Monday 17 August 2020

Interview With Ben Dudley: 2017

My July, 2017 interview with Ben Dudley, from online football streaming company, MyCujoo.


Q - Please can you introduce yourself
I’m Ben, the communications manager for mycujoo. My role is to spread the word about our service to as many football fans as possible all over the world. I was born in Wales, living there for most of my life before spending a couple of years in Leeds and Manchester before relocating to Amsterdam in 2013 for a different role at a travel company. However, football is my passion so earlier this year I decided it was time to make the change.

Q - Please can you give us some details about your company?
mycujoo is designed to make football available to all, not just the mega-rich clubs who are shown on TV in every country around the world. Our first teams were based in Switzerland, and from there we’ve grown to dozens of countries across the globe.

Q - When was the company started?
Early 2014.

Q - Why did the company start?
The company was founded by two brothers, Joao and Pedro Presa. The idea first came about when the team Pedro supports (Boavista) were relegated to the third division in Portugal. This meant he was no longer able to watch the matches on television when he was away, and was very frustrated at the poor coverage given to lower league sides. It gave him the inspiration for mycujoo, which would become a reality a couple of years later.

Q - How did you get involved with Chonburi FC?
Our business development team is responsible for new partnerships - they reach out to clubs around the world that we believe might be interested in working with us, or field questions from clubs who discover our service and would like to start showing their own games.

Q - What did you know about Chonburi before your business partnership started?
Personally I didn’t know much about the club, apart from the dramatic run to the AFC Cup semi-final in 2012 and the fact that Welsh youth international Michael Byrne was there for a short time. He moved at a time when not many Welsh players were moving abroad - so many people were interested. Sorry that he didn’t quite do as well as Gareth Bale!

Q - Will you be covering Chonburi matches in the future?
We certainly hope so! In the end it comes down to the club having the time/resources to be able to broadcast, as we do not have our own camera crews. But so far it has been a rewarding partnership, and one that we are more than delighted to continue.

Q - How do you advertise the Chonburi matches you show?
The way we advertise matches really depends on the region, and the popularity of various social networks in these countries. Facebook is a fairly universal solution, while we also use Twitter, mostly in Europe, some Asian countries and the United States.

Q - Are there any plans to introduce English commentary for Chonburi matches?
Commentary is certainly possible - it just requires someone from the club to be located next to the person running the broadcast. Together, they can look after both the picture and audio for the game!

Q - What kind of viewing figures did our matches get?
Viewing figures were good - especially for the game against the Thailand U23 youth side. This match saw a total of around 45,000 views.

Q - Where were most of the viewers based?
As I’m sure you would expect, by far the highest number of viewers was in Thailand itself. However, we also saw good numbers in the United States and Singapore.

Q - How do these figures compare to other matches of this type that you cover?
Thailand matches always attract good numbers, so the viewing figure for this game was around the level we expected. However, the match against Iraq U23’s was a little higher than predicted.

Q - Which matches tend to be the most popular?
This one is tricky to answer, as we cover such a wide variety of games from so many different places. However to give a more general response, international matches are usually our most popular. After that, cup finals or late season games normally see high numbers, as well as our games in football mad countries such as Brazil.

Q - What kind of response - if any - have you received following your broadcasts of Chonburi matches?
It was pretty similar to any other game we show with this amount of viewers, although there was perhaps more interest on social media than usual.

Q - Are any other Thai clubs using your service?
We have a partnership with the Thailand FA through our deal with the Asian Football Confederation, so numerous Thai clubs have appeared on our website over the years. Most recently apart from yourselves, we’ve shown Lampang FC and Bangkok Glass FC.

Q - Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us. Asian football is of huge importance to us as a company, and we’re really glad you enjoyed your mycujoo experience. We hope to see you again for more gomes soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment