Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

JuanJose

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Hard to disagree with any of that. They have been out of action for 8 weeks and the best they could come up with in that time is a podcast for an hour a week.

Will it be just an hour though? I haven't seen a podcast duration mentioned anywhere yet.

Loafing Oaf

Triangular wrote: »

ithey can setup an independent podcast and add sponsors to the show. Not quite sure how these sponsors will put bread on the table for them all,.

In the words of Han Solo, that's the real trick. Should actually have guessed this, with Ken being taken on by the IT, and their general altruism towards out-of-work journos. I guess it's good that they're in some form of employment but I'm not wildly enthused about this 'project'...

Cazale

JuanJose wrote: »

Will it be just an hour though? I haven't seen a podcast duration mentioned anywhere yet.

But the question remains as to whether a one-hour weekly podcast can reach the heights (or the audience) attained by their previous incarnation.

Will you be tuning in?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/ojsnmhgbmhcw/

heybaby

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I thought they were fired?

Am I wrong?

I thought they walked.

Aidric

Agreed on the post calling the gamble a backfire. Real shame.

Anti climax vibes.

wnolan1992

Disappointing. But on the bright side I suppose at least we'll get to hear them back together again.

I wonder will we hear any more of this TV show idea... not beyond the realms of possibility that they'd do a once weekly podcast on Tuesday's ala Football Weekly (except covering more sports obviously) and then maybe do a show on RTE... unlikely I suppose, but here's hoping.

I'd have to agree with heybaby. The gamble definitely seems to have backfired spectacularly. I can't believe five guys would jack in their jobs over such an issue with nothing substantial lined up.

Tombo2001

http://balls.ie/news/the-denis-obrien-eoin-mcdevitt-phoncalls/

"Neither side would budge and McDevitt received another phonecall telling him that his services were no longer required. "

Ol' Donie

Ol' Donie wrote: »

Actually burst out laughing when I read that.

Anyway, just put it where you used to have 106. Simple.

Edit: having said that, i'm not at all comfortable with the idea of accidentally putting it on when i'm driving in the morning, only to hear hector do his crash-inducing "let yourself go" schtick.

Rahoo! Rahoo! Rahoo!

Tombo2001

From balls.ie

"Denis O'Brien called McDevitt and gave him a lecture on how to do business".

Cazale

The clutch sentence on the Irish Times story on this seems to be the last one: ‘This month, the only place to hear the Second Captains is with irishtimes.com’. It seems this is merely a temporary arrangement, and we are told to expect more from the team as the week progresses so keep your dial tuned to Balls.ie in the meantime..

http://balls.ie/media/off-the-ball-join-irish-times/

mike65

Hmmm, still desperately trying to find a gig then.

I'm sure ACjimbo and company are under no threat if only as they only cover football and are podding to a different market.

heybaby

Tombo2001 wrote: »

From balls.ie

"Denis O'Brien called McDevitt and gave him a lecture on how to do business".

Oh the irony of O'Brien lecturing anyone about how to do business, last time i looked phantom , 98 fm and newstalk were all on their knees, OTB was the only good thing about newstalk.

armchair fusilier

I wasn't expecting that! Have The Herald really got it so spectacularly wrong? Clutching at straws time - this bit is very curiously worded...

This month, the only place to hear the Second Captains is with irishtimes.com

What happens next month?

heybaby

armchair fusilier wrote: »

I wasn't expecting that! Have The Herald really got it so spectacularly wrong? Clutching at straws time - this bit is very curiously worded...



What happens next month?

This article might answer the question.

http://ourmaninstockholm.com/2013/05/07/lines-blurred-online-as-second-captains-return/

JonathanAnon

They left their jobs so that they could work once a week as podcasters!! I think the guys hugely overvalued themselves. The made the fatal mistake of thinking that they were inexpendable ...

I think Mark Horgan and Simon Hick in particular, who really have no profile at all, have made a huge misjudgement on this one. Walked out on good jobs in the hope that somebody will swoop in and employ all five of them.

Any impetus that the OTB 5 had when they staged their coup has been completely lost simply by the fact that they have been dormant for such a long time.. well a long time in media terms where things move on so quickly..

Btr

heybaby wrote: »

This article might answer the question.

http://ourmaninstockholm.com/2013/05/07/lines-blurred-online-as-second-captains-return/

Yeah, they've got a weekly Times podcast.

JuanJose

Cazale wrote: »

But the question remains as to whether a one-hour weekly podcast can reach the heights (or the audience) attained by their previous incarnation.

Will you be tuning in? Ger Gilroy is listenable but only just.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/ojsnmhgbmhcw/

I will be, yeah.

I'm no expert but, to answer your question, a weekly podcast won't reach the heights of their time on Newstalk. But it'll keep them on the the air in some format until something else surfaces. I'd imagine that's the idea.

If RTE had known what was rumbling over at NT, I'd imagine they'd have stalled the ball with the launch of "Game On" on 2fm. Not saying they'd have taken on the entire OTB5 but it was an opportunity missed for both parties.

uRbaN

Well, its great that they are back even if it is only once week.
That said, this is really 2nd prize for me. Hopefully this grows into something more regular.

