ClubCall
Encyclopedia
ClubCall has been providing football coverage since 1986.
Leading clubs in the then First Division (Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal
, Chelsea
, Everton
, Newcastle United, Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool
) were among the first raft of teams signed up on a revenue share basis, whereby they received a percentage of income from the calls to their official information line which quickly proved popular among fans who could hear club news, interviews and commentary on the telephone by ringing an 0898 prefixed number. The success of the new service saw ClubCall expand to cover 72 teams in England
and Scotland
as club’s scrambled to be part of a new and significant revenue stream.
Local reporters, dedicated to a particular club, provided an at the ground news gathering service, which was fed back to ClubCall’s headquarters at Downham Road, Dalston, London where it was updated by a team of editors. One of the first appointed editors was radio reporter Ian Holding, one of the current owners of the ClubCall business.
In 1991, BT
sold ClubCall to bookmaker Ladbrokes
at a time when the premium rate telephone market was flourishing. Ladbrokes saw it as an opportunity to develop relationships with football clubs and to associate its brand with football which was becoming an increasingly important betting medium. The company operated ClubCall at a time when interest in football was heightened by the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
It became famed for breaking big stories such as player transfers and managerial changes and was a regular source of news for local and national media.
By 1999 ClubCall was in the hands of Scottish Telecom, later Thus plc, who wanted additional call minutes for its network.
Under long-serving Managing Editor Eamonn Watson, ClubCall extended its coverage to all major football tournaments in 14 countries and uniquely offered, at that time, the only match commentary service for supporters of many teams.
However, by the turn of the millennium, many premium rate information services were in a period of decline as the popularity of the internet began to take hold. In 2001, Glasgow-based Thus plc wanted to focus on building sales of phone and internet services to the corporate sector and sold ClubCall and its other consumer brands (RaceCall and WeatherCall) to mobile media firm iTouch as part of a £3.5 million disposal.
iTouch took a conscious decision not to cannibalise the ClubCall telephone customer base and offered a minimal web presence. In contrast, competitor Teamtalk (launched as an independent telephone service in 1992 by ex ClubCall editor Ian Holding) was attracting a huge internet audience and was listed on the London Stock Exchange
in April 2000 at the height of the tech-stock boom.
iTouch changed its emphasis in 2004 and began tapping into its reporter base to create a web version of stories. In 2008 the ClubCall and RaceCall telephony and web services were sold to ICS Ltd, owned by Holding, as a service for mobile and the web in addition to telephone.
The telephone and mobile publishing is now promoted via networks, bookmakers and media partners such as The Daily Telegraph
and The Guardian
Newspapers.
The attractiveness of the cards appealed to kids who would often adorn their bedroom walls with them in a show of club support while others looked to create a full collection of all teams and playground swaps were common place in the late 1980s.
This was not the original intention for a BT operated premium rate service, which needed the bill payers authorisation and was aimed at a more mature customer base, but it helped to spawn general interest in the service.
Fixtures were later added to the reverse side of the cards to assist with retention value among fans and over the years they have become collector’s items which often pop up on auction sites and offered on club message boards.
It became a perfect grounding for young reporters looking to get into football reporting with a chance to interview their heroes and report on matches alongside the established media of newspapers, radio and television.
With a direct revenue benefit from calls to the clubs, the ClubCall representative was often afforded privileged access to players and management and were often handed exclusives on a plate.
BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce
, known for his exuberant style and for Robot Wars (TV series)
, worked for the company as a club reporter working out of Downham Road with colleagues such as Tony Incenzo, himself a familiar voice on commercial radio with talkSPORT
.
The BBC
’s lead World Cup
commentator at South Africa 2010 Guy Mowbray
also cut his teeth as a ClubCall reporter as did his fellow Match Of The Day commentator John Roder. A number of reporters familiar to BBC Radio Five Live
including Johnny Gould and Gideon Coe
are also ClubCall old boys while more recently the channel’s presenter George Riley was a contributor to ClubCall whilst working at Leeds-based sports content specialists ICS ltd.
History
ClubCall was launched as a club-by-club telephone service by BT Supercall (1983–87), the UK's first audiotext business set up by Kieran Levis following deregulation of the telecoms industry,which for the first time allowed fans to listen to a telephone news service dedicated to their team.Leading clubs in the then First Division (Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
, Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
, Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
, Newcastle United, Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
) were among the first raft of teams signed up on a revenue share basis, whereby they received a percentage of income from the calls to their official information line which quickly proved popular among fans who could hear club news, interviews and commentary on the telephone by ringing an 0898 prefixed number. The success of the new service saw ClubCall expand to cover 72 teams in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
as club’s scrambled to be part of a new and significant revenue stream.
