Newstalk: Off The Ball

Yep, realistically all anybody is going to listen to is a few of their favourite sports and interviewees, and not much else. For example, I bet there are football fans who listen to John Giles and nothing else. I sometimes listen to it myself with my passing interest.

With the exception of Joe Molloy and Will O'Callaghan who seem to be the only ones with the ability to get the best out of guests and regular pundits, the rest of them vary from so-so to bang average to god damn awful. They forget their job is to facilitate and challenge occasionally, instead it often seems they want to make it their own and as you say Ger Gilroy is just the epitome of this. Some of them also talk so fast its hard to understand their question - Nathan Murphy and Ger again being the worst for this.

It will be very hard to row back from here if it goes pear shaped.

You'd miss the paper review pod tbf

Speaking from both sides of their mouths

You might be able to listen to it without a subscription. Try going to the goloud website and search off the ball and then go down to Podcast Series and then find OTB Daily with the new logo and it is currently there subscription free

Not working this morning

Yep, still works

They can certianly row back from this model and just admit that they got it wrong if things don't work out. It just seems like the laziest approach they could have taken 10 quid across the board for everything rather than selling pick and mix bundles if you like. 3 sports for 6 quid a month or something like that. 1 sport for 3 quid. Have it tiered so the football is more expensive perhaps.

I'd imagine their were tensions in the OTB camp about this hence the rush and haphazard announcement.

Again no issue with them selling their content but I won't be paying 10 quid a month for all of that when I will only listen to a fraction of it. I won't even be doing that now.

Has anybody here actually subscribed? Myself and multiple friends/colleagues were regular listeners but not a single person has subscribed.

No. Not a hope.

Asked 4 friends over the weekend.

Out of 5 of us including me, 1 was a possible “Will think about it”, everyone else definite no.

People mostly watch for football and talksport very much have that covered.

I wonder how much money they were making off ads and no subscriptions? Would there have been enough money in it to sustain all those involved? Really wondering if they had to try this or would staying free to the consumer have been viable.

Have gone a week now without any OTB coverage apart from a few short clips on Twitter I've seen. And to be honest I haven't missed it as much as I thought I would. Definitely no urge to pay €10 a month anyway. I actually think most of their regular contributors are pretty poor and/or gone stale at this point. Your Pat Nevin's, Kenny Cunningham's, Alan Quinlan's and the Keith Wood's of this world. I'll miss the likes of Daniel McDonnell, Jonathan Wilson, Tim Vickery, etc, when he's occasionally on but you can usually find most of them elsewhere. And even though Joe Molloy is a consummate professional you have a pile of other lads there like Shane Hannon, Colm Boohig and Mick McCarthy that you could find sitting on a bar stool in every pub in the country pontificating about sport over a few creamy pints. At least in the pub you wouldn't have to pay them to listen to them.

Was out with a group with a few hardcore listeners at the weekend. The way Ger Gilroy talked about it being "only a tenner a month" p****d everybody who heard it off. His attitude was so "we don't give a s**t what you think, either subscribe or tough" when describing it that I think we all said well I won't be giving that pr*ck a tenner. His talk about 60 podcasts, etc also got a response "yeah but I only listen to about 5 of them".

I think if he hadn't been so bullish and arrogant and the pricing had been better he might have had a chance.

The few lads who are big football fans have already moved on. Apparently there are apps where you can record the show if you wanted to but meh, I couldn't be bothered personally.

If Joe Molloy (the only A++ presenter on the show) and Will O'Callaghan (the only guy with a serious knowledge of a range of sports) leave the building everything to do with Off The Ball is absolutely screwed. If they set up their own podcast for a fiver a month I'd sign up to it.