Both Carlisle United Football Club and BBC Radio Cumbria have been working hard over the past few days to resolve the issue of providing online commentary, via the United World package, for the 2005/06 season.
As everyone is already aware BBC Radio Cumbria were able to provide live, uninterrupted coverage of all United matches last season, both to their local domestic users and to the wider online audience, via the station's own live commentary feed service.
Unfortunately, our return to the Football League means that this can no longer be the case.
Website editor Andy Hall told us, "the club has been contracted to FLiPTV, the website host, for a number of years and that is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future. Part of that contract stipulates that live online commentary for our first team matches is to remain exclusive to the United World package."
"The knock on effect of that," he added, "is that Radio Cumbria can no longer provide their excellent online commentary service through their own website. In the past they have continued to provide a live commentary feed, free of charge, to the FLiPTV server and that has been routed to the United World package. They are still very keen to do that for us, but we now face a number of technical problems. The growth in interest for live broadcast from sporting venues around the County means that they no longer have the technical capability to support a separate FLiPTV feed. This is, basically, the problem that we are seeking to overcome. "
Following a hectic week of attempts to resolve the issue Andy added, "I think Paul Newton, at Radio Cumbria, will be sick of hearing my voice at the moment. We have been on the phone constantly as we try find a way to resolve this, as both the club and the Radio station are determined to overcome the technical problems that stand in our way and make sure that live online commentary will be available via the United World package this season. We would dearly love, of course, to be in a position to provide the online commentary for everyone, but neither we or Radio Cumbria hold the rights to do that. At least, if we can get the commentary via United World, it will provide our exiled fans with a method of listening to the game, should they wish to subscribe. That, we feel, is preferable to providing nothing at all."
In a step forward today it was confirmed that both the Wycombe (away) and Peterborough (home) commentaries will definitely be available via United World for our online users. In the mean time work will continue to ensure that online commentary will be available throughout the season for United World subscribers. We'll keep you updated on our progress.
Carlisle United would like to thank Radio Cumbria, Paul Newton and his staff for their efforts as we continue to work together in trying to resolve the technical difficulties that surround this issue.
