IT’S THE QUESTION on every Irish sports fan’s lips tonight — what will be the next move for Team Off The Ball?
Newstalk confirmed today that the five men behind the award-winning show — Eoin McDevitt, Ciaran Murphy, Ken Early, Simon Hick and Mark Horgan — have left the station, effective immediately. The Off the Ball show, which has been running since 2002, will be anchored by sports editor Ger Gilroy along with Joe Molloy, Dave McIntyre and Cian Murtagh.
Paddy Power have opened a market on the next move for the famous five of sports broadcasting and installed RTE Radio as the 6/4 favourites to snap up Team OTB.
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Is a TV deal in the offing? Or will the team strike out alone in the brave new world of digital-only broadcasting?
If they wanted to be on earlier why not put them on earlier instead of George Hook. I think if they were on earlier they would get more listeners. Certainly it would be my choice over any other radio programme so I’d like it to be on when at a time that it’s most likely I’ll be in a position to tune in
The point is that George is in competition with Matt Cooper (just upstairs) and Mary Wilson on Radio 1. It’s a time of the evening when lots of listeners from a variety of demographics are listening and therefore prime advertising time. That’s why it’s known as prime time. Sports radio should start at 7 or be on a station that doesn’t do current affairs programmes. 2fm is the only place they’d get the 6pm slot.
“The Right Hook is the most commercially successful show at the station and management were not of a mind to alter its format. When no agreement was reached the team gave notice but were told they were not required to see it out.”
Dónal. Exactly it is prime time when there is the most amount of people listening to radio. So why not put them in competition with Drive Time and Matt Cooper as I said I would pick them over all previously mentioned and I bet a lot more would too. Off the ball was different and new and that is something that made it great so why not try to keep making it great instead of sticking with Hook and trying to copy what Today Fm and RTE1 are already doing and getting well beaten into 3rd.
It does seem badly managed too (from both sides). The problem with a resignation is it only carries weight while its a threat once you go through with it, you’ve lost everything. Equally Newstalk probably won’t get everything OTB had going for it back no matter what they do.
I would stay away from the betting on PP. The OTB lads didn’t all walk to join another show on radio or TV or anything like that. They approached the Newstalk management about moving the show to a 18:00 start and they refused so they left. Management called their bluff I think and it has backfired on the OTB guys.
The PP betting is that all 5 of them appear on a new show together. There is NO chance of that happening. RTE is leading the betting but they barely have a penny so how could they afford to hire 5 new people? No radio or TV station could afford this.
McDevitt does a lot of work for Setanta so he will continue with that. The others will show up on various radio stations as reporters. None will have as high profile jobs as the ones they just left.
I have to think there’s more to it but if that really is all there is to it then it’s probably the end of that bunch as a team .
mcdevitt and early are established enough to carve out good careers. Murph has a great sporting knowledge and is very insightful when he wants to be but is a bit typecast as the “funny ” guy.
would be a shame if it’s the end , it’s only when u listen to the likes of des Cahill , Marty morrisey and Paul Collins that you appreciate how good OTB is/was
Erm, why isn’t TheScore in the running? Give these lads a platform for opinion pieces and a daily YouTube slot, then break into the UK…
Do I have to draw you guys a diagram?!
It’s time this country had a station dedicated to sports! Talksport in the UK has been a massive hit. Covers everything and has all day to do it. With these 5 guys there is a huge opportunity to maybe go down that road.
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If they wanted to be on earlier why not put them on earlier instead of George Hook. I think if they were on earlier they would get more listeners. Certainly it would be my choice over any other radio programme so I’d like it to be on when at a time that it’s most likely I’ll be in a position to tune in
Hard to believe that Newstalk would cite commercial reasons for sticking with Hook.
I would suggest that even his listeners would accept the last hour of his show peters out having covered everything newsworthy between 4:30 and 6pm
The point is that George is in competition with Matt Cooper (just upstairs) and Mary Wilson on Radio 1. It’s a time of the evening when lots of listeners from a variety of demographics are listening and therefore prime advertising time. That’s why it’s known as prime time. Sports radio should start at 7 or be on a station that doesn’t do current affairs programmes. 2fm is the only place they’d get the 6pm slot.
according to the IT,
“The Right Hook is the most commercially successful show at the station and management were not of a mind to alter its format. When no agreement was reached the team gave notice but were told they were not required to see it out.”
Dónal. Exactly it is prime time when there is the most amount of people listening to radio. So why not put them in competition with Drive Time and Matt Cooper as I said I would pick them over all previously mentioned and I bet a lot more would too. Off the ball was different and new and that is something that made it great so why not try to keep making it great instead of sticking with Hook and trying to copy what Today Fm and RTE1 are already doing and getting well beaten into 3rd.
It does seem badly managed too (from both sides). The problem with a resignation is it only carries weight while its a threat once you go through with it, you’ve lost everything. Equally Newstalk probably won’t get everything OTB had going for it back no matter what they do.
I would stay away from the betting on PP. The OTB lads didn’t all walk to join another show on radio or TV or anything like that. They approached the Newstalk management about moving the show to a 18:00 start and they refused so they left. Management called their bluff I think and it has backfired on the OTB guys.
The PP betting is that all 5 of them appear on a new show together. There is NO chance of that happening. RTE is leading the betting but they barely have a penny so how could they afford to hire 5 new people? No radio or TV station could afford this.
McDevitt does a lot of work for Setanta so he will continue with that. The others will show up on various radio stations as reporters. None will have as high profile jobs as the ones they just left.
Well someone better snap em up n get em back on the wireless!!!!
I have to think there’s more to it but if that really is all there is to it then it’s probably the end of that bunch as a team .
mcdevitt and early are established enough to carve out good careers. Murph has a great sporting knowledge and is very insightful when he wants to be but is a bit typecast as the “funny ” guy.
would be a shame if it’s the end , it’s only when u listen to the likes of des Cahill , Marty morrisey and Paul Collins that you appreciate how good OTB is/was
Erm, why isn’t TheScore in the running? Give these lads a platform for opinion pieces and a daily YouTube slot, then break into the UK…
Do I have to draw you guys a diagram?!
They could do also do a quarterly report on daft.ie. Just kidding ronan, I think they are better suited to the wireless. A slot on joe Duffy maybe.
It’s time this country had a station dedicated to sports! Talksport in the UK has been a massive hit. Covers everything and has all day to do it. With these 5 guys there is a huge opportunity to maybe go down that road.
I can feel a poll comin on…..
Adebayo