by Ollie »
11 May 2008 23:23
Evening all. First of all, commiserations on going down (feeling a bit like Sir Dodger, spending months in the void then swooping back on a fateful day). Not a great day here either given my boys lost 8-1, and have suffered enough relegations to know the feeling. Good luck next season.
Second, I think there are crossed wires going on here. RoyalBlue, am I right in thinking you mean the ability to listen online after the games, to hear the BBCRB post-match stuff? Cos I think Andy took "post match coverage online" to mean the written reports and features provided at bbc.co.uk/berkshire.
I don't work for BBCRB any more (thus long absence from posting here) but in my immensely geeky BBC-web-journo experience, I think I can answer RoyalBlue's question.
The "listen live" link on the website goes dead during match commentaries - that much most people now know, and it's due to a contractual obligation. As far as I am aware, no BBC local station can broadcast Football League or Premier League games online, since clubs monetise the commentary by making it available via their "World" packages on their own sites.
Problem is, either a techy or a journalist needs to manually block that listen live button each game, since the thing can't automatically work out whether it's broadcasting a game or not.
It used to be my job to be the evil dark lord turning off the live coverage for everybody - and since I couldn't predict how much injury time there would be, or if the game would kick off a minute or two late, I'd block it from 2:59 (on a 3pm kick-off) til 5pm, figuring games that went on beyond 5pm were rare beasts. That way you'd get your post-match chat back asap without accidentally broadcasting any live commentary (and by the 11th minute of second half stoppage time, I'd expect most people to have stopped trying it).
Since I've left I don't know who manages blocking the link, but I imagine they're flying slightly less by the seat of their pants and blocking it right through til 6pm in case of delay, meteor strike, etc. Thus no post-match chat.
(Note that I left in November so any cheeky online listening in March was nowt to do with me, guv.)
HTH, and all that.
Ollie