PAY-FL website!

[Troy G]

For those that never knew you had to pay for the AFL website here they say, are even more great reasons to pay! Outrageous, should be totally free!
Love how they never mention the price they're gonna hit you with, gee wonder why that is!

"The AFL and Telstra are pleased to announce that afl.com.au, the most popular sports website in Australia in 2002 with more than twice the unique visitors than the next most popular sports site, has been redesigned for 2003.

This year, website visitors can expect improved navigation to assist with the access of information posted on the AFL. Two new exciting subscription packages will complement the front page redesign.

afl.com.au front page will be divided into three colour-coded sections:

News and opinions.
The Premiership Season including games, fixtures, results and the ladder.
AFL focus, an AFL-specific news and special events section.
AFL General Manager - Commercial Operations, Ben Buckley said, "The updated front page is designed to improve access to various feature sections on afl.com.au."

"These changes are an indication of the AFL-Telstra Network's commitment to provide an innovative and interactive experience to visitors of the site.

"We know that many of our supporters use afl.com.au and the club sites to keep in touch with their football club and AFL news, and we believe that these changes will only enhance their experience.

"The introduction of AFL focus will also provide the AFL with the opportunity to communicate directly with our supporters, providing the AFL with a platform to keep the fans of the game up-to-date with upcoming events and AFL specific news," Mr. Buckley said.

The redesigned subscription audio/video multimedia section will showcase new programs including a preview to the upcoming round and a review panel each Monday. All AFL matches will be available for replay 24 hours after the completion of the match. The site will continue to host live audio of all AFL matches and exclusive interviews with AFL players and coaches.

Telstra?s Chief of BigPond, Justin Milne, added that the revised subscription packages offer great value to customers and work best with broadband internet access.

"The AFL-Telstra network provides great content for broadband customers and for BigPond Broadband members, the subscription site represents fantastic value as accessing the audio and video content does not contribute to a customer?s usage allowance.

"Subscribers to the audio/video package can now access videos of all games 24 hours after the end of each game. Last year, subscribers to the equivalent package could only get videos of games in which their nominated club played.

"Also this year, subscribers to the audio package get all the radio broadcasts as well and a range interviews with coaches and players. Last year, the radio broadcasts were not part of the starter package."

"Last year, the AFL-Telstra network was the most popular sports website in Australia. Given the up-take of internet connections and the growth in broadband since the afl.com.au was launched, the site promises to have even more visitors this year.

"The value of these packages should also stimulate many AFL fans to take up broadband given that downloading material from the AFL-Telstra network is not metered and it does not contribute to the BigPond Broadband usage allowance," Mr Milne said.

[CureTheSane]

I agree it would be nice to have all that for free, but if people are willing to pay for that service, then they should charge.

that is what defines a price in any circumstance - what someone is willing to pay.

generally free stuff is around because no-one wants to pay for it.

[bricon]

I subscribed to the Telstra/AFL pay website last year and it was a total waste of money. The content was slow to load and really clunky (even with a cable connection), the image quality was poor, the links were often unreliable, broken and often the content was late being posted (or sometimes not at all). After a couple of months I gave up on the site entirely.

Telstra have NO IDEA of how to build/maintain/manage or operate websites; they undoubtedly operate the worst sites on the net, not only the football sites, even their own site http://telstra.com/index.jsp is a nightmare to navigate.

The Telstra/AFL pay website is not of commercial quality, it?s not ?sorted? and they?re asking people to pay for what is in fact a beta version.

[barry]

Originally posted by bricon
I subscribed to the Telstra/AFL pay website last year and it was a total waste of money. The content was slow to load and really clunky (even with a cable connection), the image quality was poor, the links were often unreliable, broken and often the content was late being posted (or sometimes not at all). After a couple of months I gave up on the site entirely.

Telstra have NO IDEA of how to build/maintain/manage or operate websites; they undoubtedly operate the worst sites on the net, not only the football sites, even their own site http://telstra.com/index.jsp is a nightmare to navigate.

The Telstra/AFL pay website is not of commercial quality, it?s not ?sorted? and they?re asking people to pay for what is in fact a beta version.

Seeing as they have a jsp instead of asp in their URL, it means at least techincally they are on the right track for large scale solutions like the AFL site. It could take them a long time to migrate across though.
The upside of server redesign is that links, data should be more reliable.... eventually.

But the real trouble is navigation which is a pure layout issue. Please outsource this stuff to professionals telstra, please.

But I can see no incentive for Australians to subscribe. Far better off getting foxtel if you want more footy. If the match video's were on 1 hour delay from the game, then it might be useful, but currently 24 hour delay is a joke.

[bricon]

Originally posted by barry
Seeing as they have a jsp instead of asp in their URL, it means at least techincally they are on the right track for large scale solutions like the AFL site.

The AFL website is still Active Server Page (.asp) format.
http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=home

[Swansinger]

I for one don't want to pay for the opinions of has-beens.
The AFL must be desperate for cash.
Have a look at English football websites , offering similar features for free.

And why on Earth there can't be an at-a-glance results panel on the homepage is quite inexplicable.

I note the stats page now shows only individual players and not team totals.

[j s]

I was pleasantly surprised on Friday night to find that the online audio was free (for that night anyway, maybe it was a mistake with the format and all).

Listened to the last Q of the Kangas getting thrashed and Sam Newman saying how cfrap Carey was playing. Seems that no-one else thought so though.

[liz]

I hate the new layout of the AFL website - looks too clunky and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

In particular, on the old design there was a section on the homepage that summarised the results for the round so far, and included links to team stats for the matches. Has anyone managed to locate these stats on the new layout? Even clicking on "results" just brings up last weekend's results and no apparent links to any stats.

[j s]

Originally posted by lizz
Has anyone managed to locate these stats on the new layout?

Lizz,

There is an arrow beside "Premiership season". Click that and it takes you to a page from which you get to the stats, live scores etc.

[swansrock4eva]

I was quite put out when i jumped on the net yesterday and saw what had happened at afl.com.au - who threw that one up over breakfast one morning? it is @@@@@!!! The ONLY improvement i can see is that you can click a link during the match that takes you straight to the updating scores rather than you having to go thru a couple of pages first to get there. And the scores were updating every 30 seconds at one stage in the very late stages of our match last night (i couldn't wait for the game to finish on TV - i was too afraid of a fade out so had to peek! :P) Other than that though... *blech*

[nicko18]

i actually subscribed to the new AFL site after that "mistake" of allowing us to hear the friday night match for free. i did the one month subscrition which was $9.95. i thought.... well if its crap, well i havent wasted much. just wanted a try.

i think you can get a weeks subscription for $4.95. im not sure how much a year is

[Damien]

I like the AFL site setup. The Swans make money from it.

The stories are free, and the rest of it is user pays or free for Telstra Broadband customers.

I think it is pretty fair.