Local reporters, dedicated to a particular club, provided an at the ground news gathering service, which was fed back to ClubCall’s headquarters at Downham Road, Dalston, London where it was updated by a team of editors. One of the first appointed editors was radio reporter Ian Holding, one of the current owners of the ClubCall business.
In 1991, BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
sold ClubCall to bookmaker Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes plc is a British based gambling company. It is based in Rayners Lane in Harrow, London owned by Bhavin Kakaiya. From 14 May 1999 to 23 February 2006, when it owned the Hilton hotel brand outside the United States, it was known as Hilton Group plc...
at a time when the premium rate telephone market was flourishing. Ladbrokes saw it as an opportunity to develop relationships with football clubs and to associate its brand with football which was becoming an increasingly important betting medium. The company operated ClubCall at a time when interest in football was heightened by the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
It became famed for breaking big stories such as player transfers and managerial changes and was a regular source of news for local and national media.
By 1999 ClubCall was in the hands of Scottish Telecom, later Thus plc, who wanted additional call minutes for its network.
Under long-serving Managing Editor Eamonn Watson, ClubCall extended its coverage to all major football tournaments in 14 countries and uniquely offered, at that time, the only match commentary service for supporters of many teams.
However, by the turn of the millennium, many premium rate information services were in a period of decline as the popularity of the internet began to take hold. In 2001, Glasgow-based Thus plc wanted to focus on building sales of phone and internet services to the corporate sector and sold ClubCall and its other consumer brands (RaceCall and WeatherCall) to mobile media firm iTouch as part of a £3.5 million disposal.
iTouch took a conscious decision not to cannibalise the ClubCall telephone customer base and offered a minimal web presence. In contrast, competitor Teamtalk (launched as an independent telephone service in 1992 by ex ClubCall editor Ian Holding) was attracting a huge internet audience and was listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in April 2000 at the height of the tech-stock boom.
iTouch changed its emphasis in 2004 and began tapping into its reporter base to create a web version of stories. In 2008 the ClubCall and RaceCall telephony and web services were sold to ICS Ltd, owned by Holding, as a service for mobile and the web in addition to telephone.
The telephone and mobile publishing is now promoted via networks, bookmakers and media partners such as The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Newspapers.
ClubCall Cards
Supercall issued ClubCall wallet cards team colours and featuring the official club badge to remind fans of their team’s 0898 number. They were first issued shortly after launch in 1986, as part of the initial marketing push with distribution help from the clubs on match days,The attractiveness of the cards appealed to kids who would often adorn their bedroom walls with them in a show of club support while others looked to create a full collection of all teams and playground swaps were common place in the late 1980s.
This was not the original intention for a BT operated premium rate service, which needed the bill payers authorisation and was aimed at a more mature customer base, but it helped to spawn general interest in the service.
Fixtures were later added to the reverse side of the cards to assist with retention value among fans and over the years they have become collector’s items which often pop up on auction sites and offered on club message boards.
ClubCall Old Boys
Many well known reporters and broadcasters from television, radio and print have worked for ClubCall over the years as the service operated with a large team of staff and freelance reporters.It became a perfect grounding for young reporters looking to get into football reporting with a chance to interview their heroes and report on matches alongside the established media of newspapers, radio and television.
With a direct revenue benefit from calls to the clubs, the ClubCall representative was often afforded privileged access to players and management and were often handed exclusives on a plate.
BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce
Jonathan Pearce
Jonathan Pearce , is a British football commentator for the BBC.Known for his loud, exuberant commentaries, he has worked for both Radio Five Live and Match of the Day, as well as participating in other lower key sports programmes.- Early life and career :Pearce wanted to become a footballer, but...
, known for his exuberant style and for Robot Wars (TV series)
Robot Wars (TV series)
Robot Wars is a British game show modelled on a US-based competition of the same name. It was broadcast on BBC Two from 1998 until 2003, with its final series broadcast on Five in 2003 and 2004. Additional series were filmed for specific sectors of the global market, including two series of Robot...
, worked for the company as a club reporter working out of Downham Road with colleagues such as Tony Incenzo, himself a familiar voice on commercial radio with talkSPORT
TalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
’s lead World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
commentator at South Africa 2010 Guy Mowbray
Guy Mowbray
Guy Mowbray is a football commentator on British television, who supports York City FC, and is currently with the BBC. Whilst working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup Final, aged 26...
also cut his teeth as a ClubCall reporter as did his fellow Match Of The Day commentator John Roder. A number of reporters familiar to BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
including Johnny Gould and Gideon Coe
Gideon Coe
Gideon "The Guv'nor" Coe is a radio DJ, presenter, sportscaster, voiceover artist and journalist.Coe was one of the child presenters of the BBC 1 children's programme "Why Don't You?"....
are also ClubCall old boys while more recently the channel’s presenter George Riley was a contributor to ClubCall whilst working at Leeds-based sports content specialists ICS ltd.