The fall and fall of Premium Television

 

When I first when on the net in December 1994, I searched long and hard for a QPR fan based website. Google didn't exist back then.

 

I found one in 1998 - "Planet" had set up some websites for various clubs, QPR being one of them. Pre Man U TV, Chelsea TV and Everton TV etc. the sites were excellent for stats, who's online etc. In fact the only problem was that they were sometimes very slow in updating. Mind you, servers were using "modern" 28kps modems for dial up!

 

Then along came Premium Television under the guise of NTL. they offered all the football league clubs outside the premiership bucket loads of money for a 17 year deal for exclusive rights to create, run websites for each clubs. The clubs whom were not gettign any real dosh from the premier league masters grabbed such a golden chance with both hands and the deal was signed. About 2 years into such a deal PTV (Premium Television forthwith) thought they'd make heaps of dosh - more than they were paying out.......But they weren't. Their ambitions were more than what they were able to supply and the complaints started. Next thing PTV or the parent company NTL applied for and were granted bankrupcy. This absolving them of any future payments to the clubs. Some clubs had budgeted their PTV earnings into the running of their club and now found themselves financially f**ked!. PTV then renegotiated a new deal for much lesser amounts and the clubs all agreed - to relieve some of their debt. But again the financial winfall for both clubs & PTV failed to materialise.

 

PTV /NTL again tried to file for bankrupcy but it didn't work this time. PTV currently still run the websites for the football league clubs  inluding the conference league but outside the Premiership. this season the Football League took a more active roll and told PTV this is what they want their sites to look like and this also applied to the various clubs' messageboards........

 

Enter me into the fray.....

 

On July 31st 2001 Planet had their official club site licence relinquished and PTV took over from that day forth. On the QPR Message board, myself and a few others moved over to see what it was all about. The site was much quicker for sure, the stats etc had all gone and the layour had a bit of colour. The QPR site was run by Jim Frayling at the QPR club. Jim was/is an awesome fella and could see outside the square. he was open to suggestions on how to improve the look and feel of the site. From day one, there were problems, error messages, slow uploading times lack of stats etc. BUT it did allow unbeknown to PTV - html coding. that was us, we added music, photos to our threads and had a good time. The site still had problems which were reported to PTV without so much as an acknowledgement - this pissed fans off heaps. We just wanted someone at PTV to tell us what was going on, warn us of any impending network outages for any upgrades but PTV replied with a two fingered salute. Jim Frayling moved on from QPR to other things and Billy Rice took over the reigns at the club. He introduced video clips - interviews from training etc. He was DA MAN and again, like Jim, an awesome guy. things were good despite the network outages from PTV and other problems - mostly cosmetic.

 

Billy made myself (The night watch moderator because of living 12 hours ahead) a moderator along with two others (Day watch moderators because they lived in London). We had access others didn't much like this site. The site had grown from about 30 regular users to over 300. Membership was the 2nd highest outside the Premiership with only Wolves having more members on their site. Both Wolves and QPR were even beating some Premiership clubs and only Glasgow Rangers were beating us in Scotland at that stage.

 

The end of the 2006/2007 season saw an all time high in numbers with a brilliant international community running. Members from countries such as NZ, Aussie, South Africa, Kuwait, Japan, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, USA, Russia, Canada, South Korea were all active participants. In fact it, like this site it had a lot of football stuff but also was a social place for fans to meet up and message about all sorts of things in life. One big family. I am sure other clubs also had some similar type feel - Wolves, Burnley, Oldham, Cambridge United  certainly did. fans from other clubs visiting ours and us visiting theirs. bloody brilliant.

 

May 2007 rumours started about the site being revamped.

 

July 2007 a new version had started and the word was that once all league clubs had their sites updated to this new version, then the old MB's (Message Boards) would cease - probably late August.

 

Well the new MB had the stats back but it was on a blinding white background that require sunglasses to view. It was/is horrible. We immediately got onto PTV about it and gave a list of improvements required to bring the site up to a good standard. We were informed by PTV that what we got is what we were stuck with as the Football league said so! i e-mail the Football league about it immediately (July). I am still waiting for a reply. I did receive an auto acknowledgement e-mail, so I know they got mine.

 

The new MB was sh*t and then the kids came in and introduced a lot of stupid stuff. The mature QPR fans went back to the old MB. A new site called QPR Fans.et was started up by danny & Steve in response. Pretty much everyone from the old MB went there instead of the new one. The Old MB  which was meant to close in August (31st) and December (1st) and January (15th) is still running. Fans.net has kept a lot of the old MB fans whislt some have left, the new MB has about 20 hardcore users. The rest have all fragmented or given up on MB's.

 

We had a real good thing going and fostering a positive for football but the pink Gin drinkers at the Football league and at PTV have firmly stuffed it up completely. They have ruined a good thing in the name of ego and profit. Not every fan wants sh*t loads of spam and betting adverts all over their pages. I know i can speak on behalf of a lot of QPR fans worldwide in saying that an international community has been destroyed. Thanks to the Football league and PTV. Thanks a f**ken lot you twats!

 

Thanks for reading this big saga. I hope it gives you a history of MB's and football and a history of cock-up from PTV and the Football league. I love this Yellow Fever site. it reminds me daily of what I used to be part of elsewhere and how with changing times, things don't always work out as they should. I dislike the Football league for what they've done to all the clubs outside the Premier League and I dislike PTV for allowing it to happen. Perhaps sitting down and typing this all out is putting a ghost to rest. Some will laugh at me, others won't bother reading and fair enough too, but some whom were invloved with their favourite team will understand.

 

Cheers for taking the time to read this.....Long Live the Yellow Fever Website!

 

On here, we have the odd cat fight or spat between users but with this site being independent, no one other than the Mods can close it down. I'd like to think one day we might be one large family - even if there is 6,000 of us.

 

I'm just gutted that a lot of friends have all gone their own way on the QPR site. I've heard the original site is still running but PTV in their infinate wisdom have screwed up my username login. They reckon it belongs to a Newcastle fan, despite me supplying them with every peice of information required. Down to passwords etc all matching. How dumb some people are i don't know, but PTV have more than their fair share. I've heard of other people also having issues with them too.