Football365

Football365
Web address http://www.football365.com
Owner BSkyB
Launched 1997
Revenue undisclosed
Current status Active

Football365.com, or simply F365, is a website which is operated by 365 Media Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of BSkyB, from its base in Leeds.

The website primarily covers the Premier League, as well as other European leagues and cups. It takes an informal and humorous approach to dealing with the latest football news and often includes running jokes about individuals connected with the sport. F365 has been noted for the comprehensive coverage it provides, as well as its statistics and comment features.[1]

The site was founded in 1997 by Arsenal fan and Internet pioneer David Tabizel,[2] who then teamed up with journalist Danny Kelly, along with Dan Thompson (founder of computer game company Renegade Software) and Simon Morris, a former Marketing Director of BSkyB and ex-footballer & TV presenter Andy Gray, who also wrote a regular column.[3] In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2012, Tabizel stated that the website was named after a phrase oft used by his mother, Sandy, who would lambast him with "Its football 365 (days per year) with you!" In 1999, the height of the dot-com bubble, the sites' parent company 365 Corporation floated on the London Stock Exchange, peaking at a value of £500 million shortly after launch.[4]

Regular features

Internet TV channel

The website also has an internet TV channel, F365 TV. Among the programmes broadcast are The Paper Round and The Dugout Podcast - an irreverent fortnightly football show that is available from Thursdays to Mondays on Football365, Teamtalk and iTunes. Presenters include Don Dealio, Ed Draper, Kait Borsay and Lynsey Hooper.

Regional variants

France

Founded in 1998 by Axel Dreyfus and Pierre Sivel under the name C Sport, and bought in 1999 by 365 Corp, then in 2001 by the Groupe Sporever group, Football365.fr is a site entirely dedicated to football news. Live news, match reports, interviews, live footage: the site has both a large number of videos, a blog service, and the option for readers to provide feedback.

The staff consists of six permanent journalists, helped by the staff of Sport365.fr. Nicolas Puiravau, editor in chief of the site since June 2004, has recently stated in Sport Strategy that the Football365 site gets more than 2 million unique visitors and 65 million page views per month.

South Africa

Founded in 2005 by Barrie Jarrett, Football365.co.za is a football website owned by TEAMtalk Media (a subsidiary of Sky Sports[5]) based in Cape Town, South Africa. The website is loosely based on Football365 but differs in that it focuses on African football.

It primarily covers the South African Premier Soccer League and is well known for its in-depth coverage of the South African national team, Bafana Bafana. Other major African nations including Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria are also covered.

The site is known for its exclusive interviews with South African players and African stars in Europe, and its insightful and sometimes off-beat content. It also offers live coverage of most Bafana Bafana and PSL matches.

Football365.co.za is growing rapidly and is widely regarded as one of the best news sources for South African football. According to the Online Publishers Association of South Africa, the website ranks fourth overall in local traffic.

Regular features

Footnotes

  1. "Good Web Guide review of Football365". Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  2. http://d5capital.com/david-tabizel.asp
  3. "365 ways to success". Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2006.
  4. "Net site 365 soars on debut". BBC News. 2 December 1999. Retrieved 2 November 2006.
  5. Digital TV Group

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, March 22, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.