Following the final game of the season, yesterday I was emailed a survey abut my experiences as a Swans member this year.
A lot of it was pretty standard - such as quality of experience, members benefits, and so on, but there were two aspects I took particular interest in.
https://2019ssfcmembersurvey.questionpro.com/?custom1=4353847&custom2=4353847&custom3=1&custom4=Prod:Country%205%20Adult%20;St:Mbr%20;PP:Monthly%20;A:O18%20;G:M%20;Code:19G5HRZ/G4A&custom5=NSW&custom6=1978-01-18&custom7=2291&custom8=M&j=3039592&sfmc_sub=1213046875&l=504059_HTML&u=145368009&mid=1080853&jb=29&camefrom=EMCL_3039592_145368009
Firstly, I made a point that I think the team should have a women's side in the AFLW, because of what it would do for the culture of the club.
Secondly, I also said the Swans should do more to recognise the contribution membership does to support the team, especially in a non-AFL city such as Sydney.
I don' tthink the Swans do enough to recognise their members, or allow the memebrs to interact with the players or each other.
Only small issues, but I'm definitely big on the AFLW thing.
The Swans last game for 2019 turned into a big day out for this little black duck. After recording an episode of the Hunter AFL Masters pre game show, I had a 30 minute phone conference with AFL Masters. This was followed by a dash to the train station, where I jumped on and met Benny Douglas on the train. Journey down was unremarkable, then took the pilgrimage to the stadium up Devonshire street, stopping in at the Trinity for a beer along the way.
We managed to get seats on level 2 of the Members, which was good, because that section had been closed off. The seats were great:
Then everything in the game went according to plan for Swans fans: Buddy kicked 4 goals in his 300th game. Jarrod McVeigh and Keiran Jack both kicked goals in front of us in their final game before retiring. Aliir Aliir celebrated his 50th game. Reg Grundy and Nick Smith also did a lap of honour at the end as they also retired. Five players chaired off at the end of the game.
Then, halfway through the last quarter, the PA announced said they would have kick-to-kick on the ground after the game, which wasn't scheduled. But it was epic:
Then we headed back down Devonshire street for a bit of a pub crawl, before getting back on the train around 8pm, and home by 11pm. Fucking. Massive. Day.
However, I also noticed something else on the day that demonstrated the Sandvoss concept of how fandom is a blend of internal projected reflection and external globalised structures. This example also demonstrates how these can sometimes be in conflict.
So, the Sydney Swans and St Kilda Saints play a 'pride' game each year, celebrating same-sex relationships. This is easy for me to project my own values onto the Swans with, as I believe and support equality.
However, for many Swans fans, this is a hypocritical position to take, as the Swans also have a sponsorship with Qatar airways - the national carrier in a country where being gay is illegal. So how can the Swans support gay rights on the one hand, and yet support a company based in a country where being gay is illegal?
An articulation of the issues can be seen here: Rainbow fans urged Sydney Swans to drop sponsor because being gay is illegal in Qatar:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/115162857/afl-rainbow-fans-urged-sydney-swans-to-drop-sponsor-because-being-gay-is-illegal-in-qatar
The Swans operate in a globalised environment, where the national air carrier in a foreign country is a domestic sports sponsor. This globalisation may conflict with the subjective projections fans place on the Swans, whether the Swans mean for those projections to be there or not.
I've now had Kayo long enough to have settled into a routine when using it, and have identified some habits that have now emerged.
For example, because the software doesn't play well with older versions of Chromecast, I find myself almost always watching Kayo through my gaming PC. This sounds fine, but it adds extra hurdles to accessing content compared to casting from an app, which ultimately means that sometimes I choose not to access the platform, and will settle for something else on FTA, or Netflix, or YouTube, or Amazon Prime. This also means that I put my computer into 'Sleep' mode far more often. Not altogether a bad thing, but it does mean the computer may be drawing power overnight, or may open if it is inadvertently woken up.
Accordingly, I have increased my diet of content on these platforms - Netflix the most, followed by FTA and YouTube. My Amazon Prime consumption, if anything, has gone backwards, and I'm wondering if I'll keep it in the future - there's no sport on there, and they don't promote themselves especially well, and there's no fast-access button on my remote to an app on my smart TV like there is for YouTube and Netflix.
I also find myself gaming more often now. This is because the gaming PC is on more often. So, I might go gaming after I've finished watching something on Kayo, or beforehand.
I'm using the iPad far less to find and navigate content. Netflix and YouTube are accessed via apps on the smart TV, and Kayo via the gaming PC. The iPad is used mostly for the OTT apps for the FTA channels and Amazon Prime.
In terms of Kayo itself, one of the biggest negatives is instability and segmenting of programs.
Firstly, instability.
