Even though I have access to Sky I will always choose Charlton TV and pay the £10. I enjoy Tel, Greg and Brownies interactions and reading of the game. They are also more knowledgeable of the other team than Sky.
Also wondering if I should bother with a yearly subscription at this rate! Six games in and I’m pretty sure it’s only been possible for me to watch Bristol City (A) on Charlton TV.
But surely you of all people have a VPN?
If we all buy Charlton TV and use VPNs whenever this shoddy deal blacks us out where we live, we support our club and punish the idiots who refuse to accept the reality that private streams are what the most loyal supporters want to pay for.
Would amount to a pay cut for the players I suspect if Sky don’t get the slice of the cake they want.
The simplest solution would be to lift the 3pm blackout which now looks very dated.
It's very odd, isn't it. There's a deal that means some countries can show the game if they want to. That means that if you are in the UK or in one of those countries, you can't stream the game. So the club website helpfully lists, with obviously a massive nod and a wink, the countries that aren't entitled to show the game. The coverage is sponsored by a company that, for about 3 quid a month, can provide a service that will allow you do do what you are not supposed to do. So you give your phone or smart TV a holiday in South Korea, send a tenner and you are good to go.
It reminds me a bit of the early days of trying to download music when the owners of the copyrights decided to protect their content at all costs, leading to all those file sharing sites.
I can understand why we are part of the deal, and I can also understand why the deal restricts viewing to countries that can show the game as I think it's unrealistic for someone to ring around, I dunno, 50 broadcasters to ask if they are showing Sheff U v Charlton. Many TV stations aren't as well organised as others and will just bung on something if another event finishes without really caring about what they are showing.
I wasn't sure it was Steve Brown on Saturday, he did sound different.
It's very odd, isn't it. There's a deal that means some countries can show the game if they want to. That means that if you are in the UK or in one of those countries, you can't stream the game. So the club website helpfully lists, with obviously a massive nod and a wink, the countries that aren't entitled to show the game. The coverage is sponsored by a company that, for about 3 quid a month, can provide a service that will allow you do do what you are not supposed to do. So you give your phone or smart TV a holiday in South Korea, send a tenner and you are good to go.
It reminds me a bit of the early days of trying to download music when the owners of the copyrights decided to protect their content at all costs, leading to all those file sharing sites.
I can understand why we are part of the deal, and I can also understand why the deal restricts viewing to countries that can show the game as I think it's unrealistic for someone to ring around, I dunno, 50 broadcasters to ask if they are showing Sheff U v Charlton. Many TV stations aren't as well organised as others and will just bung on something if another event finishes without really caring about what they are showing.
I wasn't sure it was Steve Brown on Saturday, he did sound different.
Well I disagree with that part in bold (agreed with all up to that point). That deal was negotiated by an external agency called Pitch International who have been working with the EFL for 15 years - a very long time by the standards in the marcomms sector. They sold the deal based on a brief from the EFL, who subcontract production to a company called IMG who have a big studio at Osterley that control the game feeds and provide those pathetic off-site commentators - it was featured in an article in The Athletic a while ago. It's presumably here too that the geo-blocking takes place. The EFL should have written into the deal that it would be up to the foreign partner to order geo-blocking on a game by game basis, and make Pitch International responsible for monitoring compliance, after all, they negotiated the deal, so they should be responsible for ensuring the deal works in real life.
Been gifted a firestick thing which seems to work quite well, same video as club stream but much prefer the club commentary. Luckily, I was in Portugal on Saturday.
One way you can look at it is that it has stayed £10 for a long time and is good value so it is worth investing in a VPN. Seeing as Nord VPN sponsor the broadcast, I doubt it will be bocked so just get a good deal with them. I got 2 years on 10 devices recently for about £100. That is just over £4 a month.
The Pandoras Box was smashed open by SKY who are the total masters of English game calling shots with EFL KO times. Biggest bugbear are endless 12.30 KO's, it could be worse supporting a top Prem club where a Saturday 3pm KO is a rarity. I would not be happy with a Saturday 5.30 or 8pm KO. I love watching Charlton TV stream with Greg, Tel, Brownie, HMI it via laptop onto the big screen, fly off to Portugal or wherever and re-route it !! As much as i would love to go to more Away matches, at most this season will go to around 7-9, so for the rest very happy to pay £10 and VPN was £36 PA. I've seen more of Addicks thanks to Charlton TV than ever, Its a brillant production with intelligent commentary and punditry..... COYA's.
