what this means, is that in some ways, there are now, obvious potential advantages - strengthened by a huge shift in the nature of "broadcasting" since the outset of the digital information age, the internet and the use of the home computer as a common experience - to playing in the blue square than there would be playing in leagues 1 or 2. of course, old and established businesses - especially those that are involved in sports and entertainment, where the commodity is actually information and its subsequent transmission(s) to an audience - have been slow to pick up on the potentials, and are usually hostile, either directly or indirectly through corporate association - to the ease with which information can now be transmitted, and very often work on limiting these new potentials rather than encourage them.
surely though, it can only be a matter of time before someone, somewhere makes the realization of what the capabilities of the internet are in terms of how and to whom it could be advantageous. if for example - you are a blue square premier team and were free to stream whatever you wanted through your website - or worked out a licensing deal with the BBC to stream your home games, you could then use all the conventional localized methods of online promotion by posting links and providing information (forums, groups, emails, profile sites etc.) to let people know who you are and what you're doing. i would suggest that this would create a new international market for blue square football, which would, in turn, create and increase the value of its advertising space. i would suggest as well, that any professional football is going to be of relative interest to football fans. the more hardcore a fan... all the better. of course, there is the natural assumption as to what level of interest people are ever going to take in lower league football, but these assumptions are based on the pre-digital world and the effect of television, and the contemporary film, radio and journalism of the TV era - and made by those who historically and psychologically came under its influence. in a world where diversity has become the norm - and while new TV and radio stations, websites and the like, create the opportunity every day for more general access to information than has ever been possible before, there is a large cross-section of the population who will want to "localize" their experiences and take advantage of the potential of this diversity, and might much rather follow burton albion than simply be fed more manchester united and chelsea.
depending on the extent of control that a club has over its own broadcast and streaming rights, there are probably already small, localized markets forming around this very idea and many more small potential markets where followings for teams like cambridge or oxford united, rushden and diamonds, burton albion or kidderminster to work in and develop. as i said, i'm not sure how far this is able to extend - but to have the same opportunities denied to brentford f.c., crewe alexandra, accrington stanley, swansea or leyton orient serves no purpose than to put limits on that which might develop. i doubt that anybody at the FA has thought an awful lot about this, other than to have a knee-jerk reaction concerning control over their content, and all the negative aspects of the internet and the digital information age. that is why every single club in the football leaugue from manchester united right down to bournemouth and luton town have had DRM forced upon them by english football's governing body. the sad thing is, i doubt that anyone who is actually hindered by this has given it much thought, or regarded it as anything more than standard and necessary corporate protocol and procedure. the present situation does absolutely nothing, except devalue the potentials of all these cookie-cutter websites; which, and in turn, plays its part in maintaining the status quo on all levels, cultural and economic.
that is why, if i were the chairman of any club in leagues 1 or 2, i would want to lift the restrictions on streaming their radio broadcasts over the internet - and i would be trying to convince any other chairman in these divisions of my conclusions and start trying to have a dialogue about what to do. i don't know how it works, but here in canada there is only one sentanta broadcast, and this year they seem to have pretty much a monopoly on english games - aside from the once a week TSN and Sportsnet broadcasts of premier league games; which, themselves are licensed from - you guessed it - sentanta sports. last year i remember watching the steel-city derby (at hillsborough) on FOX sportsworld, as well as the first luton v liverpool FA cup tie. there were a few other broadcasts - especially FA cup games - that were on FOX, but this year... nothing. it's all italian and south american football.
i don't know to what extent setanta is involved in limiting live football streams on the internet, because if you try and connect to one of the "blocked" streams on the BBC, you will get a pre-recorded advertisment that runs over and over, beginning with a female voice announcing that: "due to contractual obligations we are unable to bring you the current broadcast event..."
i hope the chairman of leyton orient or brentford f.c. wakes up one day and sees how they're being scammed, and the future - if allowed to happen - is to their benefit, and probably to the benefit of everyone outside the premier league. the past always tries to exert control over the future - which means "the present".
as a baggies supporter - and as some of my previous blogs will attest - this issue affects me quite often, as this year is only our 4th premier league campaign and i have spent many years following other teams, like sheffield wednesday in the 1990s, because living outside the UK, i simply could not keep in touch with what the baggies were doing, being relegated to nothing more than a simple box-score in the newspaper. in fact, i have only just recently - and by virtue of people posting video, articles and images on the internet - begun to catch up on how the baggies fared, who were the heroes, and what were the great games between 1986 and 2001 when they left my life and disappeared into the 2nd then 3rd division... but tomorrow, i got no worries. after all, we're playing manchester united - and they're always on TV whenever they play. but it does cost me an extra $25 per month to see all the premier league fixtures every week, and in the world of TV there is no choice - everything is mainstream and contrary to the world of digital information, which is why big, powerful corporate entities have an interest in keeping us ignorant as to the potentials, and strive to keep computers and the internet from doing their natural work. i mean, $25 for what, in the long run, just amounts to more chelsea and manchester united?!?!
C'MON YOU BAGGIES!!!!!!!
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