RobMcCaffery

Many thanks. As you can tell I'm very keen to encourage this streaming. I'm practically housebound currently so these streams are a vital lifeline. There's only so much Polish speedway you can take.... Going forward, I'd prefer to access the on demand video without seeing the match report first. Keep up the good work and I hope you weren't let down by outside technology again. I always enjoy my trips to Armadale, whether in person or virtually. Thanks again

I wasn't able to watch the stream on Friday and was hoping to watch 'on demand' but it doesn't seem to be available.

SVEMO used to have a comprehensive live update service for each match. Is that still running? I think Sportowe Fakty also run updates on Swedish matches.

If not for outside technical faults in Scotland both Plymouth and Edinburgh productions were perfectly acceptable for the prices charged so I don't want anyone thinking they were of an unacceptable standard.

There was a lot of freezing and picture break-up and yes background sound was poor. All they can do is take what they are given by Swedish TV. In the same way the desperately poor graphics are Sweden's responsibility and Dave is quite right to despair at them. They're only rarely showing changes in heats nor the line-ups for the nominated races, apart from occasionally the gate positions, but no helmet colours in the pits. As Dave points out the standard team kevlars means he often has to rely on a lucky glimpse of the back of a race jacket or overhearing the stadium announcer. It's only once the riders hit the first bend that you can usually spot the changes which is no good for a commentator. He needs better information. There's not the same problem with Poland where the graphics are normally reliably updated whenever there's a rider change. The Swedes are leaving any rider who's being covered by rider-replacement in the heat lineups! No wonder he's getting frustrated.

Thank you both.

That illustrates how each offer needs to be assessed by each track individually. I do hope both Plymouth and Edinburgh made money from the streaming. Their enterprise deserved it.

Does anyone know how we can get the promised electronic programme? I can't see anywhere to download it from.

From the comments here I taske it Plymouth's streaming must have been loss-making at $4.99/c.£3.80. I bought a pass for this and the Edinburgh BYC staging at £5 and feel I got fair value for money. At that price point I DO expect grass roots racing covered by one camera and that's what I got. The Plymouth presentation was delightfully semi-chaotic while sadly the Edinburgh production was bedevilled by connectivity problems. They did the decent thing by apologising to subscribers directly and offering partial refunds along with explanations of the problems and how they would be resolved in future. At that price point you couldn't really expect much more but I watched two entertaining meetings in this barren 'season'. I've bought a pass for tonight's Belle Vue event and am happy to pay £10 for a SportCentral production with greater resources and professional commentary, also taking into account the costlier standard of riders employed. I'd equally be happy to pay £12.95 for the British Final if I didn't have other commitments over the weekend. Not all speedway meetings are run at the same level of ability and costs just as not all streaming or video is the same, so multiple price points are relevant. £12.95 for Plymouth or Edinburgh would have been too much. Equally £5 would be far too low for Belle Vue or Ipswich. What I would hate would that the Plymouth/Edinburgh-style events could not be repeated if the requirement was to do a multi-camera TV standard production at £12.95. The level and cost of the streaming should be dependent on the nature of the meeting. If Plymouth and Edinburgh were to stream weekly in the £5-10 price band I'd be happy to subscribe weekly. SportCentral's experience in streaming ice hockey surely gives them the best insight into what level of production or price is right. I suspect the ice hockey and speedway markets are probably fairly similar. Ultimately you get what you pay for. One standard of coverage at one price is NOT the way forward. There's room for British Finals at £12.95 and Plymouth NDL matches at £3.80.

That's good. I look forward to watching further streaming. I know WMTV's standards are high and there's not much you can do in last week's situation. I've also really enjoyed the Rewinds, especially Mike's distinctive commentaries.

It appears there were problems with the local internet connection. EMTV have apologised and were obviously as frustrated as we were. You only have to look at the rewind meetings to know their normal high standards. It was unfortunate it him them on their big day. There will be more with hopefully better luck with matters outside their control. All you can do in this situation is to apologise and learn how to prevent the problems recurring. I'm sure they will.

