• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

LFCTV: Another way the club shafts the fans

Forums New posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
gkmacca

gkmacca

6CM Addict
Member
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.
 
Our priorities do seem all over the shop. So much could be done with the channel if the club actually tried.

I used to turn it on every now and then and watch it for a bit, but now it doesn't even enter my consciousness
 
I hear it'll come back in high definition (although with a more basic service for the foreseeable future), but the lack of any real engagement with the fans about it is pitiful. These days any company needs to be clear and quick in telling people what's going on, but we're still as bad as we were in the 1970s.
 
I only watch the full match reruns. Occasionally an u21 game. HD would be great but I guess it wouldn't be free on sky anymore.
 
I really missed the 40 min highlights, it was just the right length. They also got rid of the the "big brother" camera in the tunnel during the game, which could seem boring but was actually quite interesting
 
It's sad, because if it worked really well it would surely be more cost-effective at building and maintaining the fan base than the annual tours and similar ventures. And when they did make an effort they produced the odd decent programme (the Ronnie Moran doc, for example, is up for an RTS award). But most of the time they really sleptwalked their way through the schedules, and acted as if they didn't even know much about how football works (I mean, who on earth decided that a Friday night big match build up show would work better on a Thursday??).
 
My main if petty gripe has always been about the state of the highlights of the youth games.

Firstly, why 10 minutes, and not, say half an hour? Do they really have so much content that they couldn't stretch to another 20 minutes??

Secondly, if you take out 2 minutes at the start poring very slowly over the team sheets, and 4 minutes of them replaying virtually every attempt on goal about 3 times, no matter how tame, then you only get about 4 minutes of actual action from the match. Is there anyone working there at any stage of the production who has just an ounce of common sense and/or idea of what the fans actually want to see??
 
If you look on twitter there's loads of people contacting the club to say they're so pissed off they're cancelling their subscription to LFCTV GO, and there's no response. A blanket silence from all involved. I find it a bizarre way to behave - just a short explanation would at least calm these people down, but instead they just let the speculation and complaints to proliferate.
 
Redmentv on youtube has better content and production value than the club channel. If I was Ian Are I'd just buy sign that dude up. Once I got over my shame of failure of course.
 
dantes said:
Redmentv on youtube has better content and production value than the club channel. If I was Ian Are I'd just buy sign that dude up. Once I got over my shame of failure of course.
Click to expand...

Yep - definitely a tactic that should be used... Even Google+ did this buy hiring a guy to run their Sports Hangouts division who was getting higher Hangout audiences from his own that he ran from his YT/ Twitter/ G+ presence.

No shame in saying "You clearly know how to engage the fans, we'd love to have you on board"
 
Ad you say Macca, it is very odd that Tom Werner, a man who made hundreds of millions and launched endless successful TV shows is in charge of the club and yet the TV channel is such a total shambles. Maybe he's finally had enough and is currently ripping the guts out of it to give it a rebirth as a decent entity. We can but hope. Although since that twat Matt Critchley left it's been infinitely better.
 
LFCTV should just hire that youtube guy who does the Stevie G, Carragher, Rafa etc impersonations.

And just have a 24/7 loop of him doing those impersonations over & over.

It'd be better viewing than the current content.
 
Darren 'Charley' Farley. Yes, his ability to make every Liverpool player sound either like Rafa or Carra is incredible. But he's moved on to higher things - that Coral betting commercial. So that leaves the apostrophe on a stick, Clur Rourke, whose hosting of apple bobbing on live TV won much praise from the controller of Radio 4; surrogate beard donor Peter McDowall, whose pre-match pitch-side announcements are always so welcome; TK Maxx specialist Sophie 'Brain Box' Fairclough; pretend commentator Steve Hunter's Chicken; and Bluto lookalike John 'Oh My Word' Bradley. What a lineup!
 
