A regional publisher’s debut football broadcast was marred by technical problems which meant the match was not shown live.
Archant’s Mustard TV had been due to show Norwich City’s friendly game against West Ham United last night.
However, viewers were instead greeted with a message, pictured below, stating the channel was having “technical difficulties” when they tuned in to watch the match.
The Norwich-based station has blamed a failed satellite link for the issue.
Picture by Tom King
A full recording of the game was made available for supporters to watch, and began broadcasting while the second half was still in progress.
Mustard TV says it is now concentrating its efforts on ensuring its plans to broadcast Saturday’s friendly against Brentford live will go ahead as planned.
Managing director Fiona Ryder said: “For reasons beyond our control, the live satellite link failed, but we were able to broadcast our recorded coverage whilst the match was still being played.
“We are as disappointed as all the Norwich City fans that we were unable to broadcast live and wish to apologise for that.
“All our efforts are now going into ensuring that Saturday’s game against Brentford is broadcast successfully.”
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Ah! I see
So it’s not the common held belief then that they didn’t get clearance to broadcast the match live then??
And realised either just before kick off or knew earlier and chose to trot out thus lame excuse
Funny how there were 3-4 online feeds all showing the game and none of those went down
How odd that 15 minutes before the show was due to start this notice came up, no voice over, no sound link, no studio explanation and lo and behold just before du time viewers were told that all had been fixed and they’d show the whole game once the match had ended.
Complere fiasco at the one time they get people to tune into this dreadful staton as a showcase for themselves.
Not only will they lose what few viewers they have but they’ve alienated those people who were willing to give it a try
Yellow card for the excuse
Double yellow card for showing just how incompetent they really are
Red card for the embarrassing Mustard TV
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Like the Daily Record’s famed Scotland friendly fiasco, lapped up by the Sun. Embarrassing? You bet. Some publishers should just stick to what they’re good at…no, wait. Scrap that…
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Mustard TV is staffed by a very poorly paid bunch of kids, operating out of facilities that used to be storage cupboards. Not the biggest surprise that they couldn’t pull off a fairly complex live outside broadcast in their relative infancy.
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So my subscription to Mustard’s coverage of the Champions League isn’t looking too hopeful then?
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@Juan Archant – surely they weren’t going to film it themselves? The run-of-the-mill broadcast cameras they’re using for their news reports can’t be anywhere near good enough. Proper TV channels use huge, specialised cameras with an enormous zoom range, all mounted on the spot in a decent vantage point with a heavy tripod. Those lightweight cameras and tripods are fine for one-man (or woman) news shoots but just aren’t cut out for sports broadcasts. I can’t imagine how awful the results would look.
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James – I can imagine how awful the results would look. About as awful as most of this company’s productions look. I like that phrase “proper TV channels” too.
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Archant unable to organise a p*ss up in a brewery shocker.
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It really is impossible to take the awful Mustard TV seriously isn’t it, this is just the latest in the endless catalogue of own goals, foot shooting, banana skin sliding Embarassments for Archant.
Commercially it a drain, radio business advertisers want exposure,reach, defined demographics and an audience none of which mustard TV can deliver with so few viewers and such a tiny broadcast area, time to pull the plug before any more damage is done to their already tarnished reputation,no ones watching so no one will care.
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Blimey! If you lot work/worked in the regional press no wonder the forecasts look dull.
Credit where credit is due, here is a local media firm doing innovative stuff with a premier league club.
“Come on, let’s be ‘aving you!”
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To think, a company which once mocked the Chinese space mission is unable to broadcast a television match.
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As I said on previous Mustard TV thread, I’m still awaiting a reply from them as to how I can tune in my new TV set. Having read this, I’m not going to chase them any further. It seems poor broadcasting service goes hand in hand with poor customer service.
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Sugarbeet: You’re right, we are far too negative. That “technical difficulties” sign is state-of-the-art cutting edge presentation, and cancelling an advertised live match without notice or explanation to potential viewers is certainly “innovative stuff”. I await Mustard’s next TV triumph with bated breath.
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@sugarbeet you obviously haven’t seen mustard TV if you think they’re doing ‘innovative stuff’
if by ‘innovative stuff’ you mean NOT showing a live match they’ve been crowing about in the build up and allowing a presenter to say the C word on air then your definition of ‘ innovative stuff’ and mine are poles apart
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If the broadcast failed “for reasons beyond our control” how can the company do anything to ensure the second match is “broadcast successfully”? Just curious.
