Cove Rangers have launched their match streaming service, Cove Rangers FC TV.
The subscription service will allow fans of Cove, and away supporters, to watch every League One game from the Balmoral Stadium this term as fans continue to be locked out of Scottish stadiums indefinitely due to Covid-19 rules. The new league campaign is set to begin on October 17, with Cove hosting East Fife.
Cove chief Keith Moorhouse said: “The new television channel is the latest in what we believe has been a creative and determined response to the challenges we are facing at the moment.
“Fans not being able to come to games is a nightmare for every club, not just us.
“But we have done our best to remain engaged with the Cove Rangers fan base by updating our website, launching the CRFC Club 1922 fans’ membership scheme and installing a modern paperless system for booking match and season tickets.
“The obvious next step was to give our fans the opportunity to still see our games via our own television channel, while the restrictions on them attending remains in place.
“The upside for the club is any revenue gained from the television subscriptions will help us cope with the heavy burden of having nobody inside Balmoral Stadium, certainly for the first part of the new campaign.
“It’s the duty of directors to work to keep our club in a good place during what has been the most challenging period in our history.
“The launch of the television channel is a huge part of that. We can only hope that fans are happy to take up this opportunity to support us while also enjoying the chance to see us play.”
Cove have installed a new camera system for the streaming service, while experienced freelance football reporter Scott Davie will be on commentary duties.
Fans will get a chance to preview the service for free this Saturday, ahead of Cove’s Betfred Cup group stage opener against Premiership Hibernian.
While the match itself will be televised by Premier Sports, fans can watch Cove receiving the League Two trophy they won last season ahead of kick-off.
Moorhouse added: “Screening the presentation for free is our way of thanking the Cove supporters for the way they got behind us last season.
“We won all 14 of the League Two games played at Balmoral and the support the team received from the stands was a major factor.
“Attendance levels were also way above what we had anticipated. We really can’t thank our supporters and the others who made the effort to come along and back us enough.
“We would obviously have preferred to cap things off in style by celebrating our title win properly with our fans, but that isn’t possible.
“The next best thing was to ensure our fans can at least see the trophy being received by captain Mitch Megginson so that they can share in what is going to be yet another historic day for our club.”
Fans can register to watch the trophy presentation for free and find out more information about Cove Rangers FC TV at coverangersfc.com.