A regional publisher’s local TV channel which came under fire after a failing to show a live football match has hailed the success of a second live broadcast.
Archant’s Mustard TV was due to show Norwich City’s friendly against West Ham last week but the broadcast was marred by technical problems which meant the match was not shown live.
Instead, a full recording of the game was made, which started broadcasting while the second half was still in progress.
But according to the TV station, a second live broadcast featuring Norwich City’s final pre-season friendly against Brentford on Saturday passed off without a hitch.
The Mustard commentary team at Carrow Road, pictured from left, Iwan Roberts, Adam Drury and Mike Sewell.
Mustard TV said it had been praised on social media by football fans for the live broadcast, after it previously received criticism for its coverage of the West Ham match.
Managing director Fiona Ryder said: “The whole Mustard team did an amazing job for both games and have been rightly praised for the professional production and quality of the pictures, commentary and studio work.
“For reasons beyond our control, the live satellite link failed for the West Ham game, but we were able to broadcast our recorded coverage whilst the match was still being played and we apologised to our disappointed viewers.
“The Brentford match went like clockwork which we are really pleased about.”
The match was shown as part of Mustard’s On The Ball City Live show and included half-time analysis and a post-match round-up.
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My oh my how the standards and expectations at Archant have fallen if this is a now a measure of success for them.
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If was such a success, could we please have the viewing figures?
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I believe only a few city-centre fans can get this but I still back Norfolk ‘n’ Good’s request for viewing figures. After all, that’s the main criterion of success for broadcast media.
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Could we please have any figures at all for Mustard.
How much money has been poured into it? How much advertising revenue has been raised? What are the audience figures?
Time to remove the cloak of secrecy.
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In other news: Archant has praised itself after successfully publishing all of its newspapers this morning, for it’s website not crashing very often and for the Prospect House cake trolley arriving on time two days in a row.
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archantlifer asks another good question. Setting up even a modest broadcasting operation must be pricey. While we’re at it, how much did Local World pay a cutting-edge Shoreditch digital agency for the superb Quirker website? This virtual comet is blazing brilliantly across the online cosmos and surely adding tens of thousands to the revenue figures. How many tens of thousands?
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All credit to mustard TV and Archants staff for patting themselves on the back and heaping praise on each other for this incredible achievement.
Presumably getting the programme to air as planned and to live up to its title of ‘On The Ball City LIVE’ was a feat worthy of praise and celebration?
At least it was more successful than the earlier weeks ‘On The Ball City pre recorded and shown when everyone had gone to bed and it wasn’t our fault honest Jeff ‘ blank screen edition.
One out of two and a 50% success rate of showing the programmes they plan to is impressive stuff, pomagne all round and biscuits in the board room to celebrate
Oh and ‘Pictured from right’actually HTFP unless iwan Roberts has changed dramatically since I last saw him
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Good luck with getting any figures Archant lifer, some of us have been after them for ages but with sales figures being the elephant in the room we are still being fobbed off and waiting, as someone said we have more chance of getting a go in the company’s executive box at Carrow road than we do of getting a straight honest answer out of our managers ( I use the term loosely )
One apparently told his team when asked that he didn’t have the figures but would get them, six weeks on and they’re still waiting.
With regards to the Mds own praise for the ‘quality and professionalism’ how hard would it have been to cut to studio and have the presenter explain the problem and maybe chat to the pundits rather than silence and a well used ‘ sorry for the …” Cardboard screen to be displayed in complete silence?
On the subject of the presenters I would ask why the anchor man opened up by saying ‘ welcome to a rapidly filling up Carrow road’ against a back drop of an almost empty main stand,why the commentator kept giving us ‘jolly matey asides ‘about himself on air that he felt we needed to know and even suggesting that one player ‘ sort it out son’
And with two Canary legends to hand was it fair to put them squashed up in what looked and sounded like a 6ft square tin box inside an echo chamber?
Surely a bit of old carpet from one of the many empty rooms at HQ could’ve been used as sound proofing?
Costs, profits,commercial revenues, business timescales and viewing figures are all we ask.can you publish this please md? If not we will have to draw our own conclusions about how successful mustard TV really is
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Lots of giggly back slapping,whoop whopping and high fiving going on about the most basic expectation for a TV Channel, to actually broadcast a programme it said it would. But when things are truly dreadful something marginally less embarrassing must be seen as a success I suppose, just underlines how far the business has fallen in such a short period of time that we shout about this and the Md confuses ‘ anazing job’ with ‘ job’
By all means set your sights low and you’ll generally achieve mediocrity, just don’t try to pass it off as a success
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My oh my but doesn’t Archant love Archant? Shame the ‘presenters’ look so scruffy in front of the camera though – was it dress down day chaps? Very cool bud.
Viewing figures? – once you take out all the staff who are expected to watch and their friends and family, then probably about 3. Oooh – excited now. Not.
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The issue that comes up time and again with Mustard TV, apart from the sheer amateurish feel of the whole thing is the cloak of secrecy that surrounds the whole set up, the points about costs, revenues and commercial viability of the business get mentioned time and again yet no one seems to get any answers.
