Celtic’s media output and the massive opportunity being missed

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The Celtic Star

·28 giugno 2025

Celtic’s media output and the massive opportunity being missed

I read an interesting article today about Celtic’s video game style approach to content, and why it won’t work…

Celtic’s new signing Benjamin Nygren at Celtic Park. Photo Celtic FC

It also got me back to thinking about Celtic’s media output, Celtic TV and how the club could serve the support’s appetite for club content.

OneFootball Video

It costs £50 a year for Celtic TV if you live in Britain or Ireland. It’s a service that gives you access to match replays, interviews and a few grainy throwbacks from the archive. It’s decent, value for the money even, but it’s a bit bland, boring even, certainly old school, and in 2025, that just doesn’t cut it.

Especially when we’re watching clubs like Wrexham launch slick, global content platforms and clubs half our size release fly-on-the-wall docuseries and apps with more polish than our trophy room store cupboard.

So, what about Celtic giving us a proper Celtic App? A real, all-in-one digital home for Celtic fans. Don’t wait for the support to come to Celtic TV, test the water a bit, and then build it. Build it now, invest in creating the content, and the subscriptions will undoubtedly follow.

Celtic pre-season training gets underway on Friday 27 June 2025. Photo Celtic FC

It’s not difficult to imagine a Spotify-style Celtic app. Subscription-based, yes – we’d gladly pay if you’re listening Celtic – but one that earns that price tag with fresh, dynamic content and full access to the treasure trove of our club’s history. Every match from the Lisbon Lions to Lubo, from Sutton to Sinclair. Film cleaned up, audio refined, digitised, organised, accessible. Full games, condensed versions, Celtic shorts, modern analysis of historic commentary – the lot.

The other day I watched a video the Huddle Breakdown team put out.I think they had done it a while back, but they put it out there following the sad passing of club legend John Clark.

It was excellent content. A modern-day statistical analysis of the 1967 European Cup Final, with John Clark picking up the man of the match award.

The Huddle Breakdown team analyse every Celtic game these days, but seeing the approach for the European Cup Final, for the Lisbon Lions, was just brilliant content and hats off to Alan and James over there for it.

Celtic supporters in Lisbon. Photo IMAGO (The Celtic Star)

I’m not even certain if it was their idea, it may have been a request from a subscriber, because they listen to them folks, but that’s how modern-day fan/customer engagement works. It’s not stand offish, your audience kept at a distance, or even at it feels sometimes with Celtic, ignored altogether or with disdain, instead The Huddle Breakdown, along with the excellent Celtic Exchange, The Cynic and some others, is evidence of content creators listening to their paying customers and giving them what they want.

May 21st 2017, Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland; SPL Premier league football, Celtic FC vs Heart of Midlothian; Celtic superfan Jay Beatty with Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

But that’s just the start.

What about a regular Celtic docuseries? Give us proper behind-the-scenes training ground footage, once or twice a week, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour of content, rather than simply two-minutes of long lens shuttle runs and wind whistling through the mics.

Shaun Maloney returns to Celtic. Image Celtic FC

What about a monthly round-table with former players, coaches and managers, or even a collection of fan media types, chewing the fat over recent games, over old games, previewing upcoming games, and let them openly analyse current form. Mic up the coaching staff at Lennoxtown.

Film the build-up to Derby Day from inside the bus, the tunnel, the dressing room, in the build-up to the game. Steal away those SkySports subscribers who are sick to the back teeth of the Kris and Chris pantomime, or James McFadden looking pained at giving an opinion, in case he upsets one side of the divide. Tell us the stories behind those famous photos and untold dressing room tales, we love all that and we don’t just want it, we’ll pay for it, every month, from everywhere around the globe.

Why are we relying on fan podcasts, X accounts, and bloggers to give us our Celtic fix in between matchdays? Don’t get me wrong – they’re brilliant. They’ve kept the flame burning. But the club should be leading the charge, engaging with these guys, not lagging behind them. You get them through your door for press conferences when the occasional invitation os despatched (increasingly rarely this days sadly), grab them, ask them, engage with them.

Look at what we have and recognise it. One of the most storied histories in football. A support that devours content 24/7, Global fans desperate to feel closer to the club, and a digital landscape crying out for clubs with soul to do it their way.

Ross Doohan unveiling at Celtic Park. Photo Celtic FC

What’s missing? Vision. Ambition. A bit of boldness.

You build that app – make it smart, make it sleek – and you don’t just serve the diehards. You create new generations of Celtic fans. You bring the stories of our origin, Jock Stein and Jimmy Johnstone to 9-year-olds in Canada and the US, who rely on stories being passed down the line like Chinese whispers. You show the next generation what it means to wear the Hoops.

Football isn’t just about 90 minutes anymore. It’s about connection, narrative, authenticity.

Celtic, if you want to keep pace with the modern game – and keep fans engaged all week, not just on match day – you need to own your story. And you need to tell it much better.

Niall J

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