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TownTV's Big Launch On Saturday
Tuesday, 8th Aug 2023 19:31

Saturday sees the launch proper of TownTV, the club’s new service replacing iFollow, and director of media and communications Marcus Nash told TWTD what fans can expect from the new venture.

Soon after his appointment, CEO Mark Ashton announced that the Blues would be leaving the EFL-provided iFollow arrangement as soon as their contract was up, which was at the end of last season.

Planning for TownTV had been ongoing for some while at that point, while the summer has seen a new state-of-the-art studio built at the ground by Manchester-based specialists Audio Schemes.

The service was effectively given a live rehearsal at the Innsbruck Cup in Austria but Saturday’s game against Stoke is the big launch, although broadcast rules mean that supporters in the UK and the Republic of Ireland are unable to watch the game itself live.

However, they will be able to tune in to the pre-match show, while the match will be available to overseas fans.

“Saturday against Stoke is the big launch because those that are paying their £5.99 or paying their international monthly subscription can now watch a pre-match show, which starts at 2pm,” Nash said.

“At 2pm, the pre-match show will open up with Curly [former Soccer AM presenter James Kirtland] as the presenter, while Matt Holland and Darren Ambrose will be on the panel and they’ll go into a show similar to the Innsbruck one, but this time it will be in our big studio. Glenn Wheeler will be joined by regular partner Ian Westlake on commentary. 

“The studio’s been built in the old gym, it’s a massive investment from the ownership and Mark Ashton.

“I think supporters will really get to see what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to bring them. Our number one goal is bringing them the best possible for their football club.”

The aim is to make a significant step up in production values, not just with the pre-match show, but also the coverage itself.


“We’re going from a two-camera operation to a four-camera operation at Portman Road,” Nash continued. “The microphones will be all around the pitch, which was an investment that we put in last year, and that goes a long way. We’re really trying to bring fans much closer to the action.

“There’ll be replays, there’ll be analytical data, there’ll be community features, there’ll be VTs, there’ll be behind the scenes, we’ll really be aiming for a kind of Monday Night Football-style Sky Sports production.

“There’ll be fans’ input into that as well over time, we’re lucky to work with some fans in the media department, so we’re constantly evolving.”

Rather than having to plug a laptop into a TV, the new app allows games to be cast from a phone or tablet.

“The difference now with the app is that you can cast it,” he continued. “Before people had to go on their laptop and put in an HDMI cable, now you just cast it. Most devices have got a cast option.”

TownTV will feature a mix of free and subscription content, although fans will have to log in for both.

Quizzed on what will be free, Nash, who joined Town in the summer of 2021 having worked in a similar role at Hamilton Academical, said: “Anything under five minutes, like Town in Five, Kieran McKenna’s pre-match interview, Kieran post-match, the player pre- and post-match, that will all be free and remain free.

“We might do little features every now and then with Mark Ashton and Kieran McKenna like you saw the other day where we want to put that out there and let the fans see the messages coming from the top. That again should be free.

“It’s important that we give fans an element of free content but they do need to be logged in to view it and I think that’s where the confusion is with a lot of supporters. It’s not having to sign up for TownTV, they don’t, they just have to make an Ipswich Town account which gets them access to everything.”

Regarding the single log-in required to access various club online services, he added: “The bottom line with not being able to watch without logging in is because of the single sign-in that the club’s trying to drive.

“A single sign-on can be to go and buy kits at Planet Blue, it can be the same sign-on to go onto TownTV and we’re trying to drive everybody to register on the website and have one account for all. That’s why we’re encouraging people to log in to watch the videos. It’s a simple solution for everybody to be able to do that.

“This is a summer of digital transformation where we’ve just launched a website that ties into the single sign-on, that ties into TownTV. It’s very rare that any business or football club would do it all at one time, but we have.

“It’s been planned for two years, essentially since Gamechanger took over, these things have been getting studied and researched and carefully detailed and we just went for it all in one summer.

“These things are going to have teething issues. We’ve seen some supporters say that they need to log in every now and again on the app because it’s logging them out. That’s flagged up now to the third party that controls it and they’re going to sort that.

