A message from BBC Radio Berkshire

Forbury Lion · by **Forbury Lion** » 23 Jul 2006 15:29

Fubar This email has been sent to "The Sun".

What about the other pubs?

readingfc_4_life_and_beyo · by **readingfc_4_life_and_beyo** » 23 Jul 2006 15:53

Fubar This email has been sent to "The Sun".

"Royals football fans are staging a revolt against the clubs decision to grant exclusive broadcasting rights to their own stadium based radio station, 107 FM. This has been previously held by BBC Radio Berkshire who by now have achieved quite an affinity with both the fans and players and indeed some club staff members. It is reported that the clubs valuation of these rights, have upon attaining Premiership status, been increased threefold. The BBC say that they cannot match this. The following link will give some idea of the feeling and mood of Royals supporters.

http://www.royals.org/ Thread " A Message from Radio Berkshire"

Regards,"

Every little helps!

Yea, and a possible £80 for you bringing up the story.

Yahoops · by **Yahoops** » 23 Jul 2006 18:32

I think this is a major PR blunder, when any organisation finds itself in the limelight, they shouldn't limit the channels for communication to their customers especially when being paid for PR as opposed to paying for it! How dumb is that?

As for the petition, it's a shame people are spoiling it with false names but I guess that's what happens when you let young school children have access to the web.

AthleticoSpizz · by **AthleticoSpizz** » 23 Jul 2006 18:46

Yahoops As for the petition, it's a shame people are spoiling it with false names but I guess that's what happens when you let young school children have access to the web.

agreeed (no pun intended Nigel). Regardless 75%+ are real and mean it

Boomer · by **Boomer** » 23 Jul 2006 18:59

Ok, I'm going to step slightly out of line here.

Although I agree wholeheartedly that the decision to drop live commentary from the station with the widest coverage is a MAD one I can't agree with all the fawning over Radio Berkshire. I have found their coverage to be cringeworthy in the past. All too often on the way to matches I've listened in hoping to hear something about the coming match or the club, or just football in general, only to either get phone ins on some mind numbingly awful topic such as "what did you have for breakfast" or "football looky likeys". OK, these weren't the actual topics but I switch channels as soon as they come on and try my hardest to forget I ever heard such drivel. Away fans listening in on their way to the match must wonder at the mentality of the presenters at times.

Then, to make matters even worse, they spend large parts of their commentary during matches talking about crap, non football topics that no one is even slightly interested in. I tune in to hear the match not to hear their idle, non footballing chat. Just tell me what's happening on the pitch and, if it's boring, talk about something related to the match at least.

Saying all this, I don't pretend that 107 is any better. I usually switch to them when BBC turns crap and most of the time I end up with music.

What I would like more than anything is a local station that covers Reading FC properly, with commentators who know what they're talking about (general football as well as Reading past and present), who are passionate about the club and show it in their commentary (show a bit of bias, why not?), who don't strip out the stadium noise from their commentary, and who don't give the time of day for pointless banal chat before or during the match.

It would be nice if BBC Berks could provide this as they have the wider broadcast area but they haven't until now. In my opinion the best commentator was Ben Rice of 107FM but I don't know if he will be doing the commentary again next year and unfortunately he isn't a true Reading fan. Still he can hold a sensible conversation about football and the club and is a half decent commentator.

Rant over.
Phew that's better !!!

alad · by **alad** » 23 Jul 2006 20:21

Anyone else think BBCRB are cheapskates? They're not prepared to pay what is around 180k for a whole season of broadcasting rights, seems very good value to me.

If they were serious and cared about the listeners they'd stump up, it's hardly a large sum

RoyalBlue · by **RoyalBlue** » 23 Jul 2006 20:43

alad Anyone else think BBCRB are cheapskates? They're not prepared to pay what is around 180k for a whole season of broadcasting rights, seems very good value to me.

If they were serious and cared about the listeners they'd stump up, it's hardly a large sum

At risk of a whoosh - they offered what was the average going rate for the level of football but once again RFC wanted to charge way above the average (at least they are consistent!).

The BBC also have a duty to the licence/tax payer not to pay over the odds.

AthleticoSpizz · by **AthleticoSpizz** » 23 Jul 2006 20:56

Alad is a fun guy and a scallywag

alad · by **alad** » 23 Jul 2006 21:01

Fair point I'm making. The BBC waste millions of tax payers money each year, yet they won't pay abit more for rights this season? I'd understand if it was millions the club were asking for, but it appears to be only 100k they're arguing over

RoyalBlue · by **RoyalBlue** » 23 Jul 2006 21:10

alad Fair point I'm making. The BBC waste millions of tax payers money each year, yet they won't pay abit more for rights this season? I'd understand if it was millions the club were asking for, but it appears to be only 100k they're arguing over

That's a massive amount of money for a local radio station - perhaps Joel could give us an idea as to what percentage that represents from Radio Berks annual budget?

