Going onto the earlier posts about paramount & the tv coverage.Evertything fucked up when fox didn’t want to renew extending the a league contract.My father in law is in his 80’s he needs almost 3 remotes just to put it on paramount or 10 play,he just finds it hard to do it.
Remember when the APL told us there would be a youth league?
I can’t believe people fell for that shit.
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No disrespect to any of the individuals involved, but it was pretty obvious from early on that some strategic decisions had been made that were never going to pay dividends. People have a far easier time getting their random APwire reprints in the same app or website they use to get their overseas football streamed. Other than that, if people were going to get served APL-funded long form or unique journalism, they are going to get it from Facebook, Twitter or wherever.
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Spot on mate
I’ve had nothing but trouble with Paramount.
The first issue was that I had just laid out about $3k on a new TV only to find that Paramount didn’t have a deal with Samsung. Since then, it has been a different technical issue every few months,
Paramount Technical Service is about as much good as a Flyscreen in a Submarine.
Half the time the Paramount+ stream doesn’t work and Channel 10 doesnt even bother advertising when games are on 10 or Bold. How the fuck is anyone supposed to watch the A-League?
In the winter if you watch channel 7 or 9 you are absolutely BOMBARDED with ads for the upcoming AFL & NRL matches being broadcast. But on 10? You’d never even know they have the broadcast rights unless you are a soccer nerd actively searching for it.
It’s nonsensical. Why can’t Paramount+ get their shit together to adequately stream content they paid millions for? Why isnt Channel 10 advertising shows on their own network? Honestly you couldn’t make this shit up. These are the most pressing questions in response to any A-League ratings criticism.
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Isn’t a lot of the TV deal metric-based? They may not be paying as many millions as we think. It’s more than possible the APL has spent ludicrous amounts of money on things before actually bagging that money. Hence the APL is in deep trouble financially.
First thing for me that stood out from “KeepUp” was it’s name.
If anyone wanted A-league news they would type in A-league. Let alone their earlier efforts to make it a football hub for all things football (Worldwide)
People just don’t think of the words “KeepUp” when searching results or ladder for any league. It was an uphill struggle from the start.
Trying to entertain and excite people to see your product isn’t sustainable when what most people just want is results or highlights.
The BEST thing KeepUp has done is the A-league All Access. Excellent when in long format last season, ok with short this season.
All you have to do to get results or ladders is search in google or in whatever football app.
The whole thing was doomed from the start.
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Yep. Using the “KeepUp” term is shit for SEO.
Yeah just like using the “the world game” or “four four two”
At least “four four two” may be a bit more synonymous with football. KeepUp, or more to the point “keep up”, has all sorts of applications. I wonder if the APL and/or Silverlake were banking on KeepUp becoming something for more than just football. The “KeepUp” term is too generic to be applicable a single sport.
I’ll be the odd one out and say it was kinda clever, referenced the old football keepy uppy and the intention of being a one-stop shop to stay informed.
But in years to come it will be a case study on grand concept failing due to shite implementation.
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My dad and one of my brothers used to watch probably half of the A-League games each week, they weren’t match going fans, but they wouldn’t miss Sydney games especially.
Speaking to them the other week, they haven’t watched games in years now as they have no idea when they are even on or how to watch them. Fox made it easy for them to know it was on when they would be flicking through the TV guide on a friday/saturday/sunday afternoon or evening and it was always accessible in the pub. These are the types of casual fans we couldn’t afford to lose, but because of this tv deal, we have.
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Fox was not an option. No alternative is going to have a meaningful pub presence.
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But Fox even for a few less $$s gives you pubs, and at least some more News Corp editorial support.
APL gave Fox the finger, then doubled down with KeepUp.
The KeepUp app (and its successor, the A-Leagues app) is so user-hostile for even this most common of use cases.
Let’s say it’s January 3, 2024. ALM Round 10 has concluded and we’re heading into round 11. But you’ve been nursing a hangover for a few days and are only now catching up on the results of the last round.
So you fire up the A-Leagues app.
Because a new round is about to start, the horizontal scrolling carousels on the app Home Screen are now showing the upcoming R11 fixtures, so you have to tap the “Fixtures & Results” icon at the bottom. (Tap count: 1)
Now you’re looking at the fixtures list for Jan’24, so you tap the “Results” tab. (Tap count: 2)
Now you’re looking at results for Jan’24 which only shows one R10 result for Scum v Bulls on New Years Day. So you tap “Dec’23”. (Tap count: 3)
The December results are listed in chronological order, so the first result at the top is from way back in R6. So you scroll all the way to the bottom. Depending on how hard you flick, this could be 3-5 flicks to scroll all the way to the end of Dec to the R10 results at the bottom. (Tap count: 3, scroll count: 3-5)
I’mma go out on a limb here and suggest that “show me the results of the round just concluded” isn’t some obscure edge case that should require 3 taps, 5 scrolls, and be spread across two different screens.
Why segment fixtures and results by month and not by round?
Why show in chronological order so that the most recent results (which is what most people want to see) are at the end?
Why have fixtures and results as sub-tabs and not top-level tabs?
Compare this with the EPL app:
- 1 tap on “PL” icon at the bottom
- 1 tap on “Results”
- Boom. Done. All results listed, most recent first.
It really seems like the KU/AL app was designed by someone without the foggiest idea of what people might be using the app for.
As you say, Google for a-league and you’ll get what you need right there in the search results. That what they’re competing with, and failing terribly.
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Game was healthiest under Lowy and the FFA. We got comfy and bored with a stable and reliable lady, and dropped her the minute we saw a flash new younger girl with fake tits. Unfortunately she turned out to have very little else going for her. We should be begging for our old girl back and telling her we got it horribly wrong.
With that said, the FFA seem to be pushing ahead with the national 2nd division which seems like absolute madness right now.
Seeing SMH referring to the crowds as “horror crowds” (calm the F down) and having people laugh reacting is, just…Sooooo productive. I can only imagine it’s a mixture of association football haters and NSL bitters (Who could never then or now imagine anywhere near even the current ALM average, but I digress).
Also, no, I will not accept this (F)FA revisionism. Having an independent league, especially with a pandemic, was always going to be tough. Doubt the FA will have much success dealing with the tantrums of clubs like United58, but 
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Or maaaaybe after all the complaining that the federation doesn’t take enough risks we’re unwilling to deal with challenges. In any case, if crowds are dwindling, that probably comes down to people’s willingness to go out. Whether that’s residual anxiety from the pandemic or increased cost of living or a combination, I don’t know.
The narrative seems to be that the AL is going against a trend of interest in the Roos and Tillies, but an annual league is quite a deal different to the occasional international or international tournament.
Not really. The last few years of Fox was just as barren as it is now.
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