Been gifted a firestick thing which seems to work quite well, same video as club stream but much prefer the club commentary. Luckily, I was in Portugal on Saturday.
Out of interest, whose commentary do you get on the firestick?
Some Lifers, I think @fenaddick was one, have said that you get "Charlton TV' on a firestick and for that reason club streams represent a threat to Sky revenue, but I don't quite understand how Charlton TV routinely finds its way onto a Firestick.
Been gifted a firestick thing which seems to work quite well, same video as club stream but much prefer the club commentary. Luckily, I was in Portugal on Saturday.
Out of interest, whose commentary do you get on the firestick?
Some Lifers, I think @fenaddick was one, have said that you get "Charlton TV' on a firestick and for that reason club streams represent a threat to Sky revenue, but I don't quite understand how Charlton TV routinely finds its way onto a Firestick.
Here's a fun one for you Prague, the bakcup stream I had this weekend had no comms so must have been coming straight from Osterley. The stream I used most of the game had Sheff Utd comms
See, I don't quite get this nudge, wink thing around it. I'd just like to understand how it gets there - if it's true. Because you only get Charlton TV if you pay for it. Someone who has paid for it, or maybe a family member. Why would they upload it to somewhere so it gets onto a Firestick? They're not going to earn any money by doing that. All they are doing is shafting their own club financially (and then going on Twatter to complain we didn't spend enough in the window).
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
For info, i was able to buy the CAFC TV stream on the opera browser this weekend but was unable to actually stream the game on the same browser as they were using a server in Sweden, I think, so waste of a tenner. By next week i'll have a proper VPN installed, not having that again!
See, I don't quite get this nudge, wink thing around it. I'd just like to understand how it gets there - if it's true. Because you only get Charlton TV if you pay for it. Someone who has paid for it, or maybe a family member. Why would they upload it to somewhere so it gets onto a Firestick? They're not going to earn any money by doing that. All they are doing is shafting their own club financially (and then going on Twatter to complain we didn't spend enough in the window).
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
PragueAddick said: I don't understand how, but Charlton tv is on the firestick, mate showed me on Saturday.
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
I think there have always been people who have done this - put their record collections on the old sites and before that did free versions of programs and whatever. It might be that they like feeling that they are beating the system or whatever.
The commentary thing is interesting for us geeks. When it's a Sky away game I've used Now which I have. I'd pay another couple of quid to have 'our' commentary. As I understand it, replacing a soundtrack is not so difficult but I suppose setting up the infrastructure would be too complex for the likely revenues. American friends tell me that this is a big thing in baseball, a regional sport mostly, where when a team become a bit successful they lose the commentators that regularly commentate on those teams.
But, as you say, just let us pay money for the games. People who go are going to go and people who arent, aren't.
For info, i was able to buy the CAFC TV stream on the opera browser this weekend but was unable to actually stream the game on the same browser as they were using a server in Sweden, I think, so waste of a tenner. By next week i'll have a proper VPN installed, not having that again!
Yes, I was able to buy the game in the US which threw initially me as I needed to move to Belgium to watch it!
See, I don't quite get this nudge, wink thing around it. I'd just like to understand how it gets there - if it's true. Because you only get Charlton TV if you pay for it. Someone who has paid for it, or maybe a family member. Why would they upload it to somewhere so it gets onto a Firestick? They're not going to earn any money by doing that. All they are doing is shafting their own club financially (and then going on Twatter to complain we didn't spend enough in the window).
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
Someone will be setting these up on a service as such and then resells / provides the feed. It will be someone who has purchased servers in a datacentre somewhere, a lot of these sources will sell to multiple people. HTH.
Does anyone know how many match passes Charlton TV sells? I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc? If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
Also wondering if I should bother with a yearly subscription at this rate! Six games in and I’m pretty sure it’s only been possible for me to watch Bristol City (A) on Charlton TV.
But surely you of all people have a VPN?
If we all buy Charlton TV and use VPNs whenever this shoddy deal blacks us out where we live, we support our club and punish the idiots who refuse to accept the reality that private streams are what the most loyal supporters want to pay for.
I have no idea what a VPN is so I assume I don't have one. I don't even have a TV. If I can't go to the game due to work then I listen to Tel and Greg.