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@johnwiliams
Whilst I agree lack of response is poor customer care you don’t need mustard TV to tell you how to retune your TV set, go to menu>set up > and select auto tuning , this will scan for all available channels, it will fine up on channel 8
However unless you are within their small broadcast reach area you won’t be able to get it
You’re welcome
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They can’t ex insider unless it’s a broadcast rights issue and not a “satellite” issue in which case they will have had four days to resolve the matter,however it will be interesting to see what excuse they come up with if they are not allowed to show the Saturday game live and what the md has to say about it this time,also i would like to know what’s being said in the halls of power on the top floor behind closed doors about this whole sorry Mustard TV fiasco
I wonder where the bright sparks who gave mustard TV the thumbs up are now?
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Mr Ed, I’ve tried that numerous times. Despite living not a million miles from Norwich, in the heart of the circulation area of the EDP, which is full of Mustard TV plugs, it seems I’m not in range. A simple emailed reply would’ve told me that, however.
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John, if you look online, there are maps showing MTV’s broadcast range.
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Thanks, Cast aside, I’ve seen the map and as far as I can see I live within the transmission area. In fact, the transmitter it uses is visible from the end of my road, but heigh ho.
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Mr ed is right john Williams,and I think you’re failing to understand just how localised and poor the reach of Mustrd TV is, it’s purely city based,
If you’ve tried it numerous times already and can’t get it then you’re out of broadcast range, the fact they’re filling the EDP with filler ads and plugs for mustard TV and that you live in the heart of the circulation area is irrelevant, mustard TV is not the temevisual equivalent of the EDP , it’s only available a few miles from Norwich city centre , if you’re not located there you won’t be able to get it. And yes an emailed reply is not much to ask for, seems you only get action of you write to Simon Bax or Jeff Henry direct, then the yes men jump to attention
So if you want a response pen an email to those chappies
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priceless. with all the so call technological enhancements that proper TV stations have at their disposal, and with their so called industry experts (hint: the MD), when it comes down to actually putting their money where their experienced mouth are, they still can’t get the job done. How much longer does the norwich public have to put up with this farce!!!!!!!!!!
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If you recall its launch was delayed 3 or 4 times with lame excuses as to why and kept being put back and back so with time running out and questions being asked about its viability, content, lack of ad people selling any adverts into it it was thrown out in March last year just to get it out there ( the excuse book was empty)
the results have been catastrophic and made the company a laughing stock, manned by juniors on the cheap and print journos desperate to get in front of a camera it’s no wonder it’s been a complete shambles from the off.
Failure to identify a need for this channel( there isn’t one) to find enough local advertisers to place sustainable ad revenue and to be able to man it with competent broadcast media experts had resulted in the complete fiasco you see before you today.
As has been said so many times, the sooner the plug is pulled on this latest Archant money drain the better.
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It would be a shame if they couldn’t funnel some of their broadcast resources into a smaller-scale endeavour. If you ignore their disastrous attempts at television-style ‘programming’, some of their 1-2 minute news videos are pretty decent and would make good web content for the EDP site. Rather than scrapping it completely, one wonders whether they could integrate a much more modest video offering into their existing print/web operation.
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Thank you Employee X, I only been going by the map of the alleged broadcast area, which in effect seems to be a lot tighter than indicated. Taking into account the number of commercial and business premises with a few miles of Prospect Hose, I dread to think the actual size of the viewing audience.
I will have too settle for watching live coverage of tomorrow’s match on line – assuming they put a shilling in the metre.
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James makes a good point. There are actually some good people working for Mustard, making a decent first of it in difficult circumstances. Presumably there has also been some investment in equipment. It would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The problem is that the very concept is fundamentally flawed. I’ve watched Mustard once and only then because somebody I new was on it. And I’m one of the ‘lucky’ few who’s actually managed to tune their TV to it.
Mustard is never going to work as a television channel. Everybody knows it and it’s only a matter of time before Archant finds an exit strategy. But if this serves as a catalyst for a decent video service to brighten up a currently drab digital offering, then some good can come of it.
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