Sadly the sport is bedevilled by this 'meaningless' rubbish. To me, all meetings are a night/afternoon at the Speedway. That's how it was when I first fell in love with speedway and it sustains my love for the sport. Racing matters, not rider status. Last night's Prague GP is a case in point. It was certainly 'meaningful' to most but it was a bore. I'm looking forward to the British Youth Championship round at Armadale later. It doesn't carry much 'meaning' but I suspect I'll see better racing. 'Meaningless' has seen varied fixture lists running to 26-30 weekly meetings to almost half as many occasional but 'meaningful' meetings and seasons that once ran through to October sometimes ending as early as August. This isn't progress, it's regress and the sooner this mock-intelligent 'meaningful' sneering ends, the healthier the sport will be. I was a customer for the Plymouth 3TT stream and once the riders had settled it was good fun. Oh yes, sport can be fun, even if the result doesn't matter. Sadly the damage is done and the sport is all the poorer for it. As for this year's British Final, the First step to winning anything is to enter. The sixteen racing at Foxhall have made that essential start and hopefully the result will be an entertaining one. 'Meaningless' has killed much in speedway - effectively almost all speedway that isn't linked to a major title. Individuals, pairs and 4TTs and challenges have mainly been lost. That's a lot of speedway gone. The next step? "Speedway? Meaningless". Let's just allow ourselves to enjoy speedway and drop this damaging and stupid posturing.

Football wins every time. This problem was inevitable once they signed the Polish deal and had to start showing speedway on Sundays. It was okay June-August when the football leagues they cover were quiet or indeed silent. There's far too much football available now for them to show. Chasing the largest audience is scarcely amateurism, sadly.

I once worked at a track where the starting marshal came up to the box after a few after match junior races to complain about one of the kids using nitro. He claimed you could tell because his exhaust stank of pig manure.

Someone once suggested he was lacking an 'off' switch.

Apologies, I dodn't realise you were referring to Talking Dirt. No, it's not listed. Slow start today :-(

BT Sport 2 17.45 Saturday on Virgin media's guide and Digiuide (an online schedule service). Both GP 1 & 2 were shown by BT Sport.

Sportowe Fakty report Lyager took part in the track test at 4.02 (Polish time), 3.02 UK.

The scores may have varied but not by substantial amounts. I don't have time to go through the variances in detail. Could you let me have some example of cases similar to Lindgren please?

Very kind. If you think I have such a problem then perhaps you do qualify for a 'lesser mortal' tag. Anyway, life is far too short to deal with such an attitude. I write what I believe, not out of arrogance but out of a deep love and concern for the sport. I can find people's views ridiculous without considering them inferior. Perhaps in your case I should make an exception. Another one for the block list ;-( Now can we talk about speedway rather than petty vendettas? By the way, have you ever dealt with the FIM? I remember reading one of their reports on a major event in Britain. First point covered was "The FIM delegates were treated in accordance with their status and their needs met". Now there's a case of 'lesser mortals..... Bye. Oh, I've made a few postings trying to help newcomers understand what's going on i Poland. I've deleted them since they obviously just result in rubbish from people like you. I've also tried to help out with links to TV coverage, often behind the scenes. Clearly it's better if I don't. Congratulations. This part if the forum used to be a really good place to talk about speedway and help others. Clearly those days have gone. Best if I just revert to 'read only status and let you get on with it. As I said, life's too short and I have enough health problems to deal with without taking rubbish from the likes of you, not lesser mortals, just unpleasant ones.

Works fine when you're racing on a superb track like Wroclaw, but what about one of the processional tracks where the scorecard is often more interesting than the 'racing' after thesecond bend. The test could come in Prague although the Czechs really produced good racing at the Marketa last time out. Apart from the Freddie Lindgren situation there weren't too many variances between points scored under the new system and wuld have been earned under the old. Anyway, there's little chance of the FIM listening to lesser mortals so best to celebrate the fact that we've got the World Championship back after ten months and enjoy the racing which was marvellous at the weekend. That far bigger bonus for the sport massively outweighs a flawed scoring system.

This was probably in retaliation for a local radio DJ in Somerset, Steve Yabsley saying on air his version of the claim of how close we are to rats in daily life with "In Weston-super-Mare you're never more than ten yards away from a Brummie"....

There is an argument for a 'free use' clause, where the music is an incidental part of the recording, just background noise, and not a core part of the video otherwise in the long term we'll face a pretty silent You Tube. It's a case of the law being behind technology. Even a video of someone being presented with a birthday cake with those present singing Happy Birthday falls foul of performing rights law. You do often wonder how much that is collected ever gets near an artist or writer.....

Glad to hear it.

That copyright comment re pa music could be a massive wider problem if You Tube start getting too strict. It would see all speedway meetings blocked from You Tube if music from the pa system can be heard. That's very worrying and probably a greater worry than the TV stations trying to block "little rivers".