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New digital platform - ForestTV!
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Ravi
Upper Decker
Can we watch Port Vale's YouTube channel instead? Excellent quality. Stark contrast to the rubbish tv offered by Forest last season.
It's Baggio
John Robertson
The Burnley game is being streamed on their TV service. Maybe worth firing them an email to see if they fancy covering our first couple of league games as well.
To be fair after the debacle that was ITV deal 20 odd years ago, seems the football league didn't have the slightest clue if ifollow was fit for purpose. In this day and age its using its own servers with countless off the shelf streaming servers out there that could deal with the demand. Seems the football league picked the highest bidder and to hell with what they were offering.
Forest used to win awards for their website every year, then the webmaster Geoff Peabody retired and Forest signed on for that corporate template website shoved down the throats of almost every football league club.
Maybe it was cost saving, but the generic feeling of the official website has been terrible for years.
Maybe it was cost saving, but the generic feeling of the official website has been terrible for years.
SDRED
Youth Team
It is getting very close to matchday, anyone heard if Forest TV will be available for purchase, nothing on the Forest website. I think this is really piss poor!
Nope.
I have sent 2 emails to them both have had an automated reply, which all the information is for LAST season. The message says if you want to contact an adviser please write your message and press reply.
The message reappears in your inbox within 3 minuets, with no reply.
Near the end of last season when I sent an email asking about the new streaming service, it was the ticket office that replied to me. I wouldn't be surprised if support for the streaming service isn't worked out yet, but you'd think they'd know pricing and availability at the very least.
Well after the recent debacle of no stock of shirts in the club shop (or the outlet in the Market Square) and zero Information about the new ForestTV service for overseas fans, and messages to the club being met with (as above) useless automated replies, I am not alone in feeling the Football Club are going to have a hard time convincing me to throw another penny their way.
Why. Why. Every f***ing season, do Forest manage to make an absolute bollocks of things that should be relatively straightforward (and indeed, seem to be for many other clubs).
I despair of this club. I really do.
Why. Why. Every f***ing season, do Forest manage to make an absolute bollocks of things that should be relatively straightforward (and indeed, seem to be for many other clubs).
I despair of this club. I really do.
SDRED
Youth Team
The only good news for those of us over in the USA is that the game v Coventry this Sunday is on SKY at 8:25 am Pacific Coast Time therefore it can be seen on ESPN+ and will not be on Forest TV anyway except perhaps audio. Agree totally with you Strummer nothing less than disgusting communication from the club.
General Lee Hicket
First Team Squad
There were a fair few games last season on ESPN+ anyways, much better value than ifollow plus I could watch it on Apple TV. If this new service I can’t watch on TV I’m not gonna get it, was really shit having to watch the game on my phone.
TommyT
Jack Burkitt
Be great to see us using a recognised platform built for streaming, Twitch or YouTube would be a powerful and progressive partnership that would see many other clubs follow suit and could even develop our reach as a club, youtubeTV offers numerous pay per view packages specifically UFC and the quality is without parallel as the club would stream direct onto the most robust service out there offering fans all the usability of the YT platform, similarly Twitch is a great platform for live stream events
But no, let’s just stick to a service that not only we have to pay for but is riddled with terrible motion graphics and the worst advert content known to man...it’s an insult
TommyT
Jack Burkitt
It’s an absolute piss take to be be supplied advert heavy subscription content....you actually can’t make it up, either keep the ads and make it free, or ditch the ads and make it subs.
Jokers.
Jokers.
TommyT
Jack Burkitt
Hey strummer, can you make LTLF a premium service, but please keep all the ad banners!
It's Baggio
John Robertson
Forest TV has certainly kept its subscribers engaged over the summer. The latest vid is highlights of the PNE game. 
It’s as if we were to start charging users for the privilege of replying to threads!
With most of these services, there are either advert-free, subscription models (such as Netflix, Spotify and YouTube‘s premium offering) or free, advert-supported tiers (like the free version of Spotify, and YouTube‘s free-tier, both of which are bundled with adverts. There are also subscription only offerings like DAZN, Sky and Amazon Prime.
Forest‘s streaming option worked out (for me, in euros anyway) one and a half times the monthly cost of Spotify or Netflix, for a vastly inferior product, one that is still hobbled with intrusive adverts (which - infuriatingly - cut in over the half-time and full-time analysis), and whose quality is (compared to other video streaming platforms) dreadful.
Because they can hold folk to ransom, the price is disproportionately high, and they’ve no compulsion to ever improve the service. IFollow was awful for the cost, and the support was (as per usual with offshored offerings) very poor, and that, coupled with often rubbish, stuttering picture quality, made it an annoyance because it felt you were being somewhat taken advantage of, paying a high price for a poor offering.
