The streaming challenge offered to Celtic
For a few seasons we were able to lap up Celtic TV, despite all those re-runs of games against St Johnstone- but not the game against St Johnstone- it was a fantastic service with former players joining The Huddle on a daily basis and a number of great shows put together.
All areas of the club were covered past and present with a favourite of mine but never likely to be a commercial smash-hit being an hour long interview with Pat Stanton taking us back to the double winning 76/77 season and looking at how Stanton joined Celtic then retired through injury.
Lisbon naturally was covered in great depth, there is no shortage of material and when you get a few Lions around for a blether it’s always worth listening to.
Complementing Celtic TV was the regular Setanta shows with a healthy bias towards Scottish football giving us all the previews and features that we could ask for even if some of the presenters were trying too hard to become characters and controversial.
VOID
Post Setanta there is a large void in the Celtic viewing experience, no longer can we give opinions on reserve players because as well as the demise of Setanta the Reserve League has become a casualty, depriving us of a monthly mazy solo goal from Paddy McCourt to walk away with the goal of the month award.
In it’s place we find the SPL getting a similar level of prominence as League One with Sky Sports and ESPN concentrating their energy and resources on the golden goose that is THE PREMIERSHIP.
There has been a few snippets here and there about changes afoot at Celtic to increase communications within the club which looks mainly like providing an extended Chanel 67 coverage which currently allows those outwith the UK and Ireland to watch matches live online.
This service receives mixed responses from the North American Celts, the quality can be variable but at least the club is attempting to provide a service where there is a demand.
VOICE
Providing those closer to home with a daily ‘streaming’ schedule to keep on the ball with things happening at the club must surely be a priority, hearing from those employed by the club and giving supporters and former players a voice is clearly desirable.
Establishing a quality on-line service will allow the club to work around the limitations of television broadcasting and reduce overheads and breakeven points.
Further down the line, and not too far down the line, is the possibility and potential to stream matches live online.
Clearly this is a very delicate area but already the English FA have moved into the field as did the Ukrainian FA with their decision to sell live television rights for their recent World Cup qualifier against England to an online provider.
That experiment seemed to work well with all parties keen to test the ice with online streaming.
CREDIBLE
With the loss of Setanta to the FA Cup package the FA have elected to screen live matches on their website with the first match, Oldham v Leeds United, attracting a very credible 176,000 online audience watching free on the FA website.
The BBC and ESPN are both in negotiations with the FA to pick up on the Setanta contract but with neither company able to negotiate a deal, that doesn’t upset the main broadcaster ITV, the FA are playing it round by round with the online experiment continuing on Saturday when Carlisle United host Norwich City with a 5.15 kick off.
Both clubs will be paid by the FA for the live coverage with the test of resolve coming at the third round stage which is traditionally one of the highlights of the English season despite the lack of interest from some Premiership clubs.
DEDICATED
Streaming matches for free online can attract a massive audience which with some simple registration process can open up a fantastic dedicated market for the football business to develop.
Clearly the FA are impressed with the quality and feedback that they got from the Oldham-Leeds match and will be looking closely at the figures for the Carlisle match this weekend.
Ian Watmore, Chief Executive of the FA said: “We have been absolutely thrilled with the viewer reaction and user numbers for the games we have streamed live to date.
“This has proved that there is a growing online audience eager to see live football for free on the internet that is in addition to and complementary to the live games featured with our broadcast partner, ITV.”
For almost a decade we’ve heard various proposals for Celtic to escape from Scotland with the goal being to tap into the latent support that the club carries throughout the British Isles and beyond.
SUBSTANTIAL
Establishing a quality online service to initially cover costs would pave the way for a greater more substantial service which should become a money spinner without the current dependency on traditional broadcasting methods.
Almost every net user has tuned in to a stream of some sort to watch a match, the results are mixed with strange foreign commentators, lots of buffering and matches that can be running way behind radio commentary.
The music industry has had a horrendous time dealing with online evolution, if football, and more importantly Celtic, take a hands on role and lead rather than follow the
club could finally begin to open up directly to the dedicated markets that the club has to reach to develop as they wish.
club could finally begin to open up directly to the dedicated markets that the club has to reach to develop as they wish.
Feel free to add your comments and thoughts to the online debate