I contacted MUTV about the lack of academy and 21/23's games:

Demaw

Full Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
434
Hi guys, I emailed them this week and said it is useless putting on 2-3 minute highlight packages and not having regular full games and full replays etc. I mentioned that I chat to other MUTV subscribers who feel the same and can't see the point of continuing the subscriptions with no games to watch. As an overseas fan, I also said that many of us can't sit up until 1am for a 23's game so I asked if they could put the replay on for 1 week to allow international fans the chance to watch it.
Jordann from MUTV did reply back and said they would pass it on to the production team for consideration and was sorry I was unhappy with MUTV.
I encourage you to write as if many of us say the same thing about cancelling it may make change. It can't hurt.
mutvdigitalweb@man-utd.zendesk.com
 
I know rights issues stop them showing a lot of games live (yesterday for example) but I don't think there is any reason they can't show a replay
 
I thought they showed the full game from midnight on and then the following day also ?
 
Demaw said:
Hi guys, I emailed them this week and said it is useless putting on 2-3 minute highlight packages and not having regular full games and full replays etc. I mentioned that I chat to other MUTV subscribers who feel the same and can't see the point of continuing the subscriptions with no games to watch. As an overseas fan, I also said that many of us can't sit up until 1am for a 23's game so I asked if they could put the replay on for 1 week to allow international fans the chance to watch it.
Jordann from MUTV did reply back and said they would pass it on to the production team for consideration and was sorry I was unhappy with MUTV.
I encourage you to write as if many of us say the same thing about cancelling it may make change. It can't hurt.
mutvdigitalweb@man-utd.zendesk.com
Click to expand...
I've e-mailed as well. I've done before and I know a few others have too and they couldn't care less. They come up with loads of shit excuses of the terrible coverage and last time flat out said no they won't be playing replays of the matches and don't care what people want. Its almost pointless having MUTV now but at the same time you have no choice but to get it if you want to watch the 25% of matches that actually are shown. I think I've seen as many u21s match live as I have on MUTV this season and I don't even live in Manchester.
 
limerickcitykid said:
I've e-mailed as well. I've done before and I know a few others have too and they couldn't care less. They come up with loads of shit excuses of the terrible coverage and last time flat out said no they won't be playing replays of the matches and don't care what people want. Its almost pointless having MUTV now but at the same time you have no choice but to get it if you want to watch the 25% of matches that actually are shown. I think I've seen as many u21s match live as I have on MUTV this season and I don't even live in Manchester.
Click to expand...
I pretty much got the exact same copy and pasted response as above. I know there are certain mitigating factors but I just don't see any point paying for MUTV anymore.
 
I emailed them asking about the lack of coverage - and about why so many PL2 games are now moved to Saturday or Sunday lunchtime / afternoon, when there's an obvious clash with PL matches preventing them from being televised, instead of the previous Friday 7pm kick offs that rarely clashed?

I got a response saying that "The game dates are decided by the TV broadcasters and the competitions and not by us. We do not have any say in when the games are played."

Which I don't really understand in terms of the TV coverage of Man United PL2 games - certainly the home coverage - as I'd have thought MUTV was the TV broadcaster. I'm certainly not aware of any other way of getting to watch Man United's PL2 matches. So, if the TV broadcasters are involved in game dates, who are they if not MUTV? I'm aware Sky and BT are calling the shots in terms of any clashes with their live PL coverage. But that's why I can't understand why so few PL2 games are currently being played on Friday night to avoid that clash?

I responded, asking for clarification on that, but haven't got a 2nd reply yet.
 
Last edited:
It is quite strange that they don't show replays, or even the extended 90 in 20min highlights anymore of the reserves/Women's teams.

It really was the only reason to subscribe.

Also frustrating for me is that since they updated the app, I have to login everytime you open the app now (I use the Apple TV MUTV app)...

They have informed me 5 times already that "they have now fixed this bug" only for it to not be true...lol
 
HaliRed said:
It is quite strange that they don't show replays, or even the extended 90 in 20min highlights anymore of the reserves/Women's teams.

It really was the only reason to subscribe.

Also frustrating for me is that since they updated the app, I have to login everytime you open the app now (I use the Apple TV MUTV app)...

