Football Clubs are now content publishers, with clubs creating new, exclusive and engaging content for their fans to consume and connect with.
We started a journey with Crystal Palace F.C. that began with the creation of a relatively simple online portal for members to register for free, with full access to the available content. That portal has now evolved through several major iterations to the point where Palace TV can offer personalised content, playlists and messaging to fans.
Crystal Palace F.C. recognised the importance of this engagement and were keen to stay ahead of the curve. Through the creation of new and exclusive video content they knew they would be able to provide fans with a deeper connection to the club and attract new club supporters. To facilitate their online development, the club grew their video content team and marketing team. They were also aware that they needed to seek some technical expertise to guide them through how the content was going to be published and presented.
Working in partnership with the club, Filter Digital were commissioned to build a self-service and dynamic platform to allow the in-house team to publish and showcase this official, unique and relevant content. Part of this project was to build an online video platform called Palace TV.
Filter developed the Palace TV website to host all this video content. Managed through categories, tags and playlists, all fans can now browse the content to see what’s on offer, only logging in to view video.
The website was developed using a WordPress content management system backend admin, where the admin users can add, edit and publish videos. The videos are served to both the Palace TV website and the Eagles mobile app via a REST API so that both platforms can receive the same content with access to levels of content managed for all channels at a user level.
The front-end website was developed using VUEJS to provide a performant experience, with less server-side round trips required to retrieve content.
Vimeo was used to deliver the on-demand video streams using their API and Video player. This was combined with the use of Brightcove to deliver live streams from the press conferences and matches.
Google Analytics was also heavily used to track the content viewing behaviours, providing insightful data to the business.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) featured within the scope of the project as it was really important to allow the syndication of Crystal Palace content on other platforms. All videos use open graph tagging for social media platforms as well as schema.org mark-up to help search engines to understand the context and content of the videos.
Other areas of the site include the ability for supporters and fans to subscribe to the Palace audio feed which provides access to the official Palace podcast. In addition the site has offers fans the opportunity to connect with others in the supporter club section.
“Crystal Palace FC has a long-standing and valued relationship with Filter, who have been instrumental in helping us navigate our digital journey. They are knowledgeable, solution-oriented, flexible to ever changing scenarios – and are always focused on delivering value to us and our supporters. Of equal importance to all of those things – they are a pleasure to deal with on a daily basis.”
James Woodroof
Crystal Palace F.C., Head of Content & Production
With fresh new content being uploaded all the time, Palace TV has built up an extensive catalogue of content that the fans can access and interact with. Palace TV has given fans the ability to access live streams, match highlights, exclusive interviews, pre-match insights, player profiles and much more.
Overall the Video platform has performed well. With Google now able to index each page, the number of streams played, and minutes watched, have gone up three-fold since December 2018. Due to the redevelopment of the site in VueJS it has also made content easier to find, quicker to access and view.
“By utilising smart planning and sensible investment, clubs across all sports can use fully owned video streaming services to grow their fan base and revenue.”
Oliver Morrison
Filter Digital, CEO
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