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Newspaper shows live footage of football fans watching match in pub

A regional daily ran a live stream showing football supporters watching their local derby in a pub on its patch.

The Chronicle, Newcastle, broadcast live footage of Newcastle United fans watching the Tyne-Wear derby against local rivals Sunderland on Sunday using the mobile phone app Periscope.

The stream aimed to show the “human drama” of the match, which finished 1-1, rather than what was actually taking place on the field.

The idea was inspired by the success of Channel 4 show Gogglebox, which broadcasts footage of families reacting to television programmes they are watching.

A screenshot from the live stream of fans watching the match in a pub in Newcastle

A screenshot from the live stream of fans watching the match in a pub in Newcastle

Mark Douglas, The Chronicle’s Newcastle United editor, said: “This was the biggest derby for 30 years so we wanted to make sure we had every conceivable angle covered.

“It went without saying that our brilliant team would provide exhaustive coverage of the build-up to the derby, the game itself and the tempestuous aftermath but the challenge for us was to try and use new techniques and technology to come up with fresh ways of covering the game.

“We’ve been at all 156 of the fixtures between these two teams and this was the first time we’ve ever tried something like this.

“Inevitably some people will question why anyone would ever want to watch people watching the match but as the success of Gogglebox shows, sometimes the human drama of the day is every bit as compelling as what goes on for 90 minutes.

“It ended up being a really popular part of our matchday coverage.”

The stream was later edited into a short video for The Chronicle’s website, featuring supporters reaction to the game’s key moments.

6 comments

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  • March 22, 2016 at 10:39 am
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    A newspaper trying something different? This is an outrage! How dare they spend any more than five minutes away from hard news.
    In the days of hot stone, you’d never see so much as a second wasted. Unless we were in the pub, for hours, every day. Ahem.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 11:17 am
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    An excellent idea, well-executed. Now use it to expose pubs which illegally broadcast foreign TV feeds of English football.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 2:00 pm
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    Why not just send a reporter round the local pubs to see which ones are broadcasting illegal foreign feeds?

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  • March 22, 2016 at 3:43 pm
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    In whose interests would such an expose be? Not the pubs. Not the drinkers. Rupert Murdoch would be happy though.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 5:38 pm
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    I’m surprised anyone could find the feed on the Chron’s website, or as it’s more popularly known after the last week or so, NUFC News, because visitors will eventually find some news buried below the deluge of NUFC clickbait.

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