They have informed me 5 times already that "they have now fixed this bug" only for it to not be true...lol
Click to expand...
You should try the Android app. It's a trainwreck.
 
It's so cheap and yet still not worth the money anymore.

It's strange when you think over the last 15 years social media and connecting with fans has become such a big deal yet MUTV has had less and less access to players.

Even in the 90's with those United VHS and Rob McCaffrey interviews you had more insight with the players.

Rob rummaging through Lee Sharpe's fridge etc. You probably need to be over 40 to know what I'm talking about.
 
MUTV has always been pretty bad but you'd have to say it's awful now. It's like the club is deliberately de-funding the channel or something. I mean it's the club that talks about itself as an entertainment provider right? But can't be bothered or are too stingy to fund a proper way of reaching out and engaging supporters.

The u18 and u21 coverage this season has been nearly non-existent. I often wonder about comparison with other clubs? Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea? How do their club channels compare? Anyone know?
 
Last edited:
MUTV came out when there was talk of club’s negotiating their own TV deals, had they been able to show all our games live, then it would’ve been the biggest money making machine in the game.

Once that was off the table, it became shite. It shows nothing worth watching, the entire media team have zero TV personality, especially Stewart Gardner, it’s just the same bland interviews which offer zero insight into anything

They have all these past players to pick from and they have Danny Webber and Ben Thornley who played about 15 games between them.

For the size of the club and the fan base, they should have a proper on demand service, all the goals from players on demand, past big games/cup finals on demand, documentaries on all things United.

To not even show our own reserves is just shite.

It needs a rebrand from the bottom up.
 
Marwood said:
It's so cheap and yet still not worth the money anymore.

It's strange when you think over the last 15 years social media and connecting with fans has become such a big deal yet MUTV has had less and less access to players.

Even in the 90's with those United VHS and Rob McCaffrey interviews you had more insight with the players.

Rob rummaging through Lee Sharpe's fridge etc. You probably need to be over 40 to know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
Still have all those videos they were excellent
 
It's not just MUTV, the academy coverage on the website and social media is absolutely pathetic as well. The website has player profiles that look like a primary school kid's first IT project, minimal news and now no match reports either - just occasional 'round-ups'. And the twitter account gives you a lineup tweet, half-time score and full-time score, if you're lucky. The coverage has never been great - years ago they used to fairly brazenly just cobble together match reports based off tweets and blogs from fans, then they got the club historian/statistician to do them. That was at least better than nothing though. Now they've shelved match reports entirely - i was told this was because they felt players were getting unneccessarily hyped/criticised based off them and that they'd rather people actually watched the games before making any judgements, which is great except they're clearly now making conscious decisions to minimise the number of games they show as well...

Was only a few years ago that you'd get the vast majority of U18/U21 games shown live, almost all the rest shown on delay and at the very least a half-hour highlights show. All repeated numerous times throughout the week. Plus a fair bit of extra material as well - friendly games, weekly round-up shows, documentaries about Milk Cup etc. It was actually fitting coverage for a club where youth development has always been seen as so important. Now it seems to have completely regressed to the same token gesture coverage as the website. Annoyingly I forgot I'd signed up on an annual direct debit so got stung for another year's worth of it in the summer - completely worthless now unless I particularly fancy watching re-runs of Champions League group games from 2004 or assorted podcast episodes. Just sums up the club's steady decline really.
 
Massive shame there's barely any live youth and reserves action these days.

There's no point anymore.
MUTV like the club has gone backwards since the late 90's
 
Demaw said:
Hi guys, I emailed them this week and said it is useless putting on 2-3 minute highlight packages and not having regular full games and full replays etc. I mentioned that I chat to other MUTV subscribers who feel the same and can't see the point of continuing the subscriptions with no games to watch. As an overseas fan, I also said that many of us can't sit up until 1am for a 23's game so I asked if they could put the replay on for 1 week to allow international fans the chance to watch it.
Jordann from MUTV did reply back and said they would pass it on to the production team for consideration and was sorry I was unhappy with MUTV.
I encourage you to write as if many of us say the same thing about cancelling it may make change. It can't hurt.
mutvdigitalweb@man-utd.zendesk.com
Click to expand...
There's no way Man Utd are using a Zendesk email address and not an official @manutd.com one. That looks fake as ****.
 