Reminds me of this:
Remember Alf? He's back in Pog form

bobbysands81

As far as I know one of the Off the Ball presenters is still on 'Gardening Leave' and they are waiting for that to run out before they can announce where they are going. This is alluded to in the Irish Times piece which states that the only place you can hear the lads THIS MONTH is on the IT podcast. Four of them had a clause in their contracts which stated that they have to wait for one month before being able to return to broadcasting, the fifth member had a three month clause. That the IT gig is not a radio show per se obviously allows them an earlier return.

There's a lot of whispers that they will be going to RTÉ.

It's fairly obvious that this is not their big return to broadcasting. Their big return will be a big return.

heybaby

Btr wrote: »

Yeah, they've got a weekly Times podcast.

A 'temporary' weekly podcast, most likely according to the link.

dulpit

bobbysands81 wrote: »

As far as I know one of the Off the Ball presenters is still on 'Gardening Leave' and they are waiting for that to run out before they can announce where they are going. This is alluded to in the Irish Times piece which states that the only place you can hear the lads THIS MONTH is on the IT podcast.

There's a lot of whispers that they will be going to RTÉ.

Ya, wasn't it said that Eoin's gardening leave was 12 weeks, it's not been 3 months since the show finished. Perhaps he's able to work in different media formats after 8 weeks, and back to radio after the 12?

I'm curious how this will work out, is there any indication as to when this will start from?

bobbysands81

dulpit wrote: »

Ya, wasn't it said that Eoin's gardening leave was 12 weeks, it's not been 3 months since the show finished. Perhaps he's able to work in different media formats after 8 weeks, and back to radio after the 12?

I'm curious how this will work out, is there any indication as to when this will start from?

I think two months have passed, I'm not claiming to have inside info I've just been following the story closely.

Apparently they've had a few meetings with RTÉ and have been spotted walking around the Sports Dept, that sounds quite promising to me.

Tombo2001

An obvious issue here is that Denis O'Brien now owns so much of the Irish media market that the amount of places that they can apply to work in is very small.....

If an award winning team such as this can not find work, then it does raise questions.

armchair fusilier

Cazale wrote: »

The clutch sentence on the Irish Times story on this seems to be the last one: ‘This month, the only place to hear the Second Captains is with irishtimes.com’. It seems this is merely a temporary arrangement, and we are told to expect more from the team as the week progresses so keep your dial tuned to Balls.ie in the meantime..

http://balls.ie/media/off-the-ball-join-irish-times/

Suggests that balls.ie has spoken to them and there is more to come.

Ol' Donie

Has to be something else. One podcast a week?For five guys?

Also, the banter would be significantly hampered if there were no texts coming in. They always bounce off them.

Deedsie

Should there be a new thread set up in the podcast forum? Or as there is still speculation about their radio future should we continue to discuss it here?

Diabhal Beag

I think some of our fine readers in this thread are a bit quick to jump to conclusions that this has backfired big-time. A once-a-week podcast is a bit strange, but I'm definitely of the belief that podcasts are breaking new ground against radio. Just look at how big the more popular podcasts are like Joe Rogan's for example. I'm not going to say they've pulled it off or that they've fallen flat on their faces till I see a bit more info. Dunno how lucrative doing a podcast for the Times is in the grand scheme of things so that's why I'm thinking there's something on the way. Might not be immediately after the gardening leave though.

rovert

Reminds me too much of this:

Cienciano

JonathanAnon wrote: »

They left their jobs so that they could work once a week as podcasters!! I think the guys hugely overvalued themselves. The made the fatal mistake of thinking that they were inexpendable ...

I think Mark Horgan and Simon Hick in particular, who really have no profile at all, have made a huge misjudgement on this one. Walked out on good jobs in the hope that somebody will swoop in and employ all five of them.

Any impetus that the OTB 5 had when they staged their coup has been completely lost simply by the fact that they have been dormant for such a long time.. well a long time in media terms where things move on so quickly..

Except they didn't leave their jobs, walk out or stage a coup. They were fired! They were all handed their P45's!
I loved the show, this irish times thing is a bit disappointing as it's only a weekly thing. But I'll look forward to their return, and maybe someday we'll get their side of the story.

dulpit

I know it's not the same scale (or even the same genre) but Leo Laporte was a broadcaster on an American TV station Tech TV. Tech TV was bought out by a rival (G4). Following this, Leo started a podcast (TWIT) which was a weekly chat with his former colleagues from TWIT (including the likes of Kevin Rose from Digg). From there he has managed to build up an entire online network of podcasts on various technology related aspects, and has revenues of around $4million per year.

So there is a market for podcasts. Although the difference there is that Leo Laporte had the backing of a national radio show (which is still ongoing) and the fact he is in a large tech-area (San Francisco area). The lads here are in a much smaller scale, but I could see (if they had backing) the development of a podcast network dedicated to sports (by which I mean videos/live streams/etc).

Although obviously the best solution would be to have the lads on a national radio station... :pac: