High Time Leeds United Got Serious and Professional about LUTV – by Rob Atkinson


The Twitter hashtag #LUFC on Thursday evening was full of Leeds fans moaning, carping and complaining bitterly. This isn’t exactly an unusual state of affairs but, for once, almost every gripe was well justified. Because, departing from the usual theme of ranting about transfer activity or the lack thereof, Leeds fans on Thursday evening were up in arms about the woefully amateurish “service” provided by LUTV.

To say the service provided is not good enough hardly does justice to what an appalling travesty it is. The club have had the cheek to charge for what is likely to be pretty grim viewing – a series of pre-season friendlies with hardly a new signing to be seen – and they have failed, in the case of the York City game, to fulfil their side of this dubious bargain. The picture constantly froze, and even when there was some visual action, it was miles out of sync with the amateurish commentary. Most of the time though, the picture was pixelated or frozen. It’s not good enough, not when you’re charging folk hard brass. The package of pre-season matches is around fifteen quid, with individual games at £3.99. By comparison with that, the beer I bought at a Broadway Theatre last year, which came in at around $14 for a half pint, was pretty good value.

It’s time Leeds United got serious about their in-house TV station, and sought a satellite platform as other clubs have done, Liverpool and Chelsea being notable examples. It’s difficult to understand why this doesn’t appear close to happening; our owner is a media mogul, for heaven’s sake, and the strength of the Leeds following globally is the stuff of legends. The demand is there, surely the resources are too, and there’s simply no excuse for a club like Leeds to take our money and then provide a service that simply doesn’t work.

So let’s see LUTV on Sky, the interest would be huge if there was a reliable and professional service. Then perhaps the days of buffering, shoddy camera work and joke commentators could be put firmly behind us.

24 responses to “High Time Leeds United Got Serious and Professional about LUTV – by Rob Atkinson

  1. Really annoying!!
    Not for the first time.
    They never apologise either.
    You would think they were transmitting from Mars!!

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  2. Clive Gibbs

    Please can the chairman sell up and take Orta with him ,everything he does is only for his own benefit and not the clubs.. League one here we come!

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  3. Justin Lawford

    If the click bait rumours of transfer failings of the past couple of weeks are even half true LUTV is bottom of a long list of things the club needs to get right.

    Hate to say it Rob but I’m starting to have serious doubts about Radz & Co.

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  4. Agree about poor commentator. At the FGR game the guy kept calling Alioski by the name Aliosi. It really peeved me and was glad that after 25 mins he managed to get it right. Obviously a word in his shell like from the legend EG. But yes, the guy was a complete noob and continued to make mistakes throughout. If the club are going to charge for this then they seriously need to offer a far better product than this crap.
    Oh..and if you get to read any of this Radz. Get your finger out of your harris and get some decent signings done. We are a laughing stock

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  5. Neil shepherd

    I agree with all of the above. I’m also afraid that if we’re pinning our hopes on Baker then from what I’ve seen tonight we’re in big trouble. Orta should take ideguchi and all of his recent signings that have gone out on loan and fuck off

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  6. Life is LUFC

    Well l I finished up changing the pixels on the settings to to 360 and finally watched all of the 2nd half.
    I have paid for the full package so I wonder now just what will I see…..
    Still at least we got to see the youngsters having a go and they did not make a bad fist of it.
    I think getting the hang of this new way of playing is going to take some getting used to for some of them. However I enjoyed it and Bielsa gets to see what’s what on the pitch. A bit of mixing and matching should see it all come together and hopefully it will be alright on the night.
    As for transfers let’s leave that subject alone and enjoy the pre season matches.

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  7. tony piggott

    the camera work, commentary and to air service were all poor, not worth the money at all. The football was as bad, if we try to play these tactics when the real season gets underway we will be looking at relegation, no defence and no forward line, frightening.

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  8. MaidinLeeds

    I agree with all those previous comments about the coverage – it was dreadful. I thought Lewis Baker showed some promise in the second half and also Klich seemed to grow into the game. Sam Dalby seemed decent also. I do, however, have grave doubts about the players we have going into the new season. We definitely need some quality additions, especially in the striker and CB positions! I just get the feeling we won’t get them!