UnitedSofa said:
There's no way Man Utd are using a Zendesk email address and not an official @manutd.com one. That looks fake as ****.
Click to expand...
Hi sofa, this is the reply email: Demaw:

from:Jordann (Support) <mutvdigitalweb@man-utd.zendesk.com>
reply-to:Support <mutvdigitalweb+id620465@man-utd.zendesk.com>

Thank you for your email.

We are sorry to hear you are not happy with the current content on MUTV. We appreciate your feedback and I have passed this across to our production team for consideration.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Kind Regards,
Jordann
 
Lash said:
Bloody hell, it's so bad isn't it?
Click to expand...
It´s almost unusable, I contacted support regarding the lack of casting during the few matches they have live.
You can´t cast you content to your screen during live matches or something. It´s just unusable and funny how they only have a app that works for Apple TV not for Android TV (Google TV).
 
Received this response today. I mentioned the u21s too and the lack of decent highlights packages but he hasn't addressed that.

"Thank you for your email.

We show as many matches for the academy as we can however this is not always possible due to licensing. I'm sorry for any disappointment caused.

Your feedback has been formally documented and logged.

Kind regards
James"
 
Last edited:
UnitedSofa said:
There's no way Man Utd are using a Zendesk email address and not an official @manutd.com one. That looks fake as ****.
Click to expand...

They do. I’ve had Zendesk replies from the ticketing and membership services.
 
arthurka said:
It´s almost unusable, I contacted support regarding the lack of casting during the few matches they have live.
You can´t cast you content to your screen during live matches or something. It´s just unusable and funny how they only have a app that works for Apple TV not for Android TV (Google TV).
Click to expand...
Yeah the casting nearly made me smash my phone, good to know I wasn't going mad.
 
Lash said:
Yeah the casting nearly made me smash my phone, good to know I wasn't going mad.
Click to expand...
It's bloody ridiculous really. Don't know how many times the video is lacking audio as well. It's just terrible.
 
HaliRed said:
Come to the Darkside...Join the Apple alliance...hahaha
Click to expand...
I would rather use the ridiculous Android app then to get stuck in the crazy Apple bubble again. Took me years to get my life back after leaving that desolate place.
 
Should probably be grateful they actually showed a game today, but thave to mention the commentary as another area where they're falling short these days. Main commentator on U18 games now isn't a patch on David Stowell - doesn't appear to go into the games with any knowledge beyond the teamsheet he's given, couldn't identify any of the subs today. Few weeks ago he spent the first 30/35 minutes of a game misidentifying Finley McAllister as Marcus Lawrence because there was a late change to the listed team (because they look so alike obvs...).
 
So people are complaining that they're not showing games they're not licenced to do? Toon game was on yesterday if anyone missed it, obviously as they have an agreement with Newcastle. I'm not sure why clubs don't allow other teams to film at their grounds, as it's hardly like people are going to sign up to MUTV for 4 games per season that'll include their under 18's and 21's
 
There have always been certain games they've not been able to show but the issue this season (and last) is that so many of the U21 games in particular are being scheduled in slots that mean they can't be shown (and as I understand it United are fairly content with that), and probably the bigger problem is the complete lack of re-runs or decent highlights like we've had in previous years.
 
I have asked why they at least do not show youth games later on, in the mornings or night after the game ends, not mentioning first team games of course and here is the answer. Quite stupid honestly, first talking about first team games no one asked about, than talking about licensing for youth games when no one have licence for youth games and you can show all games that do not match schedule of FA games. Absolutely nothing to do with license, you can show games postponed without a problem and they do not do that cause they just do not care.

"We are not able to show any competitive first team matches live due to global broadcasting rights. The full 90 minutes of each game is usually available within 24 hours of full time but this can vary depending on your location due to licensing.

The same also applies for youth game. We try to show every live game that we can but this is not always possible due to the licensing issues."

"As explained previously, we are not able to show every match, including the full 90 minute highlights due to licensing. We do not own the rights to show the games live or the highlights, they are held by the competitions and we show every game and highlights we are able to."
 
No PL matches at the same time, home match so we have the rights and can’t blame it on the other club. Surely we’ll get to watch the u21s play today? Nah, you’re having a laugh, of course they aren’t showing it.
 
U21s will be shown tonight, but not live because the game kicks off this afternoon.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.