“We’ve put two years of work into this, we know what we’re doing, we’re doing it for the fans. We might get little things wrong but we are listening and we will adapt. I want the fans to realise that this is your product, trust us with it, but we will listen.”

Sunday’s live-on-Sky game at Sunderland led to some confusion regarding which matches will be available to watch via TownTV, both domestically and internationally.

“It’s no different to iFollow in terms of the model and how the structure works, we’re all governed by the same geo rules,” Nash explained.

“A Saturday 3pm game is embargoed by Article 48 [of the UEFA Statutes], which means only those outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland can watch it.

“Those international fans are lucky because they can watch quite a lot of our fixtures. But those within the UK and Ireland can only watch anything outside Article 48 and at the moment that’s midweek fixtures.

“When Sky select a game, such as Sunderland and it’s a main feature game, that becomes not just a UK thing but it becomes an international thing. Sky may sell that to ESPN+ in America, for example, and there are so many locations that can’t watch it due to it being broadcast on their territory.

“There were very few countries that could watch the Sunderland game and the majority of them were in Africa. A very select few could watch it on TownTV.

“In the Carabao Cup, there’s a competition rule, so it’s not possible to stream it. I think there are one or two games which are on Sky but that’s it, so that will be audio only.”

Nash says fans will get a feel for the project from the weekend: “It’s going to be a real production. I think fans will start to really see the direction we’re going when they see that pre-match show on Saturday.”


Photos: Matchday Images/Richard Calver



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Europablue added 20:18 - Aug 8
Why is the app not usable on my tablet? It is a pretty standard Samsung tablet? The app isn't functional if it doesn't work on my devices.
0

Europablue added 20:21 - Aug 8
The simple solution would not be to make people sign up for free content, it would be to just publish that content on the ITFC Youtube channel.
-1

Europablue added 20:25 - Aug 8
I was able to watch the Sunderland match as there is no deal with a local broadcaster.
If Sky showing games means people can't watch the games, then doesn't that mean that the investment is essentially worthless if we did get to the Premier League? I don't care about football, I care about ITFC and I want to be able to pay to watch all Ipswich matches.
2

BurleysGloryDays added 20:39 - Aug 8
So excited about this!

Awesome move by the club, can’t wait.

Credit to PhilTWTD for properly covering this too. It’s a massive moment for the club. Embarrassingly EADT are barely covering this at all, which I think is shameful. Claiming to be a friend of the club but not encouraging fans to sign up by fully informing them what is available and just how exciting it is, is a significant and slightly jealous disservice in my view.

Thanks goodness for TWTD in this context.

Today all you have on EADT site is a US-based columnist moaning about it (while applauding other fans for backing the club properly. The irony there seems missed on him, hilarious.)

If fans were being educated like in this article about just how exciting this is, what a huge step this is, I’m sure many would happily get hands in pockets and support the club. I for one think it’s brilliant.

Good luck to all at TownTV for launch and the season ahead!
6

toforoge added 21:36 - Aug 8
Does anyone know if possible to buy individual matches from abroad? Thanks

1

Stephbgb added 21:39 - Aug 8
Cost to watch every game from every club in the MLS: $100 per year on Apple TV
Cost to watch every race in the F1 season: $100 per year on F1 TV
Cost to watch ITFC for 10 months: $250 per year on TownTV
Cost to watch Sky games on ESPN+ $5 per month

(note I can't even watch 25% of the games live because they're in the middle of a midweek work day).

I appreciate the effort to improve upon the less-than-average iFollow effort, but they have highly overvalued their product in this market.
1

Blueknight85 added 21:42 - Aug 8
I too questioned why the app doesnt work on Tablets i have a high end Samsung, its usually a screen size excuse because of varying screen sizes etc. But nobody from the club responded. That being said it ran very well just from the browser just allways nice to have a proper app. As far as casting goes you could cast ifollow although the screen allways looked different, probably confussion as casting wont work when one device is on a a VPN & the TV isnt.
1

toforoge added 22:03 - Aug 8
Would be good for some of us abroard to have full match replay without the score shown. Or even better link emailed. Its possible to do likely lads scenario to watch at decent time in some parts of the world.
4