Watching via the app and casting to chomecast is almost unwatchable at times, because of the frequency of buffering issues, and a loss in fidelity. Watching via the gaming PC should be better, but there are still drop outs, probably about once every 20-30 minutes, regardless of time of day or stress placed on the app. There will be no warning, and then - bing - a Google error screen. I also now this is not unique to me. My friend Alex experiences the same issues.
The segmenting of programs is also infuriating. I will find a live game of something I want to watch, put it on, but as soon as the game is over, the app returns to the home screen. Unless I select one of the 'live' channels (which are buried all the way down the bottom of the home screen by the way), then the software only recognsies each game as a standalone event. This interrupts the continuous flow of content, and also may prevent me from watching content after the game that I may have incidentally been interested in.
The software also lacks a Search function. If I want to watch a 30 For 30 documentary, I can't just go to some search field, type in the name of the doco, and find it. Instead, I have to navigate around the different (un-sortable) categories and find it that way - also time consuming and a barrier to access.
Perhaps one good feature is the playback controls. It's easy to miss the start of a program and come in either at the start or 'live'. Scrubbing through ads is easy if you miss the start. Navigating around inside the app is relatively straightforward.
Another good feature is the range of content, which is ok, although another negative is there are no highlight cut-downs (or 'mini's') of the AFL games, only full-game replays. this must have something to do with Kay not having highlight rights, because there are mini's for NRL and other domestic sports.
So, on the whole, probably 7 out of 10 so far.
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This Saturday I'm going to the final Swans home game for the year, and my final membership game as well. It's going to be a big day. Unfortunately I miss out on an AFL Master intraclub game at Medowie, but I get to see:
- Buddy's 300th game
- Jarrod McVeigh's final game
- Keiran jack's final game
- Nick Smith's final game
The game is also the annual 'Pride' theme game against St Kilda, so it's good to be a part of an event that attempts to raise awareness about a cause I also believe in.
And we might even win!!
The 1-month subscription with Watch AFL is coming to an end, and so here are the comparisons against Kayo as the preferred service:
- Little things make the ultimate difference. For instance, while Watch AFL may be stable and suffer from less drop-outs, it lacks in other key areas. For example, the maximum resolution is 720p, while Kayo is 1080p. This makes a big difference in the quality of the picture.
- On Watch AFL, the ball flickers while in flight, whereas on Kayo the ball flight tracks smoothly. The flickering is annoying after a while.
- Every step to setup the steam is a disincentive to use it. For example, Watch AFL requires using a VPN, which is an extra step. Kayo does not.
- Also, Watch AFL will only work on a tablet depending on the VPN software on the tablet, and it only chromecasts to 3rd gen devices or later, which mine is not. Kayo does allow chromecasting to 1st gen devices, but it's not great. However, this is still one less step than Watch AFL, and very similar to the old Foxtel Now set up I had, so familiar and relatively straightforward.
- Via the product page, the chromecast can also not be used for downloaded content, and the product does not support HDMI output.
- Obvisoulsy Kayo has more content, and for less money. Kayo has all the other sport content, for $25 a month, while Watch AFL is exclusively AFL (basically it's the Fox Footy Channels) for $33 a month, plus the cost of the VPN, which is about $60 a year.
- Kayo has other features that benefit it. Both platforms allow the user to hide scores of active games (i.e., no spoilers) but only Kayo has multi-screen views and the timeline highlights. I wouldn't have thought so, but these functions are great on Friday and Saturday night when there is a lot of sport on.
- In Watch AFL's favour, there are no ad-breaks during play, even when it is a Channel 7 game. Kayo carries Channel 7 ads on the games produced by Channel 7.
- Similarly, Watch AFL will include the score-bug in the bottom right hand corner of the screen for other games that are going on, even for Channel 7 games. Kayo only has this feature for the games it is producing.
However, the experiment was worthwhile for several reasons.
Firstly, it proves that AFL geo-blocks can be defeated by a VPN. It's relatively easy. It's relatively affordable.
It also demonstrates how far Foxtel has come in recent years to develop products for OTT audiences, and it demonstrates how far pricing has come down over that same time.
It also demonstrates what areas these products need to work on. Instability is a big issue for Kayo. Fidelity is an issue for the Watch AFL app.
I believe the Watch AFL app could also be more affordable, with introductory trial periods, or a half-year subscription - I have no idea why they got rid of this, although I believe it may have something to do with the fact that this was not an auto-renewing subscription.
Ultimately, the AFL and Kayo may want to look at improving their product so it can't be beaten by a VPN, although I imagine Foxtel don't care too much about this, because it means people are probably paying more for it than Kayo, although I would also think the AFL gets some cut of the subscriptions.
Conversely, the AFL may need to look at how this product is being used to avoid other paid portals, and possibly eroding the value of their other rights.
Overall an interesting period, but I definitely found myself thinking of using Kayo first when it came to watching games of AFL.