Aw, that's a bit mean on Darren Farley. He seems like a nice bloke and is IMO a genuinely talented impressionist.
 
gkmacca said:
Darren 'Charley' Farley. Yes, his ability to make every Liverpool player sound either like Rafa or Carra is incredible. But he's moved on to higher things - that Coral betting commercial. So that leaves the apostrophe on a stick, Clur Rourke, whose hosting of apple bobbing on live TV won much praise from the controller of Radio 4; surrogate beard donor Peter McDowall, whose pre-match pitch-side announcements are always so welcome; TK Maxx specialist Sophie 'Brain Box' Fairclough; pretend commentator Steve Hunter's Chicken; and Bluto lookalike John 'Oh My Word' Bradley. What a lineup!
Click to expand...


They should get Phil Neal on regularly to complete the set. Amazing full back, but starts a sentence not knowing how it will end. Or indeed what the third word will be. I start off listening to the editions of the 5times podcast he's on chuckling to myself but by about his third 'point' (normally involving the use of a former player's stupid nickname) I'm battling full rage.
 
Best Believe It said:
They should get Phil Neal on regularly to complete the set. Amazing full back, but starts a sentence not knowing how it will end. Or indeed what the third word will be. I start off listening to the editions of the 5times podcast he's on chuckling to myself but by about his third 'point' (normally involving the use of a former player's stupid nickname) I'm battling full rage.
Click to expand...

This actually made me laugh out loud.

Thank you.


*still laughing*
 
Best Believe It said:
They should get Phil Neal on regularly to complete the set. Amazing full back, but starts a sentence not knowing how it will end. Or indeed what the third word will be. I start off listening to the editions of the 5times podcast he's on chuckling to myself but by about his third 'point' (normally involving the use of a former player's stupid nickname) I'm battling full rage.
Click to expand...


Yes, I like those podcasts but as you say poor Neal makes speaking seem more hazardous an activity than bomb disposal. The pundits on the channel are not much better. Aldo sounds like football's answer to Freddie 'I don't know what's going off out there' Truman, and Davey Fairclough always sounds as though he's just been told before going on air that someone's kidnapped his cat. The only pleasant surprise is McAteer, who actually seems quite awake and alert now he's retired.
 
gkmacca said:
If he's doing Rafa or Carra, yes.
Click to expand...


That's just bollocks though. Carra isn't even his most impressive scouse Liverpool player one, which is Gerrard by a distance. But apart from that I've seen numerous attempts covering a diverse range of accents that I'd describe as good to excellent, as compared with the standard achieved by more famous professional impressionists. Examples include Peter Crouch, Roy Hodgson, Brendan Rodgers, Michael Owen, and Harry Redknapp.
 
peterhague said:
That's just bollocks though. Carra isn't even his most impressive scouse Liverpool player one, which is Gerrard by a distance. But apart from that I've seen numerous attempts covering a diverse range of accents that I'd describe as good to excellent, as compared with the standard achieved by more famous professional impressionists. Examples include Peter Crouch, Roy Hodgson, Brendan Rodgers, Michael Owen, and Harry Redknapp.
Click to expand...


God, Peter, you really do take things seriously. The bloke to me is a good impressionist for someone you'd meet down the pub. You think he's worthy of his own TV show. Fine. Agree to differ and relax.
 
Funny convo...

Anyway, i'd hope they do some research into what fans would actually want to watch on LFCTV. It is a given that you can't get live first team games but surely there would be things like:

  • First team game extended highlights
  • Interviews from players and staff post match
  • Full Press Conference footage
  • U21 & Youth Team Games Live
  • Highlights of U21 and Youth Team Games - 20-30 minute highlights WITH analysis
  • Something to do with training e.g. highlights from training on a monthly basis
  • Monthly recap of goals and 'highlights'
  • Player interviews - both first team and U21/ Youth
  • Loan watch - highlights of our players who are on loan e.g. A weekly update of highlights and discussions about those out on loan.
I don't know what the channel does to date but things like this would take my interest. They could either fill the time in between with 'classic' game highlights, or just with nothing and not have anything on!
 
