Newstalk: Off The Ball

How does this work with their sponsors who presumably will be seeing a massive drop in the number of ears and eyes on their products?

Pushed the not govt funded line for sure but also said at one point they don't seek any either.

Just launched a new partnership with William Hill today by the looks of it, lol.

Find this decision odd in general - there's definitely a way to offer subscriptions on certain areas at a cheap enough rate (2.99 per month for football and sunday paper talk I would probably pay) but 10 when so much of what they put out is filler and barely distinguishable from pub talk, that does not help the argument (slight tangent-type stuff really wears thin and would put you off listening). When Gilroy says about the amount of "content" they put out, sometimes quality matters too.

This has always bugged me. The hand wringing that they do about gambling but yet there’s this and that infernal cash machine on their station. Would dip in and out of the show on occasion but not enough to justify a tenner a month.

You can on official nt go loud app

Just checked youtube, looks like nothing except a few clips to watch now as of yesterday. Except Coygig podcast, but I saw that this is not included in the subscription model.

It's bizarre how poorly communicated this has been and how unclear it still is as to what exactly will or won't be available.

Pity they have gotten ahead of the themselves at OTB towers charging €10 per month, €5 per month is fair in my view. Always enjoyed listening to Joe on the football show but that's me out after 10 years of listening.

Article is paywalled but you get the idea from the headline, good luck to them with that target.

https://www.businesspost.ie/news/off-the-ball-aims-to-convert-25-of-listeners-to-paid-subscription-model/

"Judicious". Is that you Joe?

I am a long term OTB listener and even remember the night the Second Captains guys abandoned the ship. I thought it was like the end of the world at the time but developed an affinity for the new OTB team, or some of them.

I like Will O'Callaghan (the only one of the whole team with a deep interest in hurling), Joe Molloy and Adrian Barry. I can't stand Ger Gilroy (arrogant, "its only a tenner a month", smug, thank god they shipped him off to the AM show), Nathan Murphy (the big obnoxious thicko from Mayo thinks he's some hero and everybody shut up and listen about life growing up in Ballyhaunis), Dave McIntyre (guy who threw his kids scooter over a ditch in a park according to an episode of the Dadcast....) and don't really like Shane Hannon very much (for the 40,000th time I'm from Monaghan) even though I liked how he pushed Kellie Harrington for an answer that time. Arthur is good and considered and doesn't speak much until he thinks, Mick McCarthy is like the guy whose good craic in the pub. The weekenders like Dan McDonnell are good.

Some of the shows on Spotify are good - Hurling Pod is excellent, Sunday Papers is great depending on who is doing it and I like the Newsround for the wrap-up of everything and a bit of craic sometimes. A Slight Tangent is great for the variety and that you don't know where the discussion will go. But all are dependent on Joe Molloy or Will O'Callaghan presenting them because the others are not very good. I think they know their limitations too because they didn't even have A Slight Tangent when Joe was off recently.

So in summary, on no planet am I paying a tenner a month for it. There's enough good free content out there and I'll find something else to listen to - its a saturated market already. If they can't make money out of it with advertisement revenue then its time to scale it back and go for quality over quantity. I'd never want to listen to a sports show at 7am in the morning and only listen back if there's something on Spotify that piques my interest.

My main sport is GAA anyway so its season over until April really as far as podcasts are concerned. I do like the individual interview with a sports star now and then but can get plenty of them elsewhere. I'm not big in to rugby, golf or football so can take or leave them so that's 80+% of the show for the next 8 months anyway.

How Shane Hannon is given a lost on anything is beyond tragic.

Mick McCarthy is like the annoying lad you went to school with who's opinion is the be all and end all of the debate.

It's decent enough to listen to for free but paying for it? It'd be like paying for tap water to be honest.

Joe was very forceful in saying that the allegations made towards Vera warranted a suitable response from the FAI in suggesting that they were going to look in to the allegations appropriately.

He was very critical that the FAI came out with PR type statements very quickly to respond to the various breaking stories from the US. And he said the show reached out to the FAI asking detailed questions. I really don't think they could have done any more on that story to show that they felt Pauw had questions to answer.

Also, 50% of the people on the planet are women, dismissing that as something people have no interest in only once again makes me feel sorry for any daughters any of you may have.

Caught the tail end of the opening segment of the show tonight and the lads banter was in full flow. I have no idea what that McCarthy lad adds to anything but he has an incredibly annoying laugh and seems to find everything hilarious.

Anyway 'lads bants' aside good to hear John Giles weekly words of wisdom. I really hope his Thursday night slot doesn't go behind a paywall. But even if it does i have decided i won't be spending any money on a subscription.

Infairness, Joe did ask questions and was slammed online for "preaching".