During pre-season I will be reviewing the various outlets that exist where you can get your football content. I will be reflecting on their product from last campaign and suggesting if they are worth watching or listening to in the future.
I thought it appropriate to start my series covering the platform that, for better or worse, introduced the Internet to fan channels and made it possible for supporters to be able to get paid talking about the sport: AFTV.
Robbie Lyle and the AFTV Business Model
Whatever your opinions on fan channels, you have to admire anyone who saw a gap in the market, backed himself, and had the work ethic to make the business grow. Robbie Lyle started with just him and a cameraman, editing and uploading around his full-time job. Working as a building surveyor gave him access to film any live updates when needed.
The ethos of AFTV was to give all Gooners a chance for their voices to be heard, but the more subscribers they gained, the more the host faced a conflict of interest. Certain supporters were clearly getting more views than others. These were not individuals that the average match-going fan could relate to, but over-the-top grown adults either acting for clicks or taking football way too seriously. A person getting more angry than you ever should over sport, someone being laughed at rather than with for his constant positivity, or a man shouting and swearing as much as possible started to make the host money. So Robbie took these personalities and turned the volume up, essentially creating cartoon characters. He would create other content specifically to give those with the highest traction more air time.
Where morality becomes an issue is when there is the possibility of exploitation. One of the most popular figures on the fan cams was a gentleman who had been very open regarding mental health, explaining that football was his escapism and being involved with AFTV had given him an outlet. Yet if you are bantering with your mate or sibling about something as trivial as football and you see they are getting worked up, there is a point where you question if they are okay. Robbie instead produced a weekly show where the whole concept was to wind up a gentleman with depression until he lost his temper.
This is where Robbie contradicted himself in the early stages of his company. He would originally accuse the likes of Sky Sports, TalkSport and tabloids of being threatened by the “new media”. In reality, it was an insult at this time to compare YouTubers to trained journalists or pundits. Working on TV and radio means working under guidelines and protocols you do not have to worry about on social media. A few words can get you modernised, but mostly on the Internet you can say what you want. If Gary Neville told a player “why don’t you f… off”, he would be sacked. If the C word was used on Match of the Day, it would make the news.
Mr Lyle was making money relying on this language. It allowed him to quit his day job and make creating content his full-time career. To be fair to him, he shared the wealth. After originally denying that any of his guests were on the payroll, eventually AFTV grew into a company where many of the usual faces on the channel became employed. Some were able to take their newfound popularity online and build their own platforms. Some chose to branch out on their own, others still working in conjunction with their mentor.
Evolution, Influence and Limitations
The sad part is that some, once they garnered a following, seemed uncomfortable to accept they had benefitted from association with AFTV. Ego can be a dangerous trait, but I know those who only have an audience because they are recognised from their interviews on AFTV. Robbie even went out of his way to help fans of other clubs make the equivalent for their fanbases.
AFTV presenter TY crosses the line by pushing young Arsenal fan on video..
Yet like any entrepreneur, you learn as you progress. In the early years, Robbie could be everyone’s mate on a matchday, but the bigger the empire grew, the more professional he had to become. Sponsors and advertisers meant more revenue for everyone involved, but it also meant the owner lost slight control over his own baby. While still 100 percent his property, the more partners you work with, the more you do not have your own voice like you once did. If, for example, a viewer is offended by a racial slur, where once Robbie could get the culprit to apologise, now you have a brand threatening to withdraw sponsorship if you do not ban that person from appearing again.
AFTV in that sense is too small to be big, but too big to be small. The only way to go back to being uncensored is to turn your back on sponsorship deals worth thousands of pounds. Contractually, they are paying you for advertisement based on certain criteria being met, meaning you cannot say whatever you want, which was the whole mission statement at the beginning. Now Robbie knows how the likes of Sky feel and what it is like to function under policy and procedure.
While always dividing the fanbase, to the point that Arsenal themselves have distanced themselves from the platform and were rumoured to force the name change from Arsenal Fan TV, Robbie was smart enough to adapt. He reached a point where he was in danger of taking himself too seriously, not liking others critiquing what he had built, failing to see the contradiction that his whole ethos was standing outside someone else’s building encouraging strangers to tell the world what was wrong with another business.
In the last couple of years, the target audience seems to have become younger. They still have the same regular talking heads, but they are less character-driven, more relatable, and it is understood they are employees.
Fan channels have jumped the shark and are no longer original. Some are in danger of seeking clicks for the wrong reasons. Yet Robbie is now led by people who will not let him make previous mistakes.
A man had a vision, and where most talk about their vision, he had the bravery to try and risk failure. He has made himself and his family more money out of his venture than he ever thought possible.
It will never be media, and he needs to stop fighting that, but that is okay.
