iFollow Audio

[tim-sanchez]

I've been going back and forth with iFollow over email, and finally got them to understand that club are providing commentary but it isn't working with the video. They've placed the blame with the club:

"Unfortunately, it is not possible to listen to the audio-only product while also consuming the video. This is due to the fact that our service only allows one device at a time under one account.

We have shared your comments with your feedback regarding the functionality of this with our team.

While the club are providing commentary for audio-only, they are not providing the same service for the video. This was agreed upon by the club and, should you have any concerns regarding this, you can reach out to them for further communications."

After 4 away games in a row I miss hearing radio bias! Not sure if there'd be any use in the club feeding back to iFollow that they are happy for the commentary to be used on the video?

[RedRedWine]

I thought it was a club decision not to send away commentators unnecessarily to away games during a national lockdown? The correct one IMO. Instead, (delayed) away commentary is produced externally for audio listeners only.

iFollow trialled externally recorded audio and live video vs Bolton, but pulled it when it was out of sync and decided that it was poor quality product? I tend to agree with them - the lag was around 3-5 seconds, I turned it over to Bolton bias (which was poor for different reasons) after a couple of minutes as I found the delay was a bit frustrating.

Apparently you can open two tabs in your browser, and have the video playing in one and the audio in another. You have to manually sync this yourself to get the audio and video to match up, and adjust throughout if you experience Michael buffering. All seems like a lot of effort just to listen to Freez and Glen chat about ALDI branded biscuits..... but each to their own.

[tim-sanchez]

Apparently you can open two tabs in your browser, and have the video playing in one and the audio in another.

Unfortunately not, it's never worked for me even across two different devices.

I think iFollow should at least give us the choice of listening to out of sync commentary or not, since we are the paying customers after all!

[glagys]

On a side note
I’d like to know if we or other clubs have made any cash from the ifollow viewing figures, I don’t suppose we will have had over 500 watching against barrow so no cash there,???

[RedRedWine]

Andy Holt revealed Accrington Stanley viewing figures through ifollow after the first few games. At that time, after splits and revenue shares were considered, Accy was effectively receiving 29.3% of gross purchases for games they were involved in (before VAT, bolstered by away team purchases).

Generally they have 100-150 home subscribers (additional to season ticket holders), which doesn't seem to fluctuate much for away games. This is a bit odd, because they usually have 300+ redemptions for season ticket holders (450 total home subscribers). Obviously some people who are season ticket holders, don't bother with buying the away games through ifollow - probably because they know it won't benefit their club.

He said that whilst welcome, the iFollow income was a drop in the ocean. The first 7 games generated £63k of gross sales, of which they got to keep £18.5k (presumably this is gross, i.e. take off the VAT), and that ordinally they would've taken £70k (over-egged I think) on the day vs Rochdale (which was one of the fixtures in the 7) in gate receipts and ancillary purchases.

For home games their share represented between £2k and £6.5k (driven by away team purchases - just 109 from Fleetwood when they hosted the Codheads), and nothing to date from the away games.

Twitter: Andy Holt Status

[Freez]

We are in discussion currently about the possibility of resuming travel soon, otherwise it is as stated by RedRed Wine, apart from the cheap dig about Aldi biscuits, which are excellent as he full well knows.

We have been commentating from a live feed provided at the Mazuma, I have mentioned it on here, on Facebook and on the podcast, I’m sorry that you didn’t realise this, it’s nobody’s fault, it’s lockdown which has prevented us from travelling.
However, we will see what the next few games brings.

[Keith]

I've been going back and forth with iFollow over email, and finally got them to understand that club are providing commentary but it isn't working with the video. They've placed the blame with the club:

At least you got a reply! My email wasn't even acknowledged. Joys of monopolies, got your money, you can't go anywhere else, so ***k it

Exeter & Bolton commentary were dreadful, Freez & Glen three seconds behind would have been far preferable. Actually, if you spend time with Freez, you'll soon realise that if he's only three seconds behind, he's on a good day.

[Freez]

Is it 2006?