RECENTLY the Football Conference announced it had struck a new television partnership with broadcaster Premier Sports TV and the news has been welcomed on a number of levels.

In basic terms, it provides clubs with finance and exposure and therefore increases the value of sponsorship available to them. The most interesting part of the agreement, however, is the revenue sharing element whereby the more subscribers that come on board, the more all clubs in the Division will benefit.

The Conference has heralded this as a first in football and it means that from the beginning, the clubs, the fans and Premier Sports, as host broadcaster, will be working together to make the agreement successful.

For this article we spoke with Richard Webb from Premier Sports, who outlined his vision for the deal and also laid down the facts in terms of coverage, pricing and availability.

Richard, welcome to non-league football.

Richard: Thanks very much. It is a very exciting time for the Conference and the channel as we attempt to pull everything together in time for our big kick off weekend.

What are the first games?

Richard: The first matches will be Grimsby vs Luton at 5:15pm on Saturday 4 September followed by Newport vs Wrexham at 1pm on the following day.

How can fans get the channel?

Richard: Currently we are only available on the Sky platform on channel 433. You don't need to pay for any other sky subscriptions to view our channel, just own a Sky UK decoder box and dish. The easiest way to sign up is via our website www.premiersports.tv or customers can call 0871 663 9000 to order. We are looking to persuade Virgin and other operators to add our channel in due course. I would ask that fans who don't have Sky ask their provider directly by email or phone for our channel to be added.

What will fans get for £6.99 a month?

Richard: The minimum amount of games to be shown live is 30 at this point. However, the more people get behind us the more games we will show. There is no limit on this. We will also be showing a highlights package of as many games as possible each week. To begin with, this will be shown at half- time during live matches but in the future will be packaged together as a programme. Online content will also be available but we are still in the planning stages regarding this.

One of the biggest problems in the past was that fans and clubs travel arrangements were compromised by changes to the fixture schedule. Are you aware of this?

Richard: Yes, it has come up a number of times in discussions with the Conference and in emails received from supporters. We understand some fans like to make travel arrangements well in advance and night-time kick-off's do not always suit supporters. We have selected the first 10 games based on discussions with the Conference and will attempt to strike a balance, although you will understand that this is not always easy given that live footballseems to be on most nights now. Going forward we will try and give as much notice as possible to clubs and fans but this will of course become harder as the end of the season approaches.

How can fans get involved with the channel?

Richard: There has never been a better time to get involved with the channel. One of our core policies is to listen to supporters and respond to subscribers. Already we have a healthy community on Facebook of people who watch our channel for different sports. We have altered a number of things in relation to sports we already show and have added extra content or repeats of games based on customer feedback mainly through Facebook and emails.