Website Profile: conferencefootball.tv - May 2005  

In the latest sports website profile, S&T finds out precisely where non-league soccer fans [Note from the editor: “Come on Exeter City”] are able to catch their clubs in action on the web, and how the increasingly competitive and professionally run Football Conference is benefiting from the exposure. Only a handful of matches a season are shown on digital TV, so the broadband service launched in 2004 has proved to be invaluable for a loyal and passionate fan base, but what is next?

Sitting in your comfortable armchair at home, or while propping up the bar at your favourite local, it is easy to keep tabs on the Premiership soap opera. Day in, day out the sporting media maintains a relentless vigil on those who are gorging themselves at the top table. But away from the fantasy world of the overpaid fancy dans at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, real soccer at the heart of local communities is continuing to thrive.
Attendances for the Nationwide Conference, the feeder league that sits below the Football League in the UK, have hit record levels. Supporters across the country appear to be turning their backs on the expensive so-called elite and are returning to their roots. They are re-capturing the excitement, and the real sense of involvement, that comes with watching soccer four steps down the soccer pyramid.
Promotion and relegation between the Nationwide League and the Conference has stimulated growth, but up last summer in the UK, fans rarely saw any on-screen highlights of their stars in action.

Conference showcase

However, August 2004 saw the introduction of a BT-backed broadband service produced by In the Box Media, and powered by BT’s digital and content platform BT Rich Media, offering coverage of 100 Conference games a season via the internet. The three-year rights deal with the Football Conference promised to act both as a showcase for the quality of soccer on offer, and to provide fans with streaming footage of their favourite club on a regular basis.
The free site, in partnership with the Football Conference, initially enabled broadband users to access the crucial moments from two or three key games each weekend. But such was the demand, this was quickly expanded to cover highlights of every goal, of every game. Feature interviews with managers, coaches and managers extended the scope of the site still further, with supporters’ views and opinions being seen as vital for continued growth.
Revenue for the site comes from advertising with the latest set of figures revealing a period of outstanding growth. March 2005 witnessed 1m page impressions with 30,000 unique users per month. This upward trend is likely to continue as global broadband subscriptions gather momentum, with sites similar to conferencefootball.tv reaching wider audiences day-by-day.
Conference executives have been encouraged by the progress of the site as it has acted as a promotional tool for the competition, with supporters finding it easier and easier to track the progress and form of their team.

This increased exposure is seen as a boost to the competition as it strives to gain equality with the Football League and standardise the three-up, three-down promotion and relegation system throughout the national game.
In recent years, famous clubs such as Carlisle United, Exeter City, Hereford United and Halifax Town have boosted the expanding fan-base of the Conference following their relegation, and it’s felt those clubs involvement has helped stimulate growth.

‘Live’ streaming – the future?

Streamed ‘live’ matches featured on the site four times during the 2004-05 season, and with an agreement to showcase up to 30 matches per season in this way, the concept has huge potential for expansion. The demands on allocated bandwidth have caused concern with consumer demand for the live streams often outstripping capacity. conferencefootball.tv continues to be committed to delivering high quality live pictures to Conference broadband users direct to their PCs.

Hold the Front Page

The initial front page of the site is clean and easy to use. Every club in the Conference is listed alphabetically on the left hand side of the screen, with the streaming video media player prominently positioned centrally.
Interactivity with users is provided by a regularly changing voting system, with an update on the latest published features summarised in the top right corner.
Four featured matches or interview packages are highlighted clearly immediately underneath the media player for instant playback. This is extremely useful when users want to view a game quickly, or where the producers wish to promote a specific feature which may not be club specific e.g. the semi-professional international between England and Holland, which attracted interest from across the board.
Advertising on the site is incorporated sympathetically, both within the media player and separately as direct links to other websites.
After clicking on a chosen club users are provided with six distinct sections:

· 2004/2005 highlights
· A fans’ section ‘Famous for 15’
· Player interviews
· An away fans’ ground guide
· Pre-Season preparations
· A goal archive from the previous season

These are all easy to navigate, each provides strong content and are attractively presented. Voiceovers and interviews are well packaged and delivered giving the fan an excellent site integrating match highlights alongside managers post match reactions and the fans views.
The ‘Fans Eye’ is another popular section that provides supporters with a request spot which concentrates on a specific incident. This has ranged from contentious refereeing decisions, to some funny moments all of which have been captured by conferencefootball.tv cameras during the season.
As the first season of the website draws to an end, the team at conferencefootball.tv have been delighted with the progress the site has made. The site has been short listed for an award by Webuser for the best broadband site of 2005. Thoughts are now turning to the start of the next campaign. More ‘live’ games, more features and interviews, a goal of the month competition, increased supporters inter-activity and a site re-design are ideas in the pipeline. Even if their own team isn’t performing too well on the pitch, Conference football fans across the country have every reason to feel delighted at the prospect!

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