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  9. Reality Cheque

    Well, well Rob all that optimism we shared having secured the services of the one and only globally acclaimed Mr Beilsa coupled with investment from the 49ers and a promise from our CEO of an “exciting summer” in the transfer market and that all season ticket revenue would be 100% reinvested in recruiting a squad capable of challenging for promotion. We were also assured by the aforementioned “honourable gentleman” only 3 weeks ago that the club’s efforts to sign the 4 or 5 players necessary to strengthen the “positions” identified by Mr Bielsa were going very well and were at an advanced stage!!

    Now I know from personal experience that occasionally negotiations and the best laid plans can go awry but Mr Orta appears to be cursed in 90% of our transfer dealings.

    Remarkably, our owner appears to be concentrating his efforts on expanding Eleven Sports’ European football broadcasting contracts portfolio and even contemplated investing in an Italian football club rather than ensuring Orta gets his finger out and delivers the resources Mr Bielsa will need to have any chance whatsoever of challenging for promotion in the Championship. Is Mr Radrizzani really interested enough to ensure Leeds United fans receive value for money through LUTV coverage of pre season friendlies? I’m not so sure that Mr Radrizzani is putting Leeds United high on his list of priorities despite the obvious financial rewards of being in the Premier League.

    I hope I am absolutely wrong Rob but at the moment, (once again), actions are not matching the PR machines words and the club’s promises appear to be as empty as Paul Heckinbottom’s locker.

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  10. You’re lucky ,I wasn’t able to see the match at all it was permanently stuck on subscription page and not forwarding onto the game. Well pissed off!

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  11. The good news for me is that I didn’t subscribe. I never watch LUTV even when it’s free. Just a load of boring trite interviews with new signings, and not many of them so far, although I think there will be a late surge. When they interview new signings who barely speak English it’s pointless and dull, it’s hardly Frost/Nixon is it?

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  12. Why doesn’t someone start an unofficial lutv channel? Just put it on youtube. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want to watch an official club tv channel anyway.

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  13. Scally Lad

    Television is so 20th century. Ownership need to invest in some quality streaming technology. Unfortunately, that seems to be about as likely as commitment to superior quality on the pitch. Happily, we still have a fortnight to get the side ready for the season, and that’s more important than improving broadcast and commentator quality any road.

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    • It might be 20th century, so is the car, and we don’t yet have a feasible alternative to that either. TV is more reliable for more people, more of the time.

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  14. patrick hogan

    Haven’t read the other comments yet but I know you’re spreading your journalistic wings Rob. How about a real knowledgeable fan like yourself being a new voice for this channel. I’ll propose you; let others second and third you. Just a thought.

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  15. So Mr Radrizzani is a media mogul. My goodness. Judging by LUTV he is as good at this as running a football club.
    Sorry Rob, but I am absolutely sickening at this run up to the season. I am praying that Bielsa has seen something we are all blind to. Maybe, just maybe he sees all the hidden potential and talent and skill we have in our squad that’s just waiting to burst out and we are all going to be amazed. (I really believed Roy Of The Rovers was REAL)
    Anyway, the season has not yet started , no damage done and all to play for. The players did not force themselves on the club so let’s get behind them and the coach and if if we have to lambast anyone let’s make it the board. MOT

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  16. More very convenient, side-lining headlines, again to paper over the cracks of the total mess of Leeds transfer dealings this summer. A headline now about the club TV station, to join the other very interesting headlines about Baker and Blackmans very detailed life stories and talking about the new club shops and talking about Bremner square and talking about signings for the under 23’s and talking in great detail about the terrible pre-season friendlies, with two different Leeds teams that can’t even find more than four subs.
    I haven’t seen four subs on a Leeds bench since “feel sorry for me O’Leary” put only four subs on the bench for the home game against Liverpool in 2001, just to make it look like he didn’t have any players to choose from, despite having a well-stocked squad of millionaires and pool of talented players from the youth team

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  17. Moyle Stroller

    Makes me question why I pay an annual LUTV subscription when it doesn’t even include pre season friendlies. A total rip off ! I refused to pay for the match, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that those who did encountered problems. The weekly commentary during the season often cuts in and out. I thought this was all meant to be AR’s field of expertise? If he can’t even get that right…….

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  18. howard mackey

    was the commentator related to Norman Collier ?
    Regards, H.

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  19. Please please please please please please would everyone stop moaning. Thanks.

    Like

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