Edgar Blamm’s Inquiries into the Oldco Rangers/STV Business Deal

Edgar Blamm is one of the regular commenters on the blog and a prolific twitterer. He has kindly sent me some thoughts regarding an issue of concern to him and one which he felt had never been satisfactorily explained. I will leave you with Edgar and his researches, and I have an addition to post myself at the end of the post.

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I hate to rake at dead fires, but the Rangers/STV commercial partnership issue has never, to my mind, been adequately explained, so I thought I’d share the fruits of my own investigative labours. I can’t quote put my finger on what’s happening, and I simply don’t have the clout to see this through, but there’s something very fishy about the whole deal.

Anyway, I’m sure you remember the notorious commercial partnership between oldco Rangers and STV that raised eyebrows around this time last year. Roy Greenslade at the Guardian wrote a piece about it; The Drum covered it too.

Many media outlets simply regurgitated the press release that had initially heralded the partnership and yet the deal was subsequently rubbished by STV reporters on Twitter who, apparently under instruction from their superiors (who themselves said nothing on record), vehemently denied that any partnership had existed.

My personal curiosity in the matter was first piqued when I was party to @THE_TBK’s exchange with STV’s Grant Russell on Twitter (Link: https://fr.twitter.com/STVGrant/status/244090316972498945)

Grant denied the Rangers/STV partnership – as he’d done in the past – stating that any supposed joint venture between Rangers & STV had only ever been claimed by Rangers, not by STV.

We responded by providing Grant with a link to the story (since removed) on the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce website which carried the original ‘Partnership’ press release in full, and included the now notorious quote from STV’s Director of Channels Bobby Hain:

“We are delighted to be working with Rangers Football Club in the online area and believe that this arrangement will be hugely beneficial to both parties.  As STV’s unrivalled reach and impact continues to expand across all platforms, we aim to work with a wide range of football and sporting organisations, creating opportunities for them to promote their brand in innovative ways.”

Grant alleged that GCC’s Anne Marie Hughes, whose by-line appeared on the Chamber of Commerce story, had “clearly [rewritten] the press release”. However, when I emailed Anne Marie, she confirmed that she had uploaded it exactly as she’d received it, stating:

“This press release was received from Rangers on 27 December 2011 and was uploaded onto our website exactly as supplied on 4 January 2012 – you will notice that the url includes “January 2012”.

I found it odd that junior(ish) STV staff were prepared to go as far making these allegations in order to deny the RFC/STV deal took place at all, while Bobby Hain and the executive-level STV powers-that-be, after publicly promoting it, remained silent.

Indeed, when asked if there’d ever been any official denial by STV of the partnership or of Bobby Hain’s quotes, Grant replied:

7 Sep Grant Russell Grant Russell‏@STVGrant

@THE_TBK @edgarblamm @pault1888 @hen1rik@glasgow_chamber No. It was left to myself and others to tell the actual story on here.

So there was never any denial of the deal by STV higher-ups, despite original announcement containing a direct quote from Bobby Hain.

So, I sent the following email to Bobby Hain.

Hi Bobby,

I hope you’re well. I wonder if you can help clarify a few issues surrounding a commercial venture between Rangers Football Club (IA) and STV that was reported back in December 2011.

A number of news outlets covered the story, and you’re widely quoted as stating:

“We are delighted to be working with Rangers Football Club in the online area and believe that this arrangement will be hugely beneficial to both parties.  As STV’s unrivalled reach and impact continues to expand across all platforms, we aim to work with a wide range of football and sporting organisations, creating opportunities for them to promote their brand in innovative ways.”

I was wondering:

Is the above quote accurate and correctly attributed?

If so, to which “arrangement” were you referring?

In what capacity were STV “working with Rangers Football Club”?

Notwithstanding your own quote, was this partnership ever officially confirmed or denied by STV?

If the quote is not accurate, can you please tell me who was responsible for attributing it to you and what steps STV took to redress this?

Thanks,

Edgar Blamm

I received the following response from an STV PR Executive on Bobby Hain’s behalf:

Dear Edgar,

Further to your email to my colleague Bobby Hain, I am responding to your query on his behalf.

