An essential feature of a trip to watch a live football match is the printed programme that the club provides to its supporters. This has been the case for over one hundred years and no match day would be complete without a leisurely read of the programme before the game commences and during the half time interval. However, modern technological advances raise the question as to what the future may hold for the printed football programme.
More and more football clubs are seizing the opportunities that these technological advances offer and now have their own websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with which to impart information to their supporters. It is possible that, at some stage, one or more of these tools could be used to replace the printed programme for the following reasons:
- The printing of glossy football programmes can be expensive, both in terms of production and the cost of the finished product. It may produce a significant saving to produce a programme in a downloadable form. A link to the download could be posted on the club’s website allowing supporters to pay for it and download it to their computer. They could then print out the programme for themselves. The reduction in the cost to the club of not having to have the programme printed ought to result in a corresponding reduction in the cost of making the programme’s content available to its supporters.
- Advances in the quality of smart phones and tablets mean that supporters would be able to read a downloaded programme easily without ever needing to print it. The programme could be backed up to an external device once it had been read to ensure that it is retained for as long as the supporter wants it.
One potential downside for a club of producing downloadable programmes would be the ability of supporters to copy and distribute these to others free of charge and some form of Digital Rights Management Software may be required to prevent that.
What Does the Future Hold For Football Programmes?
The sentimental value that football lovers place on the printed programme is evident from the large sums that are spent on rarer, older programmes by collectors of football memorabilia. Nevertheless, the chance that technological advances will herald the end of the conventional printed programme should not be discounted. One possible saving grace may be found in the fanzines that are produced by football supporters. These are already popular, not least because they tend to be cheaper than the programmes produced by the football clubs and contain fewer adverts. This popularity will inevitably increase if and when the clubs cease to print their own programmes in favour of one or other of the alternatives outlined above.
Changing technology has affected almost every aspect of our lives and the printed football programme is unlikely to resist the continuing advance. Thankfully, it is likely that the fans will remain able to produce a printed memento of their club’s match in the form of a fanzine to replace the traditional club programme if and when it happens.