#offtheball

[thedanperry]

Clayts @aclayts8 Boro v West Ham @premierleague #efl #football #soccer #tenacious #midfielder #premierleague #cameraman #ontheball #offtheball #footy #sales #cameraforhire #middlesbrough #westham #uk (at Riverside Stadium)

[juuuliejulie]

Rugby sure! #offtheball #newstalk #heineken

[offthe-ball]

OFF THE BALL WINTER SCARF NOW ON SALE

http://offtheball.theshop.jp/

Photo : Asami Nobuoka

[wearestarcom-blog]

Radio and Newspapers – an unlikely marriage?

After much speculation, the popular former Off the Ball presenters will soon be returning to the airwaves. However, the famous five will make their return in a somewhat different broadcasting format than expected; they will form a partnership with The Irish Times.

The partnership highlights the fact that newspapers are no longer as we know them. Although many reports predict the demise of newspapers, this is not the case. Newspapers are simply changing from the former print version into various different formats and offering consumers valuable content in new innovative ways. This was touched on in our 2013 outlook document, where we refer to newspapers as news media, recognising the ever changing face of the paper. But what does this mean?

Newspapers are increasingly under pressure from their two revenue streams as circulation continues to fall, and so does advertising. The changing nature of newspapers as they adapt to the digital environment means they are constantly trying to diversify their online offering. The Irish Times new partnership is the perfect example of how a news media organisation can boost its online engagement and ultimately create valuable content. The Irish Independent has already signed a partnership, where they broadcast footage from RTE. As technology improves, this broadcasting will become more common. Fionann Sheehan said recently in a talk that he ultimately wants to be able to film and edit coverage as it happens. This isn’t journalism and newspapers as we know it.

All this brings us back to what news media must do. They must create content worth paying for, beyond their current offering.  We can already see popular news titles, such as The New York Times, in other countries having success through online pay structures, essentially valuing their own content. Ireland will soon be following in their footsteps. Creating these new and innovative online offerings gives scope for the introduction of future paywall structures.

Looking at The Irish Times partnership with the former Off the Ball team, we can see just how much this could potentially benefit the title. Off The Ball brought an average of 43,000 listeners per show, with 11,000 of these being in the 15-34 year old age demographic- an audience The Irish Times and most newspapers struggle to capture. The partnership also gains the title extended reach outside of the Dublin area, where over half of their readers are based. 11,000 Off The Ball listeners come from rural areas and 14,000 come from outside of Leinster. The audience profile of The IrishTimes.com is somewhat different than the audience profile of the printed version with 46% of users falling into the 15-34 age bracket, compared to 24% of the printed versions readers. Could this mean that these younger audiences may start to read the printed version as well? Could the online readers be converted to print readers? We don’t know yet, but it is something we have seen before - The New York Times increased readership of their print version after the introduction of their paywall on their online site. Only time will tell what the partnership will bring for the Irish Times but we believe the key to news media is exactly this creating unique and engaging content to bring new audiences and extend their reach. Ultimately though they need to attribute a value to their platforms... good news doesn't come for free. 

[wearestarcom-blog]

Off the Ball goes off the air....

Wow...that was a bit of a surprise! Even George Hook himself tweeted about the ‘Off the Ball’ team resigning saying he “did not know about it and found out at the same time as the rest of the staff”. Here’s what we do know: the OTB team wanted to move their show to start weekdays at 6pm, taking an hour off ‘The Right Hook’. Management said no, seemingly for commercial reasons, so the entire production team behind OTB walked out on the station.

Currently the last hour of George Hook’s show has an average quarter hour listenership of 37,000 – a number which drops another 9,000 when OTB comes on. Compared to Hook, Moncrieff, and the lunchtime show, it also has the lowest listenership at 61,000. You could argue that the numbers just don’t justify an OTB move to 6pm (against an ‘All Adults’ base, ‘The Right Hook’ has 4% of the audience while OTB have only 1%). Then again, the OTB team have received numerous accolades, for all intents and purposes are the only radio show of major import in the country, and have a strong online following. Looking at it from an advertising perspective, moving the show up an hour would have shortened primetime advertising radio hours (7am – 7pm) and reduced income from advertising. Can we blame Newstalk for saying no? What else is a business but a means to make money? There are numerous arguments you could make for and against a switch, but we think the more interesting question is: “what now”?

We had a good auld chat about this in Starcom. The team could move to another station maybe. They could be really risky and move to a ‘podcast only’ format. They could all just go their own ways if they really wanted to! Moving to another station seems like a logical option but we have to consider various elements. All the national stations have their timeblocks aligned with primetime hours (meaning none of them have a show starting at 6). So moving for an earlier timeslot doesn’t seem likely. RTÉ’s current post 7pm line-up would mean a much shorter show for the OTB team, not to mention the fact that they would risk cannibalising the listenership of their new ‘Game On’ sports show. Of course, who’s to say that ‘Game On’ is a priority for RTÉ? The show is only new, doesn’t have a sponsor, and hasn’t proven its listenership yet. Maybe 2FM could include Damien O’Meara as part of a new, expanded OTB panel...or even flat out replace him. It’s really down to whether 2FM want to back their new show as part of a long term gamble, or go for the proven runner in this race. On the digital side, the team could opt for a podcast only format and risk alienating their offline listenership, and weaken their own value proposition should they return to radio at a later stage. Beyond that, the problem with online radio at the moment is that the infrastructure to accurately measure listenership just doesn’t exist in Ireland, and consequently wouldn’t be considered a great revenue source.

One of the strongest target sectors for OTB is males 25 – 44, so maybe finding that audience on another station would be best. Adults 25 – 44 is Today FM’s bread and butter, albeit with a slightly female skew. Today FM’s 7pm – 9pm show is their weakest in terms of numbers (excluding late night), but if they could grab the OTB team, they would prevent RTÉ’s ‘Game On’ from growing and dominating the evening sports arena, take listeners from Newstalk, and bring in more male listeners all at once. No matter what station snaps up the team (if any at all – let’s keep in mind it’ll remain extremely unlikely any station will have a show running from 6pm on), it’s a decision they’ll want to make quick. This will be something to keep an eye on....

UPDATED

As we mentioned earlier, Newstalk is a business there to make money. So we wanted to look at this from management’s perspective.

OTB had a smaller listenership than the primetime Newstalk shows, so charging a PT rate for advertising in the first hour of a 6pm – 7pm OTB would not have been reasonable. Newstalk can sell 10 minutes of total airtime in the 6pm – 7pm hour, so working on the assumption that all 10 minutes are sold, we worked out that at rate card values, they can make €14,060 from ads on Hook 6pm – 7pm.

At the OTB rate when it was running, that show’s max profit between 7pm – 8pm (at rate card) was €6,000 (Hook 30 second ad = €703, OTB 30 second ad = €300). So let’s say, for arguments sake, that the cost for an OTB 30 second ad did go up to €400, the max profit is still only €8,000. That means per day, Newstalk would’ve lost €6,060, per week €30,300, per year €1,575,600. Financially it just did not make sense at all to move OTB. You can argue the social engagement piece of OTB would go some ways to making up the difference, but €1.5million is a pretty large number...