Celtic Football Club, the Scottish Premier League Champions, today announces that it will make further Internet history by being the first football club to provide a video on demand broadband service for fans on the their official website www.celticfc.net.
Fans will be able to purchase live coverage of Celtic’s pre-season friendly matches against Fulham FC, the English First Division Champions, on Friday 20th July, and English Premiership side Sunderland AFC, on Tuesday 24th July. Both games are being played at Celtic Park, with kick off at 19:45 (BST).
The pioneering broadcast will be the first time that a UK football club will have provided an online Video on Demand service. However this is not the first time that Celtic have been the industry leaders in terms of live Internet Audio Visual webcasts: at the start of last season, Celtic were the first club in the United Kingdom to broadcast a competitive match live on the Internet when their website transmitted the club’s UEFA cup clash with AS Jeunesse d’Esch of Luxembourg to an audience of 33,000 people worldwide.
Following a further two games in the UEFA cup, Celtic then set another first when in May this year they transmitting the first ever live broadband Internet broadcast of a football game involving UK teams. Tommy Boyd’s testimonial against Manchester United, the English Premier League Champions, was exclusively broadcast around the world from the clubs official site.
The two games will be streamed by Servecast, and hosted on the MatchDayLive platform conceived by LSsport.com, Celtic’s online commercial partner.
The Internet transmission will be available to audiences outside of the UK, mainly targeted at North America, Australasia and Europe. Within the UK and Ireland the matches will only be available on U>DirectTV, the pay-per-view channel available through Sky Digital, will televise the games live.
Celticfc.net Project Director, Iain Reid commenting on the broadcast said today: ‘By streaming these matches live on broadband, supporters outwith the UK and Ireland have the perfect opportunity to be part of the pre-season entertainment at Celtic Park. It is vital that we help make all supporters feel part of the club by being able to experience the match.
‘We are giving our worldwide support and people new to European football the opportunity to watch the team in a cost effective and convenient way.
‘Celtic have invested heavily in streaming technology and have already made notable history, we are hoping that by charging a modest fee on this occasion, that we might be able to develop the Video On Demand service to the point that economics of streaming every game live will be practical.’
Leo Mindel, director of LSsport.com, a division of LS Technologies Ltd, said: ‘We are delighted to have helped Celtic achieve a treble in online broadcasting following the first live narrowband and broadband games. Celtic’s progress in the last year clearly demonstrates their commitment to utilising leading Internet technologies provide their world wide fan base with the best possible coverage of the team.’
Enquiries:
Celtic FC
Iain Reid
Telephone: +44 141 551 4232
E-mail: irr@celticfc.co.uk
Web: www.celticfc.net
LSsport.com
Leo Mindel
Telephone: +44 20 7751 8986
E-mail: leo.mindel@lssport.com
Web: www.lssport.com