0:00

Off the Ball, this is

0:03

Newstalk. Now

0:06

then,

0:06

you're very welcome along. It is Tuesday's Off the Ball

0:08

coming at you. We are busy tonight. Premier

0:11

League season is very much upon us. So,

0:14

Jonathan Wilson and Philippe Auclair are

0:16

on the way after 9 o'clock to the football show,

0:18

very much back open for business. For

0:21

a second week in a row, myself, Mick Will and

0:23

of course Professor Arthur O'Dea will be along after 8

0:26

to chat through your emails on a slight tangent. And

0:29

there have been some big names emitted from the

0:31

South African World Cup squad. So, World Cup winner

0:34

Joel Stransky will check

0:36

in

0:36

with us on how our South African counterparts

0:38

are prepping for the World Cup. 53106, the text number. We

0:42

are at Off the Ball on Twitter.

0:45

Now, point of order. We will

0:47

do the news round very shortly with Mick and

0:49

Richie in due course. But first, an announcement

0:51

to make here on Off the Ball. There is, from

0:54

tomorrow, a significant

0:57

change in how you listen to Off the Ball. In

0:59

particular, how you listen to us on demand. To

1:01

that end, it is not half past 7 in

1:04

the morning, but Gergil Roy is here

1:06

in studio. I was about to say very welcome, but

1:08

I mean... Hey, Gergil. How are you? It's very much your patch as

1:10

well. So, anyone on social

1:12

media may have seen the announcement already. And

1:15

I suppose both of us, the

1:17

team at large,

1:19

feel in no way comfortable putting

1:21

out an announcement and not chatting it to

1:23

people. There is an intimacy in what we do

1:25

here. In short, listening to

1:27

Off the Ball on demand,

1:30

so our podcasts, our YouTube

1:32

videos, etc. That is moving to

1:34

a subscription-based model. That

1:37

is the announcement. Yeah, exactly. And look,

1:40

I'm going to open the kimono a bit here. We were

1:42

in two minds about whether or not we should have this conversation because

1:44

ultimately this isn't that big a deal in terms

1:47

of how the media works. But

1:49

we do feel like we

1:51

really need our audience and we love our audience. They've

1:53

been a part of our broadcast

1:55

track record for 20 odd years here in this show. So,

1:59

I feel like we ought to...

1:59

it to them a little bit to bring them along with

2:02

us and explain a bit about the process

2:04

that happened here. Look,

2:07

the broader context of this is the way of the world

2:09

is moving towards subscription. I think INM

2:11

went subscription in 2018. Over the last 12 months, you've

2:13

had the examiner and the 42 go

2:16

subscription.

2:17

And really during COVID, what happened,

2:19

so we make our money in a couple of

2:21

significant ways. Everybody knows we don't get any funding

2:23

from the government. We don't seek

2:26

any, but we do take advertising.

2:28

Our sponsors

2:30

stayed with us during COVID, but we make money as

2:32

well from a thing called solutions. And this

2:35

may be too much detail for people. But

2:37

during COVID that stopped. We weren't doing road shows.

2:39

We weren't going out and making videos. We weren't making short

2:41

podcast series. And

2:42

so we realized at that stage, if we wanted

2:45

to continue to invest in content, if we wanted

2:47

to continue to find the next Tommy Walsh

2:49

or the next Joe Malloy, that we were going to need

2:52

new sources of revenue. And we

2:54

started golf weekly and the response from the golf weekly

2:56

listenership was incredible. So then a year

2:58

later, we surveyed our audience last August,

3:01

we put a survey into the field and over a

3:03

thousand off the ball podcast listeners came

3:05

back to us and gave us a really clear

3:07

indication that they will be willing to pay for content

3:09

and that we could have a deep, very

3:12

deep relationship with these

3:12

people that they were listening three, four or five

3:15

times a week. And that they respected

3:18

the work that we put into a point where they would

3:20

value us if we were to ask

3:22

them to pay for it. Like

3:24

everybody charges for content now, apart from

3:26

the government funded models, you know, everything from

3:30

as I've already talked about the most recent examples,

3:32

but I think maybe the Guardian or the last, the

3:34

last holdouts against this. So

3:37

yeah, and I understand there'll be a grieving process for

3:39

some people, but we're not going away. No.

3:42

So like it just even to give the brass

3:44

tax of the thing, the cost is 9.99

3:46

per month. And

3:49

for that, it's all our on demand content.

3:51

So give or take on an average week, 60 podcasts

3:54

a week, all

3:54

the YouTube videos, those post-match interviews,

3:57

you name it, everything on demand, as

4:00

you please. We should say if you're like

4:02

how does that work on the radio, the radio show is still here.

4:04

You'll still be here. Seven days a

4:06

week. You don't have to put coins into the meter.

4:09

The radio show is here seven days a week and

4:11

what's more OTBAM is very

4:14

much live and free on all

4:17

our platforms in the morning as usual from half

4:19

seven Monday to Friday. You

4:21

won't be able to listen

4:22

if you're like me, if you get up at a more reasonable

4:25

hour. You won't be able to listen exclusively. Yeah, you

4:27

won't be able to listen back on demand, but it's their free

4:29

like a radio show. Exactly. Yeah. So

4:32

that is the free offering and then 9.99

4:35

is everything. Yeah, exactly.

4:37

And like over the last while we've added a suite

4:39

of podcasts, Rugby Daily, Football Daily, they're

4:41

all still going to be free. They're short form podcasts. So it's

4:43

our long form stuff. Any of the interviews that we do, any

4:46

of the features that we do, like again,

4:49

probably a bit too much information, but frequently our

4:51

interviews will run a bit long. We can't shut

4:52

ourselves up. We ask questions that are supposed

4:54

to be, and the full thing can never fit on the radio

4:57

anyway. So we've been putting those on podcasts,

4:59

but they'll be exclusively available to our subscribers.

5:02

And now on when we announce road shows and

5:04

events, they're going to be exclusively for our subscribers

5:06

first. That's the first place that you'll be able to get tickets.

5:09

And if they don't sell out, then they'll go on general release after

5:11

that. So look, there's loads

5:13

of benefits, but again, to be sustainable

5:15

into the future, to give ourselves some independence

5:17

when it comes to creating new strands or

5:20

programming, particularly around some niche

5:22

audiences that

5:22

might not have corporate support. I

5:25

should take a moment to say that like, we've

5:27

done brilliant work with our sponsors. We wouldn't

5:29

have Roy Keane and Gary Neville without the support

5:31

of Cabrie. We wouldn't have sold out Croke Park without

5:33

the support of AIB. We wouldn't have sold

5:35

out the crowd that we did at the Borghash Energy

5:38

for the herding final without the support of Borghash

5:40

Energy. So we'll continue to work with corporate

5:42

partners. It's a hugely important part of our business, again,

5:45

because we don't get government funding, but

5:47

we do need help from our audience. We

5:50

want to continue to develop new strands of programming.

5:52

And this is a very straightforward thing. I hope

5:55

it doesn't feel like I'm explaining too much. No,

5:58

no, I, because I, I, I, I,

5:59

pull back the curtain a touch. I'm

6:03

a slight concerned, do you need to be here and explain this in

6:05

terms where there's... it's a

6:08

touch apologetic. I think most people

6:11

understand it's

6:13

a very straightforward situation but equally

6:15

we do appreciate it's quite an

6:17

intimate relationship we have and so... We

6:20

trust them. Yeah, there's a degree of over

6:23

explaining. It's coming in, it's

6:25

out of good faith. People stop you in the street and they

6:27

say we love your show. Do they? They

6:31

always think I'm you. I

6:35

should say that like there's

6:37

a couple of special offers. If you use the Off The Ball

6:39

app you get your first month free. If you use

6:41

an Apple you get a week free. If you

6:43

sign up for the year it's £99.99 which works out at eight quid

6:47

a month which is two

6:49

quid a week for 60 podcasts. It's

6:52

good value.

6:52

We're definitely not apologetic

6:54

about that. The value is banging. Okay,

6:58

very good. Well that is the situation

7:00

from tomorrow. I know we're springing this

7:02

on your touch. If people want to

7:05

sign up where do they go? You

7:07

go to offtheball.com

7:08

forward slash join.