I worked in the media department a full decade ago and the lack of quality content was the same back then. The view on Player (as it was called before iFollow) was always, “Nah, it’s just for people abroad and outside Oxfordshire to listen to the games and that innit, no point in even doing any of our own stuff on it”. We could only produce ANY form of video content on one of the old Flip cameras and a fairly basic Windows laptop - both of which were very kindly donated to us by supporters - because the club refused to put a single pound into it. I think even the tripod and the bag to carry the laptop in was a gift, and maybe even the 3G dongle we had to use to do galleries and reports on a match day. We were told that if we were going to even bother doing anything to only speak to the manager plus a player on the normal press day - Monday for a Tuesday game, Thursday for a Saturday game - plus any new signing interviews and that was about it. Occasionally we would sneak in extra player interviews or go a bit rogue, like when I went and did a video in GAME in Cowley with Jake Wright, Rhys Day and Damian Batt around FIFA 11 coming out, which was after we were back in the league so the angle was ‘We’re back on FIFA’, but even then these were rare and frowned upon. We could also only edit on the built-in Windows software, which was a bag of turds. Eventually we got so hacked off with the whole process that we started using as many ridiculous edits and cut effects as we could. I remember doing a very inappropriate ‘star swipe’ transition on a Chris Wilder interview that was completely at odds with the tone, because after a full year of working like that the entire thing was a bit of a p*ss take. I used to campaign tirelessly for us to spend more time and resources on digital content because at the time we had over 6,000 season ticket holders, and my view was always that if we could get even a quarter of them to spend £30 a year on extra content it was worth pursuing. Plus even more exiles would follow, let alone the ST holders we could appeal to, because the content would provide more value and more subscribers would organically sign up as a result. I also tried multiple times to discuss offering Player as part of an increased season ticket package, ie buy a season of Player at the same time as you get your ST and the subscription add-on would be half price, but nobody was ever interested in even discussing it. That it’s nearly 2021 and nothing has really moved forward on a lot of those fronts isn’t great. It’s an almost exclusively digital world, more so than ever after this year, but there’s still nowhere near enough emphasis on it from the media and comms side. From a marketing and branding standpoint the digital role is arguably the single most important position in any football club that isn’t related to the coaching and playing staff. That we very much make do and cobble bits together on that side, so long after those original failings, but have a programme editor on staff is backwards. There really needs to be greater emphasis on where the resources go - you can be limited and still make the best of what you have. We’ve never really done that.
Chris is a good bloke - he’s a mate and he loves the club - but even without considering the fact that I like stroking his head (behave) nobody in his position could be anything approaching confrontational. He’s the internal media guy and is essentially the public relations manager in charge of making sure that anything going out is in a good light, so he can’t do anything but be positive. Anybody at any club in that role is essentially a cheerleader - they’re not going to pay anybody a salary to have a ruck and slag the manager or players off. The local media are the only ones in a position to provide any sort of friction or a slightly rougher edge, which is why I don’t like the fact that somebody like PRB is involved on a home match day. Even Nathan being the stadium announcer is a bit iffy in principle, but I’ve seen him rub enough people up in the past to know that he’s capable of asking things that need to be asked, or giving somebody an elbow, despite that slight crossover. I think he’s too taken in by Robinson and I’ve suggested that to his face - we used to see and speak to each other most home games and that’ll still be the case in the future - but he’s a good broadcaster who will push buttons when he gets to a certain point. In terms of Chris or anyone else on the payroll, though... can’t happen. Nor should it, really. I do agree that the content could be more imaginative and unique, even if it’ll never be something capable of initiating a ‘backstage brawl’ after a bad game.
That said, I paid good money to see the occasional WWE style scuffle. The sight of Robinson or one of the players giving CW a body slam in the showers, before CW turned the tide and hit them with a chair before choking them with a boot lace, is in my special video collection