So let's start getting a list of the best free football podcasts available on spotify. Would be better than having to search high and low if you were totally dependent on OTB and didn't know the lay of the land.
There's a thread started recently by someone which contains links to free sports podcasts.
Second Captains haven't become irrelevant at all. They had so many advantages - they were brilliant at what they do (even if I can't stand Murph), were early to market and priced it reasonably.
None of these apply to Off The Ball subscription offering.
Another massive diff is OTB aid on the radio for free. SC isn’t.
No chance I'll be subscribing. If they had given a month's notice and had a more nuanced pricing plan I might have considered it for the soccer content only but the way they went about implementing the paywall just leaves a very sour taste.
Have already found a couple of free alternatives that are arguably a higher standard so won't be downloading the app for the three free pods either.
Infairness, the first month is free. They pretty much have given a months notice of you actually paying
They have a very successful podcast. They were able to pay themselves €110k each. They have a radio show on RTE in the summer, and just had Conan O'Brien on it. They had an occasional tv show on RTE. Eoin presents on Premier Sports. Murph and Ken have columns in the Irish Times, and pop up the odd radio show panel on rte (for Claire Byrne show). Mark did a very prominent podcast for the BBC about George Gibney.
I wouldn't call this largely ignored.
And the key difference here between second captains and OTB is that you have 5 key people that make up second captains. Who or what exactly is OTB? Who are the presenters now, who are there for the long term, etc?
Yes there was.
Apologies if so. Correction noted.
Weren't the 2 months free only if you signed up for an annual subscription?
Yes, which is nothing different here.
Besides a few anoraks they are generally ignored by the general public
The point is would Second Captains have been better off staying on NT. I haven't heard them in years being honest. Obviously don't subscribe. I do see articles now and again from some of them. They certainly aren't getting exposure but maybe they are happy with that.
Think they have about 10,000 subscribers. They also do other journalism and presenting gigs both together and individually away from the podcast. They obviously make enough and are happy that they have total control over what they do.
I have wondered if OTB AM had started before they left, might they have stayed put. At least for a while anyway. If I remember correctly, they were very keen on getting a much earlier slot for OTB. Think they wanted a drive time slot. I think in a saturated current affairs slot, that would have been worth a try.
How would they have been better off? They make more money, they are their own bosses, and they have complete control over what they do.
And they produce a far superior product.
Yep indeed. But the thing is, if you sign up for a year and in 6 months time they are offering half the content for free because not enough people signed up you'd feel like a right sap!
Plus, even with the 2 months free its still €8.33 a month which is still on the pricey side. Their only hope was to have it for about €60 for the year, anything more than a fiver a month is just too much for any one subscription, despite what Mr "Its only a tenner a month" thinks.
If you wanna game it. Just sign up using disposable cards. New email address. New disposable card each month. Put a dot in your email and move it one character each month. Results in free OTB podcasts as the first month is free.
But their subscriber numbers make them more than a "few anoraks". I know zero about their working lives but I bet for €110k a year each they can work at times that suit them and do side hustles if they want to as well.
I bet Joe Molloy has to work much harder for his salt and he has to be in OTB studio until 10pm every Mon-Wed and all of Sunday afternoon. I'm sure he has to put in the research on the show on top of the presentation time, even though I'm sure the schedule is produced for him.
I don't subscribe to Second Captains either btw, but if €110k is the earning to be ignored by the general public then sign me up!
I don’t think they have a superior product now. Personal opinion but I enjoyed them more on OTB. They could react to live sport and texts into the show.
But the idea they’d be better off at newstalk is totally wrong. They work very little in truth compared to the OTB days. Living the life.
€110k is way more than they would have earned at Newstalk. They definitely made the right move.
As well as making more money, which is presumably the top priority, they have full control over what they do and less pressure.
Excellent show ! Even better after they canned canyon mouth early ! It's a sports programme not a platform for personal social opinion !
I unsubscribed from all the podcasts last week - I hadn't actually realised how much they were clogging up my feed.
I guess I'll kinda miss the GAA pod...a Slight Tangent was ok but basically was just lads talking shyte for an hour. Used to like the Sunday Paper Review as well but found it got very samey recently so it had dropped off my rotation.
There's oodles of other sports content out there so unless you really like Ger Gilroy I'm not sure why anyone would pay a tenner a month
Yes, gosh it must be ten years since anyone on OTB voiced an opinion about any social issues.
Also SC is only a fiver!!! Where were OTB going with their price point
You're getting 6,000 podcasts a week for that - absolute bargain.
😂 take my money!
How much do Second Captains put out a week? I might subscribe, they were good, but I've rarely heard them over the last few years.
6 a week. 2 free on a Monday, then daily Tuesday - Friday.
And you get to listen to Ger "Its only a tenner a month" Gilroy shouting over people and talking twice as fast in 3,000 of those podcasts. What's not to love?
Gilroy little wheeze has likely given an unintentional boost to Second Captains subscriber numbers.
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