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The Sky Sports Deal And Why Celtic Fans Continue To Gain From Its Odd Structure.

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One of the little understood facts of life as a Celtic fan has been about how lucky we are.

This isn’t as well understood as it might be, so let me offer a little clarity on it.

We get to see our team more than any other fans in Britain except those from Ibrox.

One of the only things that the Sky deals have ever had going for them is that they let us watch Celtic on a regular basis. The outcry of the last 12 months over games which Sky decided not to show was notable because of how it unusual it was.

We have always lambasted Sky for their focus on England, but what isn’t commonly understood or fully appreciated is that no fans south of the border get to see their club on the television with the regularity that Celtic fans see ours.

So when games weren’t shown on Sky last season, there was widespread anger from our fan-base about that.

But in truth, we’re lucky.

Sky’s Scottish football deal is so heavily biased in favour of our club and the one across the city that for years it has just been taken for granted that our away games would all feature live. For years that’s been the way of it, and so when Sky decided not to do that for a handful of games last season every single one of us felt it acutely.

If you were a fan of an EPL club this would not be an issue.

Because the idea that you would be able to watch every single away match live would be sheer fantasy in the first place.

It is one of the weird quirks of how Sky’s deals with Scottish football … but it has never been guaranteed.

Now it might be, far, far into the future, because of Sky’s decision to allow the clubs to sell pay-per-view packages as part of their agreement.

I still expect most of our away games to be shown live, but even those which aren’t automatically selected for broadcast should be available because supporters can purchase live streams of them.

At a time when away match tickets are harder to come by than ever, this is a godsend and something that we shouldn’t knock.

We continue to reap an odd, and original, benefit from the way football in Scotland is marketed.

It’s the one aspect of the Sky deal we, as Celtic fans, should always be willing to applaud.

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  • Geoff says:

    Don’t see anything in this poundshop deal to applaud.
    Alms for the poor would be appropriate.

    • Bennybhoy57 says:

      Agree deal not the best, but who else was in the running.
      BT Sport obviously not interested if they can’t beat sky deal.
      Therefore sky have free run at deal.

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