Netflix is £8 a month for „all you can eat“; Spotify is £10 a month again for everything, in comparison, Forest‘s IFollow offering for overseas viewers worked out at £12.10 a month, but that only provided coverage during the season, and because of other broadcast deals, many matches were „blacked out“ of IFollow (because they were on another broadcaster in the same country).
In Germany, the Championship is shown on DAZN, which I have (that costs £10.23 a month, but for that, I additionally get Serie A, Ligue Un, the Portuguese League, as well as the Bundesliga (one or two live matches a week plus highlights) as well as MotoGP, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NFL, college football, the NHL, the UFC, and loads of other stuff I’ve forgotten about. Oh and the Champions League.
Even Sky is only €30 a month (£25.58) but for that you get every Bundesliga match (bar those on Fridays on DAZN) and the famous „Konferenz“ (which Switches between all the matches as goals go in). Of course, you get the Premier League with that as well, as well as Formula One.
Last season, nine Forest Matches were „blacked out“ because they were on DAZN, so that limited what was on IFollow. In those scenarios you get only audio (but that’s Colin Fray so not too bad).
But, compared to what’s out there in the market, IFollow was overpriced crap.
I was hoping the new „Forest TV“ service would be something new, and perhaps a better value, higher quality service. However as it is less than five days now before the season kicks-off, and there has been not a peep from Forest about the new service, I have to say, this is incredibly disappointing.
But then, as with the current stock debacle with replica kit and training gear, it’s just another in the long line of being let down by the club.
They could, and should, do better.
BuckeyeRed
Jack Armstrong
Forest TV has certainly kept its subscribers engaged over the summer. The latest vid is highlights of the PNE game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayu212jfBY
Matt
Stuart Pearce
Their first mistake was not calling it TrickyTreeV
TommyT
Jack Burkitt
But like you say, they don't need to as we have no other choice of product to indulge our URL Forest needs. So they can pretty much offer zero production value and just watch the $£€ roll in.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
But the problem was, Forest joined the EFL-controlled IFollow platform, whose service tier offering might have been acceptable in 2005, but not in 2021.
We were told that the club bringing it in-house and launching their own service would introduce a better, more comprehensive offering, at a higher quality.
So far, less than five days before the start of the season, there has been zero evidence of this.
And frankly, that’s not good enough.
(Of course, I hope that in the next 72 hours or so, Forest will launch the Championship‘s most high-tech streaming service, with ultra-HD footage, behind-the-scenes documentaries, match commentary from Colin Fray, Steve Hodge, Brian Laws, Steve Sutton and TheFormerRedsCaptainJohnMcGovern, coverage presented by Jermaine Jenas, with in-Studio tactical analysis from Martin O‘Neill, Roy Keane, Tony Woodcock and Trevor Francis, and a regular guest-panel of former Forest luminaries, to a soundtrack by James Dean Bradfield. But then I remember it’s Forest, so we‘ll probably just get a „Coming Soon!“ page on the website that’ll have a background image of „404 Not Found“ or something).
I‘m not a bitter sceptic, honest.
TommyT
Jack Burkitt
Kinda thought this is why Johnny O was brought in as a Director, though his credentials as a Producer/director don’t necessarily correlate with a specialism or interest in streaming and platform builds... let’s see, but it’s pretty last minute to suggest anything of a robust quality will be unveiled.
FBS
Steve Chettle
When I tried to log in I got the below error message. Which, obviously, is clear as day what to do for anyone who isn't knowledgeable with these errors.... oh wait, no it is. Even I don't have a clue what it meant.
By chance I noticed the Login username section had added a space at the end of my email. So I deleted that and tried again. Sure enough it worked.
But I only did that by chance. Suspect this will happen a lot this season.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
By chance I noticed the Login username section had added a space at the end of my email. So I deleted that and tried again. Sure enough it worked.
But I only did that by chance. Suspect this will happen a lot this season.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
When I tried to log in I got the below error message. Which, obviously, is clear as day what to do for anyone who isn't knowledgeable with these errors.... oh wait, no it is. Even I don't have a clue what it meant.
By chance I noticed the Login username section had added a space at the end of my email. So I deleted that and tried again. Sure enough it worked.
But I only did that by chance. Suspect this will happen a lot this season.
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Obviously (because I’m a saddo) I know exactly what that means.
I also know such messages should be transparent and not visible to the end user (validation errors should be wrapped in either a „friendly“ message or an additional sub-form).
If such basic stuff hasn’t been properly implemented, it does not hold out much hope for the rest of the Platform!
BryanRoy
Stuart Pearce
Indeed. Talk is Jonny O has taken a back seat.
But the fact we keep moaning about a missed opportunity in getting a real product for Forest TV is really disappointing.
Former players opinion, previews, reviews. Regular interviews with coaches/academy and that sort of content is what people would sign up for.
I just don't get it.
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