So far in the USA Paramount+ has shown every game bar one so my Charlton TV season ticket seems like wasted money.......I suppose its 240 quid in the coffers for the club
Does anyone know how many match passes Charlton TV sells? I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc? If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
I doubt it has ever been that many, in before the Sky deal.
interesting...Charlton have never revealed as far as I'm aware the match ratings for Charlton TV, I assumed 2-3K on top matches, enough to warrant selling it and paying our excellent commentary team, pundits & production to make it worth while .... this is what our friend ChatGPTsays......
What is publicly known
During the 2020–21 season, over 360,000 streams of EFL club matches were watched via iFollow across 175 countries, with roughly 160,000 of those passes sold to club season-ticket holdersEFL+2Insider Sport+2.
The platform generated over £42 million in revenue across all 72 EFL clubs that season Insider Sport+1.
The most-watched Championship clubs included Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, and Luton Town, but no detailed figures were published for any one club Inside World Football+1.
Some individual clubs have shared cumulative season averages (e.g., Barrow AFC saw around 84,600 live stream views in 2020–21, averaging about 1,840 per game)
I do use Charlton TV to ensure I don't miss any games. I think it is probably a good idea that it just shows the game and is not too good in terms of production. It shouldn't compete with going to a live game. But it is great you can get games, especially away games.
I think it has great potential to generate new fans abroad and maybe the club could market that and indeed fans abroad could play their part.
See, I don't quite get this nudge, wink thing around it. I'd just like to understand how it gets there - if it's true. Because you only get Charlton TV if you pay for it. Someone who has paid for it, or maybe a family member. Why would they upload it to somewhere so it gets onto a Firestick? They're not going to earn any money by doing that. All they are doing is shafting their own club financially (and then going on Twatter to complain we didn't spend enough in the window).
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
Someone will be setting these up on a service as such and then resells / provides the feed. It will be someone who has purchased servers in a datacentre somewhere, a lot of these sources will sell to multiple people. HTH.
Thanks for at least trying to explain this to me, and I am sorry if I seem so thick about it. I’m interested in the money trail. You twice mention “selling”. Who are the “buyers”? Obviously not the viewers of the streams, thats the whole point.
And how does the person/ group “setting these up on a service” get hold of the streams of , not just Charlton, but 36 streams per game round? Surely they do not pay subcriptions for 72 club streams? Are they able to hack into them all? Because if so, that is IMG’s problem to solve.
Does anyone know how many match passes Charlton TV sells? I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc? If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
IIRC the club gets £4.50 per stream sold after deductions.
See, I don't quite get this nudge, wink thing around it. I'd just like to understand how it gets there - if it's true. Because you only get Charlton TV if you pay for it. Someone who has paid for it, or maybe a family member. Why would they upload it to somewhere so it gets onto a Firestick? They're not going to earn any money by doing that. All they are doing is shafting their own club financially (and then going on Twatter to complain we didn't spend enough in the window).
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
Someone will be setting these up on a service as such and then resells / provides the feed. It will be someone who has purchased servers in a datacentre somewhere, a lot of these sources will sell to multiple people. HTH.
Thanks for at least trying to explain this to me, and I am sorry if I seem so thick about it. I’m interested in the money trail. You twice mention “selling”. Who are the “buyers”? Obviously not the viewers of the streams, thats the whole point.
And how does the person/ group “setting these up on a service” get hold of the streams of , not just Charlton, but 36 streams per game round? Surely they do not pay subcriptions for 72 club streams? Are they able to hack into them all? Because if so, that is IMG’s problem to solve.
The buyers are the providers of the stream/dodgy stick who recoup money via selling the stick, subscriptions or ads
I am a season ticket holder. The below are generalised figures. However I pay the sixty odd quid for my annual Charlton TV service, plus about £240 over a season to watch the streamed matches. That is £300 a year (£240 after VAT?) of money the club gets from me on top of my season ticket costs. If there are a thousand or so like me that is about a quarter of a million pounds income for the club.
Does anyone know how many match passes Charlton TV sells? I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc? If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
IIRC the club gets £4.50 per stream sold after deductions.
So 2K streams=£9K & 3K streams=£13.5K (surprised no one has exact numbers for Charlton TV streams sold?) If you take off Greg, Tel, Brownies fees, production, travel, expenses etc not huge amount but its worldwide reach which is where the potential is.... I'm very grateful indeed for Charlton TV, its an excellent production and at £10 is VFM compared to some of away day costs once you factor in train fares, tkts & expenses etc....I can't do Derby away and its free on SKY+ so thats where i will watch. My next trip aboard with Charlton TV looks like Hull City. COYA's
Does anyone know how many match passes Charlton TV sells? I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc? If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
IIRC the club gets £4.50 per stream sold after deductions.