Your thoughts appreciated in the comments Gooners?
Dan Smith
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I like Robbie and don’t begrudge him the success of AFTV, but do not care much for the muppets that latched onto him to enriched themselves at his expense. Glad that he’s back on track and being advised professionally.
Hope he reads your article Dan, and maybe leave a message.
I dont know if they have still got the same format but I watched about 3-4 videos on AFTV back in 2014 when Ty and the late Claude were the famous personalities on there.
I swore to never to put myself through such torture. So embarrassing and cringeworthy.l stuff..
🤦♂️
Can’t stand them. That Robbie was a Luton fan until 1984, when he then changed to being an Arsenal fan. He stood up for Liam Goodenough, (MrDT) when he was in court for kidnapping his girlfriend and threatened a bloke with a knife. He also riled the old skool Gooners when doing a documentary on racism at football, he had Carol (Cass) Pennant on the show, as it was his mob that stabbed to death an Arsenal fan on the 1st of May 1982. RIP John Dickinson.
Hasn’t done the reputation of Arsenal fans any good at all. Which is unfair as most Arsenal fans I know are, to say the least, not AFTV fans. At best it’s given others an endless supply of material to ‘banter’ us with.
Has anyone seen a fan as deluded as Ty is. While he’ll have absolutely nothing negative said about Arsenal, any opposition fan dare to say something he will then belittle any of their achievements.
When asked last season when Liverpool were all those points ahead, whether it was Liverpool’s to lose or ours to win, he wouldn’t have it that it was Liverpool’s to lose but ours to win. When it was obvious it was Liverpool’s to lose.
As I said earlier, deluded to the extreme. 🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
Why make such a fuss about Ty, who is a nobody, although not as dumb as he makes out because how else could he afford a season ticket and is able to attend most games. Every club has their Tys, fans who are tolerated on the terraces, or stands but who fortunately don’t get to go in front of a camera. Even this site has its Tys. Fortunately there are others on aftv who win or lose can provide a more varied reading of an Arsenal game. They all fit a particular stereo type, whether it’s the articulate James, Dr. Keleche the Nigerian warrior who actually provides a balanced perspective once he has completed his dance routine, the disillusioned Yardman with his Jamaican patios, Turkish who is more often than not on the ball, as well as the rosy eyed Julien who never has anything negative to say and could easily be a Just Arsenal regular. Take it or leave it. Speaking for myself,along with this site and arseblog, aftv gives me the necessary balance to celebrate an Arsenal win or chill out and share the pain of a negative result.
Joe. S,
I wasn’t making a fuss, it was just an observation.
There would always be changes and changing interests.
So, maybe if Arsenal paid Gary Neville and some others: they might have something nice to say about the team even if it plays rubbish.
Sponsorship in media usually means people are paid to shut their mouths or package words in a certain way to suit the payers and their agenda.
We saw Ferdinand pained like he got stabbed in his heart when one of Declan Rice’s free-kick got in against Real Madrid although he tried to pretend like he was cool with it.
Pretend for the money.
That’s part of the game.
AFTV is on the rise and have got sponsors which almost anyone in business would appreciate for its brand. I do not think the owners of those brands who sponsor AFTV are all Arsenal fans.
Business is business for those who know business.
Not that I even care whether the owner of AFTV is an Arsenal fan or not.
Let’s say Saka is an Arsenal fan through and through but if I had a chance to pick a player for Arsenal all these years, I certainly would pick Salah over him.
What else?
And most likely Salah would choose money over Arsenal. So maybe if he is given enough money by Arsenal . . . He may profess Arsenal to be the love of his life.
It is about balance.
You see those Tottenham players dancing Arsenal will not win the league . . .
I will pick those attackers over Reiss Nelson.
Lots of media platforms talk rubbish about Arsenal and eventually pay money to the club for broadcasting it as “content”.
You know – media rights, ECT.
Take a leaf from the club.
It signs players from clubs you love to hate and it does that with money it gets from us.
In this game it is unavoidable you sponsor your enemies . . .
Just do it the way you love.
The theme of the business is what matters – ARSENAL.
And on that ground: for being the greatest when it comes to Arsenal (social) outside official Arsenal platforms discussing Arsenal and making money – kudos to the owner of AFTV.
Doesn’t G Neville often predict us to win the Prem and says Arteta has done a good job ?
That “often” is recently, after he realized “his club” was and still is very much not to be considered when punditing about who will win the league or even come close to being close.
Manchester United is in shambles and he very well knows it.
He counts his tongue with his teeth and understands not to present the other part of Manchester as worthy of being champions as he would face bashing by his fan base and lose out on sponsorship, analysis, and punditry deals.
A shrewd business guy who dislikes Arsenal nonetheless . . . until they play maybe Liverpool.