Being based overseas Charlton Tv was a blessing.
However, from a sales and marketing prospective it's been a contributor to the alarming drop in attendances at the Valley.
I can understand a fan with maybe a couple of kids in tow would opt not to spend upwards of £70-100 on travel food and admission and instead watch from home for a tenner.
However, I think this is just more evidence of our illustrious ego getting it completely wrong yet again. It's pretty obvious that many of you guys no longer attend but still buy the stream, so as much as the ego bangs on about revenue and match day income, he is to blame as far as Charlton Tv is concerned.
If I still lived in England, come whatever, I'd still attend in person rather than watch for a tv.
It's just become too easy to not bother hasn't it?
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Still, it's not all bad news. We're on course to be in the Premier League in five years (Isthmian Premier, that is) and we'll be able to boast the best tv channel in non-leage football.
I enjoy it when overseas but have often wondered if the high quality TV initiative was actually shooting the club in the foot in terms of revenue generation.
If we'd got promoted and were doing ok in the Championship then i've no doubt we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Last Saturday before Christmas.
Train strike.
Not knowing whether the game was on until just over a couple of hours before kickoff.
Thats without mentioning the owner or the football on offer.
I think @Chris_from_Sidcup above has it right. People aren’t not coming because there’s a stream available. People aren’t coming because the team is one of the worst in living memory.
1) Poor football on offer, it’s woeful, league one football is dire, you can only take it for so long, and people would rather use their time to do other, more productive things, how many times for those at the games have you sat there, and thought why on earth am I doing this?
2) Train strikes - You never know from one week to another whether they are on or off.
3) We didn’t even know this week until late on that the match was going ahead.
4) Cost of living crisis, and cost of getting to a match.
5) Supporter Churn, ie people move away, pass away.
6) People are fed up of how the club is being run, it’s just doesn’t come across as a family club anymore.
7) If people have got to the point that they can’t even be bothered to watch the game on a stream, then we really have got a problem.
8) I haven’t got a problem with Charlton Tv, I think it’s a great service for people who can’t get to matches, or can’t afford to come to matches.
9) How our current owner can be proud of what he’s created in the last 2 years (football wise) is beyond me.
It seems to have become the big bad and buying a stream means "you ain't pwopa char'un" ultimately, everyone's finances and ability to commit are different, the club getting a tenner for someone to painstakingly watch us online rather than nothing is something at least. Choosing a stream over not going out of laziness(?) Again, understandable, how many of us growned and gave a "here we go again" on Saturday once rovers equalised. When you're that predictably bad, gotta be an easy decision to pass up attending.
And, ultimately, that's the issue, it's not the interwebs fault for our dwindling attendance. Another season in league fecking one playing pretty jank and flirting with a relegation battle to the FOURTH FING FOURTH division of English football is.
I'm pretty confident if we were second in the table having a good fight for promotion that there'd be a few more bums on seats.
* As an extra note, when visiting I always check to see if we've got a home game on during that time, as yeah, nothing beats watching the game in the flesh.
In the long run it will hurt clubs at this level and below. People won’t be able to get out of the habit and will just watch games from indoors
All that’s happened is the tech savvy ones (A fair few on here with their VPN’s) have worked you don’t have to be in another country to watch it and even for free without paying a tenner.
We never seen the numbers who watch it and it’s very doubtful they would be announced
Maybe a cast survey into the effects of streaming would be helpful in identifying any issue. (Now that I think about it, has there been one?) For instance, how many in person regular attendees have switched to streaming full time, why, etc.
As you say though, the main problem is the idiot. He's made it very easy to avoid going in person, mainly, by being a fucking tit.
I’ve lived abroad for years and can now watch the Addicks on a weekly basis after having bought an annual pass! Believe me, if I lived in the UK I would have a season ticket and would be there every match, irrespective of how bad they are playing!
Surely a difference has to be made between the fans who live and follow from abroad and those who live in the UK and watch using a VPN. I can’t imagine that there are thousands and thousands doing that and costing the club hundreds of thousands.
However, I think the main problem is that the football is rubbish.
Ours might be better quality, but Ipswich fans are hardly thinking - "if we had a former Sky presenter plus John Wark and Matt Holland as pundits, I would stop going to games."