The arrangement you ask about, relates to a one off streaming via online to international audiences. This arrangement was for one match in the SPL calendar and there was no ongoing or associated commercial ventures undertaken.

Best

website: http://www.stv.tv |twitter: www.twitter.com/stvpress

STV | Pacific Quay | Glasgow | G51 1PQ | switchboard: 0141 300 3000

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This raises some questions:

Was there a commercial partnership or not?

If there was, why were the STV journalists allegedly instructed to deny it on Twitter, to the point where they seemed to imply that a media colleague had falsely attributed a quote to their Director of Channels?

If there wasn’t, why did STV’s Director of Channels Bobby Hain speak so gushingly about it in the press release?

Why was there no official confirmation or denial by Bobby Hain other than his initial quote celebrating the partnership?

Why were the STV Twitter journalists apparently told to claim the arrangement related to advertising space (this has now been confirmed to me by one of the STV journalists, who’s far from happy at being lied to by his superiors) when it was actually for “streaming”?

Did oldco-Rangers (at a time of extreme, ultimately terminal strife) fabricate or wilfully misrepresent a deal with STV and misattribute quotes to their Director of Channels Bobby Hain in order to maintain the illusion of legitimacy and solvency?

If this is the case, why didn’t STV take steps to distance themselves from it?

Anyway, I’d better get back to work!

 

Posted by Edgar Blamm

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And this is Paul back!

I looked at the Rangers website, but the link to it from the Guardian article is now a dead link.

However, on the basis that nothing ever disappears from the World Wide Web, through the magic of the “Way Back Machine” the now deleted post from the Rangers website is still accessible.

You can see it at this link.

It reads in full as follows, being dated 27^th December 2011:-

RANGERS Football Club and STV are working together to capitalise on commercial and brand opportunities in Scotland and internationally.

The two organisations have agreed to explore opportunities on a variety of online commercial prospects including content development and brand promotions.

The new partnership kicks off tomorrow when the live RangersTV international online Old Firm match coverage will be promoted on stv.tv, which has an international reach of over half a million unique browsers per month.

Rangers’ Chief Operations Officer said: “We are delighted to be working with STV to develop and maximise joint online brand and commercial opportunities that benefit both organisations.

“Rangers is an international brand and we aim to utilise all platforms to maximise the brand both at home and abroad.

“The partnership with STV is part of optimising these opportunities and we will be developing new initiatives throughout the season.”

Bobby Hain, Director of Channels at STV said: “We are delighted to be working with Rangers in the online area and believe that this arrangement will be hugely beneficial to both parties.

“As STV’s unrivalled reach and impact continues to expand across all platforms, we aim to work with a wide range of football and sporting organisations, creating opportunities for them to promote their brand in innovative ways.”

As can be seen, the Rangers release seems to be envisaging a far wider and longer connection than a one-off match. To be frank the confusion, or apparent confusion, about the deal has prompted many more questions than if the matter had been made clear at the start.

I think, based on my review of what Edgar has written and what has occurred since December 2011, is that STV realised that they had made a mistake in entering the arrangement without a corresponding one for Celtic, or at least a similar business connection. Once Rangers fell into administration, and especially once the various purchasers appeared, it was clear that the deal was over. It was therefore easier to rubbish it, and to state, as I am sure was true all along, that any commercial relationship would not have compromised or influenced the STV coverage of the team.

By the time this appeared on STV, there was less doubt about its objectivity

However it clearly influenced people’s perceptions of the STV coverage of the demise of oldco Rangers (even if not the coverage) and in such an atmosphere of suspicion as surrounded the events, that detracted from the authority STV was trying for.

Whilst, even before the administration of oldco, it was possible for commercial organisations to deal with only one of the so-called Old Firm, it was generally seen as counter-productive. To avoid upsetting fans of Celtic or Rangers it was seen as unwise to sponsor or link to only one of them.

Now of course would be a better time for anyone to deal with only one of the former Old Firm.

But Rangers are doing this all in-house now so newco is unavailable as a partner.

So we have a commercial deal which seems to have been instantly disowned by one of the parties. At least administration and liquidation meant there was no risk of any litigation in the aftermath!

Postscript by Paul McConville