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Accy Chairman’s letter to EFL about ifollow


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1 hour ago, Rotherham Owl said:

 

It isnt good for business to move your loyal season ticket holders out of their seats just to make a few extra quid. Can you imagine the uproar on here if that happened. There is also policing and security issues.

 

This is about ASFC not us. If say they were to play Ipswich on a Wednesday night. Ipswich have a descent away following but it is a long way. Some for many reasons, may think as it is on ifollow I will watch it on there rather than take the afternoon off work and travel all the way to Accrington and spend £25 on the ticket. Thus meaning ASFC are out by £25 plus any sundry spends.

 

Now some may not have gone anyway and watch it on Ifollow generating additional viewers. Loss on income is on the home side increased income is on the away side.

 

I don't believe that ifollow will reduce the live attendance at the stadium. It's just someting completely different, if you have the atmosphere in the stadium or if you watch a game on TV. 

IMO ifollow viewers will be mainly additional supporters and additional income. 

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2 hours ago, Rotherham Owl said:

 

Not sure I agree with you with the "our IP" the IP is the filming and distribution, we are contractually obliged to play by the EFL and cannot refuse. If the IP is us playing then we already give that a way for free as we don't get any of the away ticket sales.

 

Accrington are correct that there needs to a more equitable way of splitting this new income or at least a discussion by the EFL on how to do it.

 

True we are contractually obliged to play, and we don't get any of the away ticket sales. However if it came to Accrington having their own streaming service, we could refuse for that stream to take place unless we were financially rewarded for it. Sheffield Wednesday PLC most likely hold the image rights for the club, and therefore we have the say to how they are used.

 

I was talking broadly about I.P. I know that the club itself isn't the I.P. but if they are being televised, they become part of the that intellectual property (AFAIK). I've had to sign contracts before whilst working as an IT contractor to release any I.P. that I created as part of my role. I'm sure football isn't that black and white, and quite possibly more complex due to other agreements and/or legislation.

 

One could argue, why should a club like Accrington reap equality from the sales of a live stream, sold on the channel and platform of another club? This doesn't sound like it's ever been a deal where iFollow say (for example) "we are buying the rights of all EFL matches for £Xm" and that is distributed evenly to each team in their respective leagues. It's down to the individual clubs to sell their side of the stream, with their own commentary, and therefore they are the ones who should benefit more.

 

I would imagine that we probably get between 5 and 10 times more revenue than Accrington from iFollow. We won't give up that figure just because they want a bigger slice of the pie. So iFollow would have to pay out larger sums to placate the smaller teams (in terms of fan base), which means they would have to raise the prices of each stream. Which would possibly drive the sales figures down, especially in the current climate.

 

Whilst I understand the need for clubs to maximise revenue, and sympathise with Accrington is some respects, it sounds to me like they are unable to compete financially with other teams in the league and are simply looking for more handouts.

 

 

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Not totally sure about the income part of things.  My argument back would be that a North American consumer of iFollow it would only make sense that my club would make some portion of my subscription fee (which the literature provided seems to imply).

 

As far as I know, the video portion of the live stream is not available (dodgy workarounds excluded) to the average UK supporter.

 

Is iFollow the perfect solution - probably not.  You can survey all the Owlstalk members overseas that use the service if they really have issues with the opportunity to finally be able to watch our team LIVE...

 

The MLS model is totally different from the EFL model BUT the streaming service coming next season is a big step forward.  DAZN, TSN, Fox Sports, MLS Network, will all suffer the loss of MLS for at least 10 years.

DAZN in Canada will "struggle along" with their exclusive rights to Premiership Football (they took the broadcast rights away from Sportsnet a couple of years ago).  They broadcast every single NFL game but don't have exclusive rights to NFL....    

 

The times are changing.  I believe iFollow will eventually be taken over by a streaming network globally - (YouTube, Apple, Amazon etc)....    Will we ever see Owls TV - who knows...  you can't even hail a DC Cab or pick a case of Elev8 but I digress......

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4 hours ago, Daizan10 said:

 

 

The travesty here for me is that someone who is CEO of a football club doesn't know that this should be were and not was. LOL

Seriously though, if he thinks Accrington can make more money by supplying their own service, they shouldn't be forced into it. Sunderland had their own streaming service and didn't use iFollow, so it must be possible, 

 

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Was he having a session  in Magaluf.?..could do a Zoom call....in fairness he has a point, EFL do want their own way, certainly don't do us any favours..makes you wonder why the clubs put up with them.

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1 hour ago, Harrysgame said:

Was he having a session  in Magaluf.?..could do a Zoom call....in fairness he has a point, EFL do want their own way, certainly don't do us any favours..makes you wonder why the clubs put up with them.

No choice. EFL will spout that they are the clubs, but it's all driven by incompetent leadership and undue influence of a few select club owners. 

 

The problem is, there is no credible alternative. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, fpowl said:

Im Not sure how it’s split down 

 

does each club get a percentage of the I follows they sell?

 

what happens to match by match subscriptions?

 

personally I think there’s too many ways to pirate the streams 

 

there’s households all over the country that just pay £30-£60 a year and basically have all I follows, pay per view events, movies, box sets, sky sports, Bt sports etc…,

 

not saying it’s right but it’s easily accessible than paying the ridiculous fees the official channels charge. In the event of this, that’s surely lost revenue for everyone?

 

my guess is the club gets the seasonal subscriptions but match by match goes to the team hosting the game or that’s how it should be 

 

but it doesn’t cover the vast amount of Accessible pirating that goes off.

