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No ratings information is available for the Slovenian Grand Prix, but the Warsaw one was only watched by 10k live. Another 13k saw the highlights on Sunday lunch time, many of which would probably be people wanting to watch it again. Last season's lowest rated grand prix was 22k for Gorzow, and the highest was 48k for Slovenia, although the World Cup Final was slightly better with 49k. The ratings were not known for the Australian meeting or the German Grand Prix, although that one was under 28k as it never made the weekly top ten for BT Sport 2. From the last GP season on Sky, in 2012, their lowest rated meeting was 40k for the Scandinavian Grand Prix from Målilla, although the ratings are not available for the New Zealand one which will have certainly been lower given the start time. All the official ratings data available from the BARB, if you want to pick it out for yourself: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-10/

Aside from that being an illegal cartel, the Premier League sets a reserve price on their packages. Anything below that and it would not be worth their interest as even with all the added running costs they would then be better off setting up their own service and selling directly. Which would be damaging to both Sky and BT, so not in either of their interests to allow that to happen. And all those criticizing Sky for spending over £10m per match whilst defending BT Sport, does that mean you think they are worth the over £7.5m per match which BT are paying? And they have just paid a third more for Champions League rights which Sky were not even interested in. It is not as though Sky are the only ones obsessed with soccer. Although one top Premier League match will be watched by more people than an entire season of Sky's domestic speedway coverage combined, and that is mostly the same people each week. For me though, this deal means I am lost to British speedway. I cannot justify £23 per month (in SD) just for half a season of the SGB Premiership. The only other thing of interest for me on BT is the FIM speedway events, but I can get those elsewhere. I have no interest in soccer, rugby union, or MotoGP (which is rumoured to be going to Sky), and as much as I like cricket, I will be sleeping during an overseas Ashes. I cannot get BT for internet, nor Virgin, because neither offer a static IP which I need. BT do not offer anything equivalent to Now TV. And they do not even allow Plus Net subscribers to watch channels online, so even subscribing through them is little value when half the time it means being unable to watch. And for those who want to moan about going to meetings, we do not all live near a team, drive, and may have other reasons we cannot physically attend. Maybe speedway would be better off its own supporters welcomed those with an interest in the sport instead of telling them to bugger off because they so not meet someone's self righteous requirement to be a fan. For what it is worth, I got bored one evening and just came across speedway on TV. I am not a fan of any other motorsport but instantly was into it. Both Sky and BT are big business who could not care less about me, and so I cannot understand why people like one over the other as if they were supporting teams. And if Sky are not interested then I guess it cannot be helped, and so BT is definitely better than nothing. But who can people be arguing that reduced productions of fewer meetings to fewer people is an improvement? I looked back at the FIM event ratings the last time they were on Sky with last year on BT and they are half of what they used to be. And on Sky there were usually pushed down the channels as they were competing with live rugby league, cricket, and golf whilst BT had them on their main channel until the soccer season began. Sadly Eurosport is not rated so no idea how well they did on there. 2012 on Sky Sports (70k average where known) Mar 31 New Zealand Unknown Apr 28 Europan (Leszno) 60k (SS4) May 12 Czech Republic 45k (SS4) May 26 Sweden 65k (SS4) Jun 9 Denmark 61k (SS4) Jun 23 Poland (Gorzów) 71k (SS4) Jul 7 WC Event 1 (Bydgoszcz) 70k (SS2) Jul 9 WC Event 2 (King’s Lynn) 109k (SS2) Jul 12 WC Race-Off (Målilla) 68k (SS2) Jul 14 WC Final (Målilla) 70k (SS2) Jul 28 Croatia 82k (SS3) Aug 11 Italy 45k (SS4) Aug 25 Great Britain 96k (SS3) Sep 8 Scandinavia (Målilla) 40k (SS4) Sep 22 Nordic (Vojens) 53k (SS4) Oct 6 Poland (Toruń) 114k (SS3) 2016 on BT Sport (34k average where known) Apr 30 Slovenia 48k (BT1) May 14 Warsaw 41k (BT1) June 11 Denmark 46k (BT1) Jun 25 Czech Republic 29k (BT1) Jul 9 Great Britain 40k (BT1) Jul 23 WC Event1 (Vojens) 22k (BT1) Jul 26 WC Event 2 (Västervik) 28k (BT1) Jul 29 WC Race-Off (Manchester) 31k (BT1) Jul 30 WC Final (Manchester) 49k (BT1) Aug 14 Sweden (Sun 9am) 22k (BT3) Aug 27 Gorzów 22k (BT2) Sep 10 Germany Unknown (under 28k) (BT2) Sep 24 Scandinavia (Stockholm) 28k (BT2) Oct 1 Toruń 38k (BT2) Oct 22 Australia Unknown (BT2) The BT coverage is clearly the best of a bad lot, even if for me personally it is as good as not being on TV at all. But anyone who thinks this is a good move for the sport just because it works out cheaper for them personally is deluded.