Later today, the “Inside the Huddle” documentary will be available on Celtic TV, and it’s free for subscribers. For non-subscribers, it will cost £4.99 – which isn’t a bad price for a feature-length piece on the club and last season’s campaign. It’s cheaper than a DVD would have been, so I’m encouraged by the club taking this approach.
Celtic’s digital operation has been one of its stronger points in recent years, with the media team producing some outstanding content. However, it’s crucial to make this content more accessible to a broader audience. I like that parts of the website will host documentaries and other content available to non-subscribers, but there is still room for improvement.
There is also a lot of stuff which should be available online and isn’t.
For starters, women’s games and B team matches should be included in the subscription. There’s no excuse for these not being filmed and shown. Fans would get a lot out of these experiences, and it could encourage more people to subscribe. I see no downside.
It’s been a long time since most fans felt CelticTV was worth the money, and there are various reasons for that.
However, I do like the new site format, which allows you to watch previous games, including friendlies like the Manchester United Legends game, which is currently available. The idea that you might be able to rent titles to watch fills me with optimism. It seems like most of the club’s own productions, going way back through the years, will eventually be available on there, making for a fascinating back catalogue.
Of course, the club needs to set fair prices and avoid overcharging, especially since much of the content is already available to many fans who own the DVDs. But it will make a lot of that content accessible to younger viewers who might never have seen it, and that’s an excellent way to introduce them to the club’s history, players, and managers.
As a loyal subscriber for many years, it’s good to feel we’re finally getting proper value for our money. I will watch today’s documentary with great interest and, of course, write a review about it. Overall, I’m impressed with much of what our in-house channel produces.
It was, for example, a stroke of genius to film an early Ange Postecoglou training session, allowing us to see how he put his players through their paces. And let’s be honest – we milked the “We Never Stop” mantra for all it was worth.
So, yes, I see the value in this and think it’s long overdue. I’d like to see more – interviews with fans, retrospectives on players and seasons of old. I’m sure everyone has a favourite Celtic moment they’d love to see covered. I have many, and all of them are huge games which made history. One, which readily comes to mind is the 2013 comeback against Aberdeen at home, where we won late with Giorgos Samaras scoring a brilliant overhead kick in the dying seconds.
It’s moments like that which live in the memory and deserve to be immortalised on such a channel. There are endless possibilities for content – great comebacks, late goals, standout players, unsung heroes – and now we have a platform to showcase those stories. That is tremendous.
All it takes is for the media team to show some imagination and put these things together. We will watch them, treasure them, and talk about them endlessly. And I will write about them endlessly if they’re good enough.
I’m looking forward to watching the documentary today and reliving last season. As I’ve said before, in the piece I wrote specifically about this, I hope it does justice to the campaign. I particularly hope it covers the mid-season slump in detail, as that’s a crucial part of our recent history – a period when things could have unravelled badly.
If the documentary doesn’t explore how the slump was overcome, we won’t even get half the story. That will, for me, be the most fascinating part.
Overall, there’s a lot the club needs to put on this channel and much to think about for the future. But I can’t help feeling this is a very positive development, and I hope it’s just the first of many.
Now, if they could only sort out the Wi-Fi in the stadium, I’d be a pretty happy man.
Good article James and it set me thinking about favourite games – Bloody Hell it could be weeks working out what that’d be in ma 44 years of being a Celtic supporter…
I remember years ago having Celtic TV through that company called Setanta and a presenter called Alex O’ Hanley I think that was possibly his name though I could be wrong all the same…
And I’m gonna be (unusually for me) pedantic regarding The Celtic Blog today…
“As a loyal subscriber for many years” – Personally myself, I find myself associating that particular word with Sevco and would prefer myself to probably say something like “As a faithful supporter of many years”
As I say pedantic I know but that’s just my wee opinion on that word that I associate with Sevco !
Celtic do need to get on the front foot as far as the digital world is concerned. And the TV channel could be a very good platform to sell the club to a world wide.audience.The Club are a stand alone entity as far as Scotland is concerned. We have to move with the fast moving digital age.
And negotiate the product with the likes of Sky and the rest.
Can’t they flog it to Netflix or Disney+ (or similar)?
I mean who give a **** about Wrexham for God sake!
We’ve got 100,000s of fans round the world!
what time documentary on,
What time does it go out on air? I’m in Sunny Barbados and want to watch it. HH
I work as a freelancer for the FC Porto TV channel … This channel is available as part of the regular cable tv package (not sports but general .. so it would be the regular Sky package over there rather than the exclusive Sky Sports). ALL home matches of the youth teams, newly created Womens team and the B team (who play in the Portuguese second division) are shown on the channel. As well as this all home matches of the Handball, Basketball, Roller Hockey and the Womens Volleyball matches are also shown live. Last weekend I was sent to film the Under 15s team in an away match – so in that case there was only one camera angle (as it was just me filming so they could edit a highlights report later in the day) … I don´t know why this level of coverage is not being done by Celtic TV ??(given that it is a subscription based system)
The wi-fi has been crap since day one.
I remember betting Celtic would score at the start of the match v Man City. They did and I won a few bob. At half time I tried to bet the same thing for the second half and couldn’t even get a signal on my phone nevermind wi-fi. Bams.
Great game though and would love content like this to be available.