does she still do the red 78?
I stopped listening when they went behind a paywall, there's enough good free rugby content out there and tbh their coverage outside of Gerry Thornley was mediocre
The price point was a killer. Had they entered at €5 I think way more punters would have signed up (probably myself included) and you always have scope to increase down the line once you have them in the door. Straight in at €10 just turned so many off straight away. And then the flippant overnight announcement of the whole thing by Gilroy turned even more off.
Now many old listeners have found alternatives and may not come back even if the price was reduced.
She's terrible. Before the paywall I couldn't stick listening to Wednesday night rugby because of her.
I listened to the show last night for a bit while driving. I've said this before here, but it's worth restating - how is Richie McCormack allowed broadcast using a potato for a mic? His sound quality is truly awful...
I honestly think if they hadn't got Ger in full "give me your money" mode, and gone in at €5 a month they could have had something. The way he delivered it was so smug, arrogant, "its only a tenner a month, less than a coffee a week" attitude just got my back up anyway.
But we're now gone full circle on that discussion and the ship has sailed.
Interestingly, the difference in the show when Joe presents Mon-Wed, and then when Nathan presents on Thursday is incredible. Its like going from a relaxed confident presenter to a lad you'd expect to be selling wellies at the Ploughing Championships.
I used to like the lads and their shows.
I think they went too political and started giving one sided views on that.This highlighted a lot of fairly blatant hypocrisy aswell.When you add in the arrogance in both going in at a price poInt of double their competitors and the way that was communicated they start to be a lot less likeable.
Like any of my friends who used to listen ive no intention of subscribing.
Already subscribe to a few pods and there's an almost endless amount of free content,a lot of it better than the majority of OTB.
Owned by Bauer since they bought the rest of O'Brien's Communicorp in 2021:
https://bauermedia.ie/our-brands/otb-sports/
I hope they are doing well, as the its great to see people doing well and, while not knowing the lads, they always came across as decent.
But when I heard they were putting a lot of their content behind a paywall I found it a strange move. There's so much good content out there from all over the world, for free. Even within Ireland there are decent free pods. I'm not familiar with Second Captains, but from what I can gather, they struck first with a subscription service. Ireland is such a small market.
On a side note - Who owns OTB? Is it Gers baby exclusively? Or would Nathan & Joe be involved?
oh it’s a complete disaster alright. Heard that from more than one source
I was a heavy Off the Ball consumer - have it on in the evening driving or cooking (still get that for free) but mostly I had it on while working from home, interviews / catch up that was free on youtube.
It wasn't until they started charging for it that I realised a lot of it was just background noise. Nice to listen to when doing something else, but to pay €10 a month for....just not there.
I think the Parkinson angle is probably the best - pay a fee per month for something you are really interested in - and get lots of that content per week.
I was talking to somebody involved in Sports Marketing world who said the rumour (and he stressed he didn't know) is that the subscription model is an unmitigated disaster for them. He said it could be hearsay though as he knows some of them lads but doesn't ask about it. So again, "man on internet said" alert from myself.
But he also said he knows nobody who has signed up, we were talking about the subscription model and I was saying I'd probably pay €3 a month for 20 podcasts - mainly because I have plenty of other podcasts to listen to on a variety of topics so I'm not going to pay for a load of scutter I don't want to listen to.
I'd probably find a max of 5 per week that I'd be bothered listening to - Slight Tangent, Sunday Papers, Newsround (when Joe is on only) another couple of episodes here and there. The rest of the content I just don't listen to and won't pay for no matter what.
Assuming it is true that it has been a disaster, the big thing for them now is do they admit the error and change something or double down on it and hope for more subscriptions? I think if they haven't got the subscribers 6 months in, you've lost them. They made a grave error going in at such a high price point for me. I think Colm Parkinson pushed his price up by €1 a month some time back but he's got the subscribers in the door at that stage.
Maybe they are doing great and if they are, well done and good luck to them!
What's the craic with the Maradona song at the end?
Twas like the good old days.
Sounds like nearly all rugby pundits so
Ya not sure what she adds tbh.
Fiona hayes is a tough listen on Wednesday night rugby , just states obviois no real insights, laughs at nothing and can't see to catch her breath when talking
What gives you that impression re Gilroy and Boohig? I catch a few segments a week of the breakfast show on YouTube and they seem to be getting along just fine. Did something happen between them?
It’s a disaster. Boohig and Gilroy are pissing into each others cornflakes over it
Most of their content is free, live on the radio, morning show is free live on the app/youtube. It's normal to give some paywalled pods out for free most pods do this.
More and more free content becoming available. Is this an admission that their original subscription model was/is failing?
Hurling Pod back today.
Free 30 mins one every Monday, another on a Thursday but have to be a subscriber to get that.
She was on for the paper review. Not a presenter.
Think they said the MD of Teneo
Who was the female presenter on today’s (Sundays) off the ball? Don’t think it was Kathleen McNamee, think she was called Kelly something.
Giles is the complete opposite to the new breed of pundit - who full of stats and details but maybe miss the wood for the trees at times.
Giles relies on cliches like “player x doesn’t have it, joe” or “can he do the business on the big days, when it matters?”
Ive been watching and listening to Giles for years and he has always been like this.
His role or image is the wise old senior pro, a “football man” to his core.
There is more to the man, but he seldom reveals it.
As Mark Tighe and others found - Giles abruptly shuts down even slight questions on his connections to John Delaney and the John Giles Foundation
Agreed, he's still in their top 30% content wise. He's not full of the shiny statistics spoof.
Guys?
I agree he's not as sharp as he once was (how could he be at his age, with everybody else from his era dead or with brain trauma from heading a ball made of stone), but I'll take Gilesy any day over 95% of football pundits. Also I feel sorry for John that he has to talk to Joe, not the other way around.
It is undoubtedly where Giles is at his strongest - talking about players from 20+ years ago. He always has a great story or two about players he played or managed with/against.
As to today's game, I don't really feel he contributes much to the show to be honest. Compare him to the lads on Second Captains for example, he's not at the races.
As an aside, fair play to Joe on the interview with Luke Humphries. He always does a good interview and referred to Luke Littler briefly but also made sure to make the interview about Humphries himself. He only practices an hour or two a day he said, I presumed professional darts players would practice for hours on end. Was a roofer up until a few years ago, so has seen the other side of life. Came across well.
Póster a few pages back who knows someone related to the show said they made their end of year target.
I don’t know anyone who has signed up. I expect subs are a lot better then people on this thread make out but worse the. OTB expected.
How do you think the subscription is going for the lads?
I was a regular listener to their podcasts, particularly the Sunday paper review but I haven’t missed any of them since going behind a paywall. I’ve found free alternatives.
He also said that if Leinster don't win the European Cup they "may as well give up" and if Rory doesn't win a major this year then he (you've guessed it) "may as well give up" too. Also that "England have serious momentum now and they will win the 6 Nations". Did he not see who England beat to get to a World Cup semi final? This was all in the space of 60 seconds. He is a clown.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e0a528cbc0a6c66fda22b51f3da0d9d1.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wb.vanillicon.com/v2/b8428f13dfbf05c9d9b1ad3cf5cf9753.svg)
