WELL - the new season is almost upon us and things are gearing up nicely here at Oakwell.

The big thing media-wise will be the launch of Barnsley Player, coming to a computer near you very, very soon. We're just in the middle of testing the new product and, to be totally honest, it knocks World right into the middle of next week.

When Barnsley World came along a few years ago it was at the forefront of the market, both content-wise and technically. But things move on - especially with the introduction of video players from the BBC, Sky and ITV - and Barnsley World has had to step up and come out fighting. Barnsley Player is Barnsley World on steroids.

It's still going to have all the biggest interviews from inside Oakwell as well as every second of the pre and post match press conferences, but with 1MB video streaming, the picture quality will be vastly improved on a bigger, widescreen player.

For the first time everybody - including Mac users - can sign up, watch and listen. What about match highlights? Well, Barnsley Player will have them 24-hours after the final whistle and well before anybody else online, including the BBC. Oh - and our highlights packages will be longer. And then there's always going to be the opportunity to sit back and watch full 90-minute videos of the Reds' first team matches, something which proved to be an extremely popular addition to World last season.

I'm sat here listening to a trial on the new audio commentary stream and it sounds crystal clear with none of the distortion that you get on World. The system has been totally rebuilt and it gives almost DAB-quality sound, which will greatly improve the match day experience for subscribers.

Barnsley FC are one of the few clubs in the Football League with its own World team, who travel the length and breadth of the country to commentate exclusively on Reds matches. You'll be able to hear Matt B, Matt G and Adam in almost crystal clear sound next season on Barnsley Player.

Barnsley World - and the whole World brand in general -suffered a little because of technical problems during its early life although these were, by and large, resolved as the product moved forward. There were some issues at times last season but we only lost the commentary feed once and that was down to an issue with an ISDN line at Oakwell - one that has been rectified with new equipment and investment and should never happen again.

Barnsley Player is going to totally re-write the rule book when it comes to football online. There's going to be nothing out there that can come remotely close to it so sign up and let's get ready for the new season!