Pessimistic added 22:15 - Aug 8
EAdt has shot itself in the foot with its subscription service which is a waste of space- unless you trust in everything Everton fan Stuart Watson says about Town. In fairness, He is about the best and Andy Warren very wisely jumped ship. As for Mark Heath, he is a real dumbo!
2

Europablue added 22:34 - Aug 8
Pessimistic, ITFC has come along with Town TV just at the wrong moment for EADT to put a paywall up. I would read the articles on EADT for free with the annoying advertisements, but I don't see enough value to pay for it. I'm barely interested in the pre-match build-up and other fluff on Town TV and I certainly wouldn't pay for it if I didn't get any matches included in the price. It's very annoying to have monthly subscriptions coming out of your account. There are some things that I would subscribe to if there were a yearly option, but don't bother because of the hassle. Town TV should have a season pass option.
2

SuffolkCanuck added 22:57 - Aug 8
I emailed the club enquiries email address last Tuesday asking if the Sunderland game would be shown at a later date, as it was with iFollow. I couldn’t find any information about it on the FAQ’s. In the meantime I found the full match replay available 24hrs after the game took place on Town TV. Like you toforoge I’d much prefer not to know the score before I watch a full match. iFollow didn’t display the results on their app, hopefully ITFC will follow suit. I’m still waiting waiting for a reply from the club!
1

churchmans added 23:43 - Aug 8
Atm towntv is not all that! There is more info and on here and is quicker! I shall give it another 2/3months to see what it is really like!
Should be great for away games to actually watch in on my 55inch sky glass with some mates round enjoying g a few beers
1

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 07:34 - Aug 9
Agree with the above that EADT has shot itself in the foot, not only regarding football news but local news in general. I used to read it a lot (not influenced by the ads, but they don't know that!). Now I don't bother as I'm not willing to pay the monthly subscription fee for stuff I can usually find out elsewhere with a bit of effort.
1

Naylorsrightboot added 09:02 - Aug 9
I downloaded the app, but have since taken it off again. I can't get it to cast to my samsung tv. I'm not watching football on a mobile phone or a 6 inch tablet. So, it's a no from me. I can do without the interviews and plenty of Towns games will be on sky, so will just get a now tv pass. Will make do with Life's a pitch on YouTube(which is excellent) and any snippets the club chose to put up on their YouTube channel.
0

Sospiri added 09:06 - Aug 9
I managed to watch the highlights from here in New Zealand, so at least thats something. Took ages to find them though. Hopefully they will sort this out.
0

DariusBlue added 10:05 - Aug 9
Am I missing something here?

"A Saturday 3pm game is embargoed by Article 48 [of the UEFA Statutes], which means only those outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland can watch it."

So if you are in the UK you can't watch our Saturday games live on TownTV? You could on iFollow?

(Obviously you could use a VPN)
0

Lightningboy added 10:39 - Aug 9
I get we're not allowed to show the matches live at 3pm on a Saturday but is it possible to show the entire game when the actual live match has finished?
1

Europablue added 12:49 - Aug 9
Some people on here just won't let there be any complaints about the way the club is doing anything. They're really living up to the fanatic tag.
0

mathiemagic added 21:33 - Aug 9
Used a VPN to sign up for the International subscription and it let me use my UK credit card. Have the commentary of the Bristol game tonight so fingers crossed for the live game on Saturday. If not can easily cancel. Subscription will be worth it if all the games are available live.
0

Monarch_Blue added 05:04 - Aug 10
To balance some of the negative comments.
I live in Spain, and have an international subscription. There was the inevitable teething problems, but these were resolved prior to the Innsbrook coverage!
Since then the service has been flawless!
I have the app loaded on both my iPad, & Realme mobile, and both cast with ease to my TCL TV. It’s certainly a massive improvement on the old palava of hooking up a laptop to the TV via an HDMI cable!!
0

delias_cheesy_flaps added 07:11 - Aug 10
Watched it on IPTV last night, didn't notice much difference from iFollow...I'm sure it will get better!
0


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