They're hiring more kids at the moment to host the children's output. That's about it. The problem with channels like these is that the most competent people, understandably, soon move on to higher things, so only the mediocrities hang around. Then again, other club channels pay more, so there's a bit more attraction there for young talents, and the energy is better. But as you say, live reserve games, news, interviews, etc - it wouldn't take that much thought to improve what the channel does.
 
gkmacca said:
God, Peter, you really do take things seriously. The bloke to me is a good impressionist for someone you'd meet down the pub. You think he's worthy of his own TV show. Fine. Agree to differ and relax.
Click to expand...


I just know the people on this site well enough to be sure that if I'm not absolutely precise and full in explaining any position I take, no matter how trivial, then someone will fill in the blank with some kind of misapprehension or deliberate twisting of the truth.

It's reasonable that someone might challenge that stance by wondering whether it's actually any better to be seen as correct but very humourless than as someone is likely to misrepresent me. My answer to that objection is twofold:

1. I find the first less annoying than the second
2. There's a heavy element of sarcastic humour in posts like this that the pedant in me is comfortable seeing go undetected.
 
16993-131.gif
 
gkmacca said:
Yes, I like those podcasts but as you say poor Neal makes speaking seem more hazardous an activity than bomb disposal. The pundits on the channel are not much better. Aldo sounds like football's answer to Freddie 'I don't know what's going off out there' Truman, and Davey Fairclough always sounds as though he's just been told before going on air that someone's kidnapped his cat. The only pleasant surprise is McAteer, who actually seems quite awake and alert now he's retired.
Click to expand...

McAteer's a real puzzle. While still a player he always seemed to be made of mahogany from the neck upwards, but his interviews have been spot on for years now. Maybe when he was younger he just felt he had an allotted role to play off the field as well as on it.
 
I miss Ian St John being on there, he obviously has his own personal battle but his appearances were a highlight for me. The absolute terror in the eyes of the presenters that he might slip in some non-PC anecdote or use vaguely racial language was riveting.

I wish him well and hope the TV channel has the guts to ask him on again.
 
jexykrodic said:
I miss Ian St John being on there, he obviously has his own personal battle but his appearances were a highlight for me. The absolute terror in the eyes of the presenters that he might slip in some non-PC anecdote or use vaguely racial language was riveting.

I wish him well and hope the TV channel has the guts to ask him on again.
Click to expand...


He hosts the 5times podcast every now and again, if you need a St John fix at all, and is often on when McAteer is hosting.
 
He's in very poor health at the moment, so hopefully he gets better. A social dinosaur, yes, but certainly legendary LFC player.


By the way, more jobs advertised for the channel, which makes the reluctance to clarify its future even dottier:

  1. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV are looking for a senior news editor http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC
    View summary

  2. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV after a promo producer http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC Lots of other jobs available too
    View summary

  3. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV are after an admin assistant, plus a media manager to look after the digital and tape library http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC
    View summary

  4. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV want a Head of Technical Delivery and Media Development http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC (Click on 'search' at bottom of page)
    View summary

  5. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV after a VT editor and camera operator. Just click search at bottom of page http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC
    View summary

  6. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    @SportSJA #LFCTV looking for an international TV producer. Just click search at bottom. Closing date Oct 17. http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC
    View summary

  7. Alex Kunawicz ‏@AlexKunawicz 19h19 hours ago
    #LFCTV looking for an international TV producer. Just click search at bottom. Closing date Oct 17. http://www.liverpoolfc.com/jobs-at-lfc #LFC
 
All they really need are various highlights and the odd chat show with some people that understand football. It shouldn't be that hard. I don't like having to endure grinning idiot presenters on channels like Sky, let alone their shitter, less attractive counterparts.
 
Just had an email confirming it'll be £7 a month from 4th November on Sky. HD and 24 hours.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom