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Sky are fully aware of a loss to sport subscriber numbers and action is being taken to try and combat this.

Over the next couple of years there will be quite a few big changes in UK sport broadcasters to try to keep out foreign competition e.g Netflix,Amazon,BEIN sports and Canal + 

It is has already been announced that from late 2018-19 Sky sports and BT will wholesale each other’s channels to subscribers.

Getting back more on topic with I am hearing a higher production budget that coverage can be improved with more camera angles and production staff to improve the output.

Dont get me wrong Steve and the team did amazing job last year on such a small budget but it did show at times. It’s interesting that it has been mentioned on here that we may get same amount of meetings but over a longer period that will entail some quite big gaps with no tv meetings which armchair fans will not appreciate 

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2 hours ago, flagrag said:

. It’s interesting that it has been mentioned on here that we may get same amount of meetings but over a longer period that will entail some quite big gaps with no tv meetings which armchair fans will not appreciate 

If it's true that there will only be the same number of matches televised then I am disappointed. Now, just one small point, why do we have to divide speedway supporters into those who attend (presumably goodies) and 'armchair supporters' (presumably baddies). Isn't it possible to do both?  I certainly intend to to this year now I have the chance. Am I alone? 

I fully endorse the comments about the quality of coverage. Having spent a few years trying to broadcast speedway on a very minimal budget I'm aware of how resourceful you have to be to compensate. You could see the rough edges in 2017 but I'm sure in less expert hands it would have been even starker.

Now flagrag's involvement in the modern day industry will hopefully confirm, the whole area of sports TV is entering a very interesting period. Sky overbid for Premiership football and clearly BT are seeing that their occasional matches perhaps also carry too heavy a price. 

The key difference coming up is that traditional, channel-based and schedule-based TV is under direct attack from legal streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. So far BEIN Sport (Al Jazeera) and Canal+ (known to speedway fans as C-More in Sweden and NSport+ in Poland) have had minimal involvement here but that could well change. Sky will also soon be under the control of Disney rather than Murdoch. The whole industry is in flux again.

It could be a very apt time for a sport to show that it is a value-for-money supplement to a network's sports offering. It could be very important that we have another excellent year of speedway on TV. I do so hope we do.

 

 

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BSPA need to just accept any deal that is offered right now even if BT don't want to pay anything for speedway coverage because right now British Speedway needs to sort itself out so accept the free advertising they will get from BT Sport and get our product in order from top to bottom then hopefully in that year and proven speedway has its house in order then go for a paid TV deal and by then other companies might be interested.

Premier Sports sister channel Freesports would be perfect for Speedway, British Basketball League is now on their channel and no doubt this will boost the sport and help more people through doors over next couple of seasons.

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I know some speedway on TV is better than none. But at the end of the day if your not going to cover it properly in the first place why bother at all lets hope its not like this 

Edited by ray c
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I really appreciate all the angles and finances and infrastructure that has to be considered where it could be really “beefed up”, but for me, to keep it going and keep the focus in the public eye, at least cover 1 meeting each week in the format of last year, .. it won’t make an armchair fan because they won’t show my home team every week !

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The problem speedway has right now is the image it portrays to the casual TV viewer or someone who goes to a meeting for the very first time. I have seen much speedway live and on TV and I must say the image it portrays is dire. I have seen meetings ruined with riders messing about time wasting "gardening" then they all get to the tapes and one will decide to pull back and go for a ride way past the fourth bend on a "scenic tour of the track" while the others wait at the tapes then another and yet another will decide to follow.

The starting marshal keeps calling the riders to the tapes, with no control over them whatsoever, the riders go forward nearly stretch the tapes to breaking point, then go back then go forward and back a number of times, with the starting marshal who might has well not even be there keeps indicating the riders to get in line with frantic waving of his arms

Tapes get broken or a false start and more time wasted when they open the pits gate and a 12,000 mile service takes place to the bikes. even the crowd appears uninterested a few cheer on but many looked bored to death as they stand in the cold watching little of interest, watching riders just faffing about, eventually hoping to see the next race.

Then with a few heats to go it will start to rain and then more delays will commence usually with more "gardening" and more "scenic tours" as the track gets wetter and wetter, instead of getting on with the meeting to get a decent result. Added to all this we often see unbelievable decisions made by referees.

What a sad fiasco this all is. The image that speedway portrays these days if not a good one. I love speedway but am not happy to see the sport decline in this sad way through lack of decent management on how it is run as a spectator and supposedly entertaining sport.

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The club management need to put a stop to all the time wasting otherwise the teams will be riding with very few paying fans watching, especially when it is cold in March, April and September.

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4 minutes ago, mike1944 said:

The problem speedway has right now is the image it portrays to the casual TV viewer or someone who goes to a meeting for the very first time. I have seen much speedway live and on TV and I must say the image it portrays is dire. I have seen meetings ruined with riders messing about time wasting "gardening" then they all get to the tapes and one will decide to pull back and go for a ride way past the fourth bend on a "scenic tour of the track" while the others wait at the tapes then another and yet another will decide to follow.

The starting marshal keeps calling the riders to the tapes, with no control over them whatsoever, the riders go forward nearly stretch the tapes to breaking point, then go back then go forward and back a number of times, with the starting marshal who might has well not even be there keeps indicating the riders to get in line with frantic waving of his arms

Tapes get broken or a false start and more time wasted when they open the pits gate and a 12,000 mile service takes place to the bikes. even the crowd appears uninterested a few cheer on but many looked bored to death as they stand in the cold watching little of interest, watching riders just faffing about, eventually hoping to see the next race.

Then with a few heats to go it will start to rain and then more delays will commence usually with more "gardening" and more "scenic tours" as the track gets wetter and wetter, instead of getting on with the meeting to get a decent result. Added to all this we often see unbelievable decisions made by referees.

What a sad fiasco this all is. The image that speedway portrays these days if not a good one. I love speedway but am not happy to see the sport decline in this sad way through lack of decent management on how it is run as a spectator and supposedly entertaining sport.

Quite right. While I respect anyone who has the courage to get on and race a speedway bike the power in the sport has moved to those riders who in the main seem to have totally forgotten the rights and needs of the paying public.

Sadly that malaise goes further than the riders. Every instruction to a rider to drop points to fiddle the average, every time a dispute between rider and promotion is played out in public at meetings, every time a rider goes missing for a more lucrative pay day elsewhere, every meeting that's rushed through to heat ten with no racing possible, the constant team changes wrecking loyalty between fans and riders, every time a rider chooses an early night rather than socialising with the fans, every little thing that tells the fans they are the least important people at the meeting, they all serve to damage the sport and we are seeing the bitter harvest of it all now.

It is an essential truth when selling a product or service that the needs of the customer come first. Speedway's forgotten that and the bill is now being presented for that stupidity. 

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The British Basketball on FreeSports is a paid for broadcast with the league and sponsors paying to get the sport on TV.

Basketball is very fortunate that the owners of Sheffield based OB company Televideo are huge basketball and Netball fans so do offer their services at a very low rate. So much so to help get the SuperLeague of Netball going and live on Sky sports they waived all the fuel costs for the broadcasts and covered a lot of their riggers wages.

I really do not think Speedway fans have much to worry about it’s hust a case of timing the announcement correctly and I’m sure there will be some noticeable improvements with coverage too.

One thing that always surprises me is that Speedway cannot get a league sponsor and that sponsor involved in Speedway already doesn’t take up the TV coverage sponsorship rights

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6 minutes ago, flagrag said:

The British Basketball on FreeSports is a paid for broadcast with the league and sponsors paying to get the sport on TV.

Basketball is very fortunate that the owners of Sheffield based OB company Televideo are huge basketball and Netball fans so do offer their services at a very low rate. So much so to help get the SuperLeague of Netball going and live on Sky sports they waived all the fuel costs for the broadcasts and covered a lot of their riggers wages.

I really do not think Speedway fans have much to worry about it’s hust a case of timing the announcement correctly and I’m sure there will be some noticeable improvements with coverage too.

One thing that always surprises me is that Speedway cannot get a league sponsor and that sponsor involved in Speedway already doesn’t take up the TV coverage sponsorship rights

Apart from the tv company itself I cannot think of any existing club or rider sponsor that would benefit from much, if at all,  more tv coverage by being a league sponsor.  You need a large company who might benefit, but the return from the fan base and tv audience would not warrent major advertising. 

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1 hour ago, A ORLOV said:

Apart from the tv company itself I cannot think of any existing club or rider sponsor that would benefit from much, if at all,  more tv coverage by being a league sponsor.  You need a large company who might benefit, but the return from the fan base and tv audience would not warrent major advertising. 

I don’t know. the British Speedway Premiership, sponsored by The Co-op Funeral service has a nice ring to it with all the old fogies who attend the sport up and down the country.

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17 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

I don’t know. the British Speedway Premiership, sponsored by The Co-op Funeral service has a nice ring to it with all the old fogies who attend the sport up and down the country.

Oh Steve that was a big below the belt mate. :D Seriously, speedway needs all the fans it can get. Thing is, speedway is not promoted like the way football is. Look what happened to football when sky started promoting it..

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17 minutes ago, Starman2006 said:

Oh Steve that was a big below the belt mate. :D Seriously, speedway needs all the fans it can get. Thing is, speedway is not promoted like the way football is. Look what happened to football when sky started promoting it..

Welcome back chap. Football attendances have actually fallen in recent years ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/21142999

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1 hour ago, Steve Shovlar said:

I don’t know. the British Speedway Premiership, sponsored by The Co-op Funeral service has a nice ring to it with all the old fogies who attend the sport up and down the country.

You included of course.

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