E120: Arsenal Fan TV

Robbie Lyle created Arsenal Fan TV (now AFTV) in 2012 as a platform for fans to have their say. And they did, in enormous numbers, making it one of the biggest fan networks in world football, and its mix of controversy and raw post-match reaction is much copied across both unofficial and official club channels.We talked about the reaction of mainstream media to this new upstart genre, the commercial future of fan based media channels and what the pandemic has revealed about the distance between the people in football boardrooms and the people who pay for tickets.  Despite being an Arsenal fan, Robbie’s a nice bloke, and one of the smartest media operators out there.If you like our podcasts you should sign up to the Unofficial Partner newsletter which develops the threads of the conversations. You can do this via unofficialpartner.com where you can also explore the back catalogue of over 100 podcasts covering every area of the global sports business.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.