THIS
The entire concept of AFTV is wrong.
Reactionary clickbait in the immediate aftermath of an Arsenal defeat to make money. There are so many ways the channel could be changed and now evolve. It won’t, though.
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Sensationalism is incentivized on almost every media platform because as we’ve all heard “controversy sells”. The UK tabloids and Talk Sport, hell Sky, BeIN, ESPN are all prime examples. AFTV is not exempt from the forces that impact media as a whole–clicks, profits, advertising so you will naturally get attention seeking behavior.
So far I haven’t heard a criticism that is specific to AFTV. At least AFTV is independent thus not pushing a corporate agenda like all the major news outlets.
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I 100% agree with your post but the specific criticism of AFTV is that they’re Arsenal “fans” engaging in the cesspit that is clickbait driven, attention seeking, low quality football media purely for personal gain whilst cheapening the image and perception of the club it 's fans.
I don’t like to knock people’s hustle but AFTV really injected the idea into desperados’ minds of being a celebrity fan if you act outlandish enough.
If you’re consistently around match going fans you’ll hear all sorts of ridiculous comments and OTT reactions pre, during and after the game, there’s always been eccentric characters around the club. The idea of monetizing that kinda runs counter to the idea of being a supporter tbh
I haven’t even got a beef with AFTV either, I would 100% milk a similar concept if a had the chance. I like decentralised media and taking money and eyeballs of the big boys
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I think I am just jealous that completely nobodies with bullshit opinions get to earn from said opinions while myself who is also a complete nobody with bullshit opinions is stuck with gifting OA my stuff for free.
Pay me @Shill
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Indeed this is more of a Youtube problem when it comes to content creation and media. Clickbait driven, controversial creating and low-quality content that generates easy clicks and revenue.
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I don’t know of another club’s version of AFTV that gets shared so widely. Mates who support other clubs are always sending AFTV videos in our chats to have a laugh, I don’t think anyone I know ever shares the equivalent from other clubs. AFTV is basically world famous and no other club has something comparable, AFAIK. Other fans subscribe to the channels/accounts and regularly watch the videos to have a jolly good laugh. A very large proportion of viewers are fans of other clubs mugging us off, this long ceased to be content predominantly made for and consumed by Arsenal fans.
For me, this in part indicates that AFTV is a bit of a different beast and that the equivalent channels elsewhere can’t have the same criticisms applied to the extent that you can with AFTV with regards to sensationalism.
They’ve got every right to do it so I can’t really knock the hustle. Also, what AFTV has become in my eyes is not necessarily what Robbie intended when he set out with this venture, he’s a gooner so chances are his intentions were good and he’s been enterprising in setting up something that’s become as big as it is. So fair play to him in a sense.
But I still think that overall AFTV hasn’t been a positive thing for the fanbase/club and there are changes that could be made to make it less detrimental. But moving away from sensationalism and towards a more balanced, accurate representation of the fanbase would mean vastly less engagement with their content, which would mean less income. I wouldn’t knock Robbie for deciding he didn’t want to lose income, not many people would be willing to drastically reduce their personal income in service of a concept as immeasurable “the good of a football club’s fanbase”, so obviously he’s not gonna do that.
But that’s a choice he could make, and if he doesn’t and instead continues in the same vein, there are always gonna be people who criticise him and his channel for continuing to make our fans look like bigger bellends than they are. It’s not hard to see why the channel is so unpopular with a large portion of fans when Spurs/Chelsea/United fans etc send us these videos of obnoxious attention seeking bellends every time we lose a match. I’m beyond fucking tired of it lol
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We could just like win some matches and give them a bit less material.
Pity the haven’t changed the narrative a bit and go after the boardroom level.
That would be me sort of missing the point wouldn’t it.
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All fair points. If your going to run a public media company you have to accept that all of your flaws are fair game for criticism.
Like @Stroller said, the rapid decline of the football club has provided them allot of material. Fans, Arsenal fans especially, need a bit of catharsis after the hidings and embarrassments we’ve been subjected to. Look at the PR propaganda and non-answers the football club vomits at us like Edu’s recent interview.
I think AFTV is an inevitable symptom of what’s going wrong at Arsenal.
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I suppose I would probably argue that if we accept that there’s editorial control over what content gets published then you can’t also say that any of this is inevitable. If something could be stopped then it isn’t inevitable, as such.
Though I totally agree that the shit state of the club has been necessary to facilitate its rise to prominence, that’s undeniable. If the people running our club weren’t such cunts then AFTV wouldn’t be what it is today. The state of the club explains AFTV, not the other way round. So perspective is always needed if we are angry about being embarrassed to be Arsenal fans and want to direct our anger at someone haha.
So I don’t disagree with the majority of your post in its sentiment.
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AFTV would be less of a laughing stick for other fans if it was 1998-2008, the fact it’s 2012 -2021 and the results that have gone with it has given people lots to laugh at.
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I don’t know these characters (Ty, Bludflam or that dude who expects footballers to recognise him) would be a laughing stocks even in our better days.
They chose the worst period to make a fan channel 
AFTV is just a reflection of our fanbase imo. Dont see the big difference between that and OA. Its not like we lack characters and meltdowns in here.
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I think for me, while I agree with all the points above, I just hate AFTV for the egos the channel has produced. Some of the rants and puns they scream on that channel seem so pre-rehearsed and manufactured in a way to drive exposure. It’s all a bit of a circus act, as much as I believe they are genuine Arsenal fans. At the beginning it was a fantastic idea and a great channel, still is, but with all the glorified blasphemy and what it’s evolved into, it isn’t for a lot of people now.
And while I don’t have any examples at the top of my mind I can’t stand it when theor criticism of players just goes plain personal. It’s a pretty shit look for my taste.
We are very classy about it.
Thread title changes is all we do.
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OA doesn’t market itself to rival fans in order to increase revenue, there’s one difference.
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Oh yeah so how did we just get a visit from a Manure mad man taking the mic out of us. No marketing yeeah rightt deeerrrrrprrprpr
Yes. No marketing. Do you know what marketing means in this context? Lol
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Fucking hell. What a creep.
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