Football Media

In recent years a proliferation of football podcasts has emerged. Many are associated with media outlets: The Times, The BBC, The Guardian, etc. Some are podcasts produced and distributed by football clubs or leagues. Examples of this include the weekly Chelsea podcast or the Bundesliga report. Others are homespun efforts produced by fans for fans.

If you are a fan who wants to develop and record a podcast, it can be a time consuming and expensive proposition. But it can also be an extremely rewarding experience. Fan produced podcasts tend to have more of a hard core following among football fans. While download and listenership numbers lag behind the media and club produced shows, the actual following for homespun efforts tends to be more intense and more loyal.

No one size fits all formula for podcasts exists. However, there are certain parameters and limits that should be suggested to make a new show successful.

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Posted by: Guest Authors Posted under: Football Blogging, Football Journalism Comments: 1

Following your favourite football team live can become quite a challenge if you’re not living in the same country. Watching football online is one option, but more than highlights and clips there is also the option to watch football online live, and in many cases, watch live football online for free.

This season’s FA Cup provides the perfect example. ITV.com and ITV Local have made highlights of the early rounds of the 08-09 FA Cup for free making hundreds of matches involving non-League clubs available to large Internet audience. Since the competition has begun, over 300,000 videos have been viewed and this number is expected to be dwarfed by future demand once more popular teams get involved in the later stages of the Cup.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Internet Comments: 0

The 2008 Soccerlens Awards have started. Voting starts next week, with the winners announced on 15 December 2008.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging Comments: 0

Sportech have bought popular football news website 4thegame.com for £600,000.

Sportech said the website, which has 700,000 monthly users and an international customer base, would provide a platform to cross-sell and market its range of soccer games. Fast Web Media, which is led by chief executive Michael Flynn, will continue to provide operational and creative expertise to 4thegame.com.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

Update: Then again, maybe not. MyFC have called a ‘Special General Meeting’ to discuss changes to the Society Rules which if accepted, would allow MyFC to collect membership fees monthly as opposed to annually. An economic crunch makes it less likely for people to financially invest in a club they never supported in the first place…

I’ve been hard on MyFootballClub’s case, partially because I don’t believe critical decisions should be entrusted to a vote but mostly because when they first took over Ebbsfleet United, MyFC did not deliver on their promises.

In time though, they HAVE come through in several ways and have found a way to involve paying members, empower them and regularly put key decisions to the owners for debate (and voting).

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

Soccerlens editor Steve Amoia recently had the opportunity to interview respected investigative journalist and film maker, Mr. Andrew Jennings, whose recent book, “Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals” painted FIFA in a hue that many at the world governing body would have rather not seen. Mr. Jennings is one of the few journalists who have written extensively about the inner workings at FIFA.

What follows is Part 1 of the hour-long interview, where Andrew and Steve talk about football journalism and Andrew has some hard-advice for aspiring journalists and bloggers. Parts 2 to 4, which deal with the inner workings at FIFA, are present on Soccerlens (along with the full audio of the interview).

Steve Amoia: Mr. Jennings, welcome to Soccerlens. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today.

Andrew Jennings: Pleasure to be with you! Let’s go.

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Posted by: Guest Authors Posted under: Football Journalism Comments: 1

The 2008 Soccerlens.com Writing Contest is now open. Here are the details.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging Comments: 0

Want to make money writing about football?

You mean they’re going to pay me for ranting and raving like a moron? Sign me up!

Blogging and the self-employment opportunities it offers (fewer than most people realise, but still) is an attractive proposition. Add the emotional escapism that football offers (if in doubt, think of the double life that Football Manager owners lead as real people) and you might have *some* idea of the ‘rush’ football fans get when they think about running their own football blog.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Football Business Comments: 2

The Football Media forum (http://forum.footballmedia.com) is a place for football bloggers to:

• Network with other football bloggers
• Get info on how to get more traffic to their site from search engines, social media and other sites
• Learn how to make more money from their blog
• Hire writers / get a blogging gig
• Get links to your content

and plenty more.

Visit the FM Forum, sign up and join in the discussion. Hope to see you there soon.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Site News Comments: 0

ITV, along with BBC, Sky and Setanta, is one of four major options for UK residents for sports programming. Currently ITV Sport hold the rights to Champions League football (shared with Sky Sports), FA Cup action (shared with Setanta Sports), rights to the next two World Cups (jointly with BBC Sport), plus exclusive rights to UEFA Cup football (quarters onwards) and rights to Football League and Carling Cup action as well (these will switch to BBC in 2009).

All in all, there’s a lot going on at ITV especially where football is concerned. In July 2008 ITV relaunched their website and their online content / promotion efforts. I think you’ll find (and Marc confirms it in the interview) that ITV is much more video-centric than it’s rivals, and as a branding strategy it’s hard to argue against it.

(If you’re interested in more sports, see itv.com/sport which shows off what other sports they have, including F1, other motorsport, cycling etc.)

Earlier this week I caught up with ITV.com head of content, Marc Webber, to talk about what football fans can expect from ITV in the coming months. Mr Webber is responsible for all web content, whether it’s social drama or football, and I was interested in finding out how ITV saw itself in relation to the industry as a whole and football fans in particular.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0