OK so from our point of view,
Watching games live in New Zealand can be tough. Not only are they in the middle of the night but the Government introduced new licensing laws in 2014 where bars/pubs cannot open after 4am. They also cannot serve alcohol before 8am.
This means that any game starting after 2:00am is unlikely to be screened in a public venue. The Eurpoean games in the morning are usually shown with a more sensible kick off time, but it still means no beersies until at least half time I'm afraid. That said, unless SKY is streaming the game, there is generally a lack of public venues using Bein Sports, although it maybe possible to stream BluesTV to a laptop in a Working Mens Club or similar using a meeting room.
The subscription to BluesTV in itself is worthwhile, however only if you plan to get up at between 2am and 4am to watch the game live. If it’s a morning kick off, you need to have booked the day off work. Unfortunately, the vast majority of games post match are the same highlights you will see on youtube which makes it a very expensive subscription if you are unable to catch the game live.
In starting the OSC, the advertised aim of the groups, was to bring people together to share the experience of watching the game. While we are only a small nation, to have any possibility of sensibly doing that on a regular (and cost effective) basis would require an on demand option to view the full game. To get up on a Sunday morning and maybe have a brunch over a full game would be fantastic. It would be relatively easy to avoid the result for a couple of hours, to enable us to watch it properly, together without disturbing the house at an ungodly hour.
Broadcast in 1080p with the ability to be able to stream the feed to a larger screen via the blues app (using appletv for instance or Google Chromecast) would be essential. Us all sitting around a table watching on our mobile phones would of course ruin any conversation and also makes it incredibly hard to watch - even at home. With the changes in delivery from the provider to the club next season, we feel it’s essential to provide these enhanced requirements as a season ticket package to allow our brand to be effectively grown into a truly global package, reflecting the vision of the new ownership.
Would OSC members like me to submit this as feedback to the club?
If you're not yet in the OSC, what are your thoughts?