 

you can see why Accrington is aggrieved by this if 8,000 people are tuning in across streaming platforms to watch some of their biggest grossing games ( like when we play them ) they want compensating accordingly 

 

by pulling themselves out of the deal it might reduce the chances of them being streamed illegally and it weakens the I follow package. If more teams did this I’m sure someone will find a loophole around streaming it but it would certainly make people think twice if they can’t access 10-15 games a year because it’s unavailable.

 

it sounds like all they want is a bigger piece of the pie which is understandable it’s games like Accrington where ticket allocations are low that our fans turn to I follow 

 

plus with the cost of living as it is more and more people will no doubt be choosing to watch games online than attend that cold winter night fixture and spend £30 plus for the game in costs when they can watch it on their sofa in the warmth for £10 

 

 

I think the clubs gets 8 quid and ifollow 2

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2 minutes ago, Beighton Owl 87 said:

Must be thinking of the manager. Chairman sound more like Peter kay than a scouser lol

Chairman is an Accrington lad born and bred.

 

Had to laugh at everyone making comments about his grammar/writing ability as my dad taught him in primary school! 😂

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4 hours ago, fpowl said:

Im Not sure how it’s split down 

 

does each club get a percentage of the I follows they sell?

 

what happens to match by match subscriptions?

 

personally I think there’s too many ways to pirate the streams 

 

there’s households all over the country that just pay £30-£60 a year and basically have all I follows, pay per view events, movies, box sets, sky sports, Bt sports etc…,

 

not saying it’s right but it’s easily accessible than paying the ridiculous fees the official channels charge. In the event of this, that’s surely lost revenue for everyone?

 

my guess is the club gets the seasonal subscriptions but match by match goes to the team hosting the game or that’s how it should be 

 

but it doesn’t cover the vast amount of Accessible pirating that goes off.

 

you can see why Accrington is aggrieved by this if 8,000 people are tuning in across streaming platforms to watch some of their biggest grossing games ( like when we play them ) they want compensating accordingly 

 

by pulling themselves out of the deal it might reduce the chances of them being streamed illegally and it weakens the I follow package. If more teams did this I’m sure someone will find a loophole around streaming it but it would certainly make people think twice if they can’t access 10-15 games a year because it’s unavailable.

 

it sounds like all they want is a bigger piece of the pie which is understandable it’s games like Accrington where ticket allocations are low that our fans turn to I follow 

 

plus with the cost of living as it is more and more people will no doubt be choosing to watch games online than attend that cold winter night fixture and spend £30 plus for the game in costs when they can watch it on their sofa in the warmth for £10 

 

 

Maybe it's up to bigger clubs to stand up to the EFL, won't be too concerned by AS.

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4 hours ago, GermanBird said:

 

Here's some info from during the pandemic. The rules might have changed in the meantime.

 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/efl-ifollow-streaming-revenue-explained-18975658

 

As far as I understand 70 % of the revenue goes to the clubs,  30 % to ifollow.

 

Out of this 70 %:

The home club keeps their own subscriber's money + the money of the first 500 guest supporters 

the guest team gets the money for all subscribers, which exceed the 500 people mark .

 

 

Thanks for that interesting read that 

ma

it be interesting too if the EFL or I follow released some financial data on that on how clubs have done from it 

 

I suppose where the difference comes in is how much has it effected attendances and that’s too early to say because we had a lockdown season starving fans from grounds which bumped last seasons attendances up 

now we are in a financial crisis so that must pay a part 

 

then second way to look at it where does the ticket money for matches go to in running costs and are those running costs reduced enough to make I follow prices a positive revenue stream 

 

basically if a club is getting 70% off the I follow money that’s effective £7 profit is that more profit than a £25.00- 30 ticket? I’m sure some clubs will know where there money and revenue is spent 

 

I’m pretty sure ours won’t 🤣🤣

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26 minutes ago, Harrysgame said:

Maybe it's up to bigger clubs to stand up to the EFL, won't be too concerned by AS.

It sounds like the bigger clubs benefit 

if the bigger clubs get 70% of the fee

 

I’d be interested to know how many monthly/ yearly subscribers we get because that’s 70% of that 

 

then I’d be interested to know how many away match by match subscriptions we have because over 500 then we start getting 70% of that figure too

 

I wouldn’t be suprised if we sell about 2,000 match day I follows for every away game on top of the monthly or yearly subscriptions

 

that 1500 I follows at 70% of £10 every away game or 10.5k in revenue 

 

I also wouldn’t be suprised to hear we have 15000 monthly or yearly subscriptions and what’s that about £40 per month? That’s £420,000 per year

 

not a bad bit of business over £500,000 per year and we still have big attendances, and sell out away games

 

 

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44 minutes ago, mirodo said:

Chairman is an Accrington lad born and bred.

 

Had to laugh at everyone making comments about his grammar/writing ability as my dad taught him in primary school! 😂

Yeah he’s a top man, never watched a football game until he bought the club, he bought it to save it as a community asset and did a lot before in getting people active in the community 

 

he knows Accrington’s level and potential and only wants to run it for its community and as a sustainable business 

 

he’s proper level headed infact they don’t have corporate matchday hospitality like most clubs so he orders the chippy for the directors box when hosting away teams 

 

I think he’s done great with them, can’t fault him at all 

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Andy Holt is an absolute drainer

 

Claims to be part of the moral elite when it’s clear all he is angling for is Accrington to get more of the share from others

 

I don’t care about him wanting that, it’s the moral outrage and performative ethics that grate on me

 

One of the very few people I’ve followed and then actually unfollowed on Twitter

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