So 2K streams=£9K & 3K streams=£13.5K (surprised no one has exact numbers for Charlton TV streams sold?) If you take off Greg, Tel, Brownies fees, production, travel, expenses etc not huge amount but its worldwide reach which is where the potential is.... I'm very grateful indeed for Charlton TV, its an excellent production and at £10 is VFM compared to some of away day costs once you factor in train fares, tkts & expenses etc....I can't do Derby away and its free on SKY+ so thats where i will watch. My next trip aboard with Charlton TV looks like Hull City. COYA's
Comments
It reminds me a bit of the early days of trying to download music when the owners of the copyrights decided to protect their content at all costs, leading to all those file sharing sites.
I can understand why we are part of the deal, and I can also understand why the deal restricts viewing to countries that can show the game as I think it's unrealistic for someone to ring around, I dunno, 50 broadcasters to ask if they are showing Sheff U v Charlton. Many TV stations aren't as well organised as others and will just bung on something if another event finishes without really caring about what they are showing.
I wasn't sure it was Steve Brown on Saturday, he did sound different.
Luckily, I was in Portugal on Saturday.
I love watching Charlton TV stream with Greg, Tel, Brownie, HMI it via laptop onto the big screen, fly off to Portugal or wherever and re-route it !! As much as i would love to go to more Away matches, at most this season will go to around 7-9, so for the rest very happy to pay £10 and VPN was £36 PA. I've seen more of Addicks thanks to Charlton TV than ever, Its a brillant production with intelligent commentary and punditry..... COYA's.
Some Lifers, I think @fenaddick was one, have said that you get "Charlton TV' on a firestick and for that reason club streams represent a threat to Sky revenue, but I don't quite understand how Charlton TV routinely finds its way onto a Firestick.
..................apparently
What am I missing re the tech behind this? Or the motivation for uploading a stream of a still relatively obscure footie club?
The commentary thing is interesting for us geeks. When it's a Sky away game I've used Now which I have. I'd pay another couple of quid to have 'our' commentary. As I understand it, replacing a soundtrack is not so difficult but I suppose setting up the infrastructure would be too complex for the likely revenues. American friends tell me that this is a big thing in baseball, a regional sport mostly, where when a team become a bit successful they lose the commentators that regularly commentate on those teams.
But, as you say, just let us pay money for the games. People who go are going to go and people who arent, aren't.
Someone will be setting these up on a service as such and then resells / provides the feed. It will be someone who has purchased servers in a datacentre somewhere, a lot of these sources will sell to multiple people. HTH.
I imagine this has dipped with SKY's EFL contract, if its 2000-3000 x £10 its a nice earner for club. I presume Charlton TV has to pay broadcaster SKY a healthy % of the £10 taken for the live camera feed then there is commentary teams and Brownies fees & travel expenses plus producer etc?
If I can't go to an Away match its superb service and love the unreservably pro charlton commentary, insights and celebrations of goals and victories by Greg & Tel & Brownie.
this is what our friend ChatGPTsays......
What is publicly known
During the 2020–21 season, over 360,000 streams of EFL club matches were watched via iFollow across 175 countries, with roughly 160,000 of those passes sold to club season-ticket holders EFL+2Insider Sport+2.
The platform generated over £42 million in revenue across all 72 EFL clubs that season Insider Sport+1.
The most-watched Championship clubs included Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, and Luton Town, but no detailed figures were published for any one club Inside World Football+1.
Some individual clubs have shared cumulative season averages (e.g., Barrow AFC saw around 84,600 live stream views in 2020–21, averaging about 1,840 per game)
I think it has great potential to generate new fans abroad and maybe the club could market that and indeed fans abroad could play their part.
However I pay the sixty odd quid for my annual Charlton TV service, plus about £240 over a season to watch the streamed matches.
That is £300 a year (£240 after VAT?) of money the club gets from me on top of my season ticket costs.
If there are a thousand or so like me that is about a quarter of a million pounds income for the club.
I'm very grateful indeed for Charlton TV, its an excellent production and at £10 is VFM compared to some of away day costs once you factor in train fares, tkts & expenses etc....I can't do Derby away and its free on SKY+ so thats where i will watch. My next trip aboard with Charlton TV looks like Hull City. COYA's