I know a friend in businesses who thought MTV worth discussing but when they spoke to the rep about the basics;,cost to advertise,broadcast reach,viewer numbers, long term plans and rates structures said the sales rep glazed over and just kept referring to being ‘ a good station, lots of viewers,some good bits on there’ and looking sheepish then getting a manager to revisit only to feel they were being baffled with bs,hardly giving confidence in the product so needless to say they didn’t place any orders with them,
If the people in charge of it don’t have confidence in it or who can’t speak with authority backed up with hard cold business facts and figures they might just as well shut up shop, pull the plug and cut their losses.
If it’s not working at least admit it and reduce the losses that must be accruing on a daily basis, no point flogging a dead horse or speaking when no ones listening, or in this case not watching .
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On the subject, what about the sketchy local BBC tv coverage of their pro teams. A few snatched frames ages after game and that is your lot.
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It’s hard to know where to start with Must try TV isn’t it, I am one of those who’s TV has tuned it in when I last refreshed the channels so find it in my channel list and am worrying jus drawn to it but sadly for all wrong reasons.
Certainly the shabby appearance,the false Bonhomie,the faux excitement of the presenters and the dullness of the programme subjects are some of the most annoting things and is something they really ought to work on.
A trouser press,a steam iron and some shoe polish wouldn’t go amiss guys, it’s basic stuff, first impressions count.
And if they really believe they deserve praise and accolades for getting programmes on air after spending in all likelihood a lot of £££ on the OTBCL idents and video piece for this programme alone then someone needs to have a quiet word with those running it about expectations and minimum requirements.
It’s awfulness however is its appeal and makes it must see TV,but as I say, sadly for all the wrong reasons.
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Are they delusional? or simply in denial to just how bad this dreadful station is ?
To commend the staff and accept their own self proclaimed accolades for doing ‘ an amazing job’ beggars belief.
Lapping up the outward shows of support and basking in the glory of Archants own staff praise, mostly by minions ‘ encouraged’ to tune in and comment just makes matters worse.
The Mds assessment of the ‘live’ programmes as ‘ an amazing job’ shows just how out of her depth she is
The big money is on giving it til year end, the traditional time to wield the axe or til financial year end at most before the plug is pulled and they go in search of the next quick buck on the next passing bandwagon- vanity project like this one drummed up by people who’ve mostly ‘ left the business’
So much for Jeff Henry’s tie off, sleeves up, hurrah for one Archant hollow claims about making Archant the best in the business, at what one wonders?
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I know very little about how Archant and Mustard TV operate and couldn’t give a monkey’s about Norwich City, but I was very surprised to learn via HTFP just how tiny its broadcast range is.
Surely it won’t be long before advertisers realise this, despite the siren-like approaches from the as reps and their managers in sharp suits and company cars?
If they can get away with it, I doubt Archant bosses will ever reveal the true viewing figures and simply claim it is “growing”.
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As usual, people are being negative on here rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in. So bitter. It’s great to see a positive story. I for one think it’s important to be positive about an idea, no bad how bad it is.
The way I see it, Mustard has a 50% success rate in broadcasting live football – can anyone on here say they’ve done better? I mean not counting Sky, the BBC, ITV, Eurosport, countless web streams and Periscope users.
It’s like when people criticise the Archant Investigamations Unit for stating the obvious in stories – nobody ever focuses on the times it doesn’t state the obvious. Or the time a single cartoon offended the entire Chinese nation – what about all the times Archant hasn’t printed offensive cartoons? Or what about all the times the papers haven’t printed made-up stories about giant banjos? You don’t see anyone writing stories about that.
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My real name, you forgot to mention the number of times the panto fairy has open her mouth without a four-letter word coming out.
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So ‘my real name’ you feel Archant should congratulate itself on not publishing made up stories? or setting up a special investigations unit to spend its time publishing dull and obvious facts we already knew when the editorial teams are already short staffed and stretched as it is without this farcical unit churning out pieces of no value to the reader, oh and if you can name one of these ‘ not obvious stories’ then please let us all know, likewise its staggering that you see publishing non offensive cartoons as an achievement too then?
As for getting one out of two planned live programmes to air, that’s a bit like congratulating a plumber on getting one of the jobs right that he was paid to come to your house to do or thanking an airline for landing one of its two planes safely!
And by the way the whole purpose of setting up this ridiculous station was to ringfence their area and prevent any other media group getting a foot hold in their traditional territory and taking ad revenues irrespective of whether they had the capabilities of being able to deliver watchable programmes,hence the utter amateurishness of the output.
As for all the times they haven’t been caught by banjo statue wind ups, acceptable by a school mag I guess, speechless for a multi million pound media group who expects to be taken seriously for credible journalism.
But then again your comments might be tongue in cheek and not meant to be taken seriously?
If they are then you are either very young and new to the real world of media journalism or a sorry reflection of how low the expectations from Archant have become. .
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Hot Metal – you may want to re-read my post and look up the word ‘irony’.
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