I also suspect they were competing on a playing field that made Yeovil's ground look flat!

I wonder how 107 and RFC will show this transaction in their respective accounts.

From Despair To Where? · by **From Despair To Where?** » 23 Jul 2006 21:12

£100,000 is a big chunk of the budget for a regional radio station, even one from the BBC. The knock on effect for other areas of broadcasting would be massive. Remember, it does have a public service charter to uphold, even if the projected audience is small.

Bowman's Quiver · by **Bowman's Quiver** » 23 Jul 2006 21:35

From what I can gather 70K is the going rate for the product in question, namely local radio broadcasting rights for Premiership football.

I'm told from a source fairly close to the heart of all this hullabaloo that even the station in Manchester with the rights to broadcast their games pay only about 95K for the season!.

LimpBiscuit · by **LimpBiscuit** » 23 Jul 2006 21:46

alad Anyone else think BBCRB are cheapskates? They're not prepared to pay what is around 180k for a whole season of broadcasting rights, seems very good value to me.

If they were serious and cared about the listeners they'd stump up, it's hardly a large sum

Am I being too cynical here, or was it always going to be irrevelant what BBC offered, seeing as Madejski only wants the radio station he owns to be the mouthpeice of the club. What the Beeb offered was never going to be enough.

40 years of support have been eroded away by the club since the end of last season. I was always going to renew my season ticket for this year, but regardless of where we finish, I feel this could be my last. I no longer feel that it's my club.

alad · by **alad** » 23 Jul 2006 21:47

Good point.

Madejski could well have turned down any offer BBCRB made as he wanted the rights exclusively for 107.

Sam Tubber · by **Sam Tubber** » 23 Jul 2006 21:48

LimpBiscuit
alad Anyone else think BBCRB are cheapskates? They're not prepared to pay what is around 180k for a whole season of broadcasting rights, seems very good value to me.

If they were serious and cared about the listeners they'd stump up, it's hardly a large sum

Am I being too cynical here, or was it always going to be irrevelant what BBC offered, seeing as Madejski only wants the radio station he owns to be the mouthpeice of the club. What the Beeb offered was never going to be enough.

40 years of support have been eroded away by the club since the end of last season. I was always going to renew my season ticket for this year, but regardless of where we finish, I feel this could be my last. I no longer feel that it's my club.

It's not. It's John Madejski's.

percy_freeman · by **percy_freeman** » 23 Jul 2006 21:53

Sorry but Dodd or Woosh me, but have I missed something here? What if 5 Live want to cover one of our matches. As they are part of the BBC group of companies will they be told to bog off, as 107 have the "exclusive rights " to RFC matches or what? Living here in Spain as I do, I can go to any number of bars which have Scandanavian, Portugese and Arabic satellite TV showing live Premiership footy every Saturday afternoon and you can guarantee that at least one of the games being shown is the 5 Live commentary match.

AthleticoSpizz · by **AthleticoSpizz** » 23 Jul 2006 21:56

quite

http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopi ... 19fd508645

TFF · by **TFF** » 24 Jul 2006 09:10

That Friday Feeling http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/2002/2002747/radio_berkshire_loses_live_royals_commentary

The Evening Post BBC Radio Berkshire has lost the rights to broadcast Royals matches as the club prepares to play its first season in the Premiership.

Rival station Reading 107fm, owned by Royals’ chairman John Madejski, has won exclusive rights to the coverage after a £65,000 bid by the Beeb was turned down by Reading FC.

The move means listeners outside Reading 107’s range will not be able to follow Royals games on air unless they are on national station BBC Radio Five Live.

A BBC spokesman said: “The club asked for a huge increase in their rights fee, over three times what we paid last season.

“We’ve offered a substantial increase, in line with similar clubs in the league, but are not prepared to meet the club’s financial demands.”

Reading 107 managing director Jeff Lee said: “This is great news for Reading 107. Our coverage of the biggest season in Reading Football Club’s history will be second to none.”

See Monday’s Evening Post for the full story and reaction

You can comment on the story here http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/commen ... id=2002747

or email Hilary Scott here hscott@reading-epost.co.uk

let's make sure they know how we feel.

No comments added to the article yet. Are the EP ignoring us?

EDIT: Comments now added! Be interesting to see how it's reported in today's paper.

'lista · by **'lista** » 24 Jul 2006 10:21

Reading 107 managing director Jeff Lee This is great news for Reading 107. Our coverage of the biggest season in Reading Football Club’s history will be second to none.

By default, it will indeed be coverage 'second to none'.

This is, of course, regardless of the quality of the coverage. There will be no alternative you thick tosser!

You can't polish a turd Jeffrey.

CocoPops · by **CocoPops** » 24 Jul 2006 10:44

I had a reply from Hilary Scott just now

Thanks Lee. We've had a lot of letters so will be running them all week.
We also have John Madejski explaining his reasons on front page today.
Kind regards
Hilary

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