, but this is supposed to be a bright and shiny new age of FSG PR-savviness. So why don't they just explain things? Is that so hard? They're being bombarded by angry and confused fans asking what's going on, and they're remaining silent. And in spite of being part-owned and run by a man, Tom Werner, who is a hugely experienced TV executive, the media side of the operation - the one aspect that you'd imagine he'd have an interest in showing his expertise - is a bloody shambles.
Relatively trivial in the great scheme of things, I know, but it still depresses me a bit. We rightly laugh at the laminated fakery of Chelski and City but at least they now behave, in this aspect, with far more professionalism than we do.