Steve Shovlar

Only 3 days to run on the Ebay auction to raise funds for Ricky. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350912087727#ht_808wt_1170 The painting is now up to 72 pounds which is great but I hope we can still get it up a bit more. It's worth a lot more than this current price so the winning bidder will know he has a double whammy. Getting a great item to hang on the wall and the money goes to a deserving cause as well. Come on give a bid. You know you want to! Cheers Steve

Only 3 days to run on the Ebay auction to raise funds for Ricky. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350912087727#ht_808wt_1170 The painting is now up to 72 pounds which is great but I hope we can still get it up a bit more. It's worth a lot more than this current price so the winning bidder will know he has a double whammy. Getting a great item to hang on the wall and the money goes to a deserving cause as well. Come on give a bid. You know you want to! Cheers Steve

Big thank you to the Speedway Star for carrying a photo of the painting plus a link to it on Ebay. Current price with less than a week to go is 51.00 with lots of watchers. Hopefully these will turn into bids. The idea is to bid a little more and often to sneak the price slowly upwards. I know people don't like to show their hand when bidding but on this occassion it's all going to a good cause and the idea is perhaps not to win the item for as cheaply as possible. Thanks to those who have already bid. With luck it will go higher than the current price. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350912087727#ht_808wt_1170 Cheers Steve

Has the thread starter been on the sauce a little early in the evening? Perhaps we should throw in a few ramps with fire hoops along the straight that explode as riders pass through them, and a couple of hungry lions to maul any rider who has the misfortune to fall off on the bends. Utter nonsense thread.

I have put up on Ebay a small framed ink original painting of a speedway rider dated 1931. The final hammer price will go to the Ricky Ashworth Fund. I have owned this for a few years but can't think of a more worthy or deserving cause to let it go to. Please take a look. It will make a great Christmas present for a speedway fan and the money will go to where it is needed. Bid with gusto. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350912087727#ht_808wt_1170 Cheers Steve

I have put an original 1931 framed pen drawing up on Ebay with the final hammer price going to the Ricky Ashworth Fund. It would make a great Christmas present for a speedway fan. Bid with gusto and lets raise some more. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350912087727#ht_808wt_1170 Cheers Steve

The alternative being talked about is the BSPA producing a one hour highlights program for Sky at a cost of 5-7000 a week. Roughly 5-600 pounds a week from each promotion. The show would have to be produced by a professional company with top notch graphics and in HD. Would promoters be willing to dip their hands in their takings to pay for such a program with highlights from every meeting around the EL that week? I somehow doubt it very much. We would soon see IOU's going in the pot. It will be interesting to hear what happened at the Sky meeting with Terry Russell. Hopefully not all bad news.

Well I guess we will find out if there's a new contract in the next few days/couple of weeks. Streaming at certain tracks may well be an issue though there is satellite internet with decent upload speeds so that could be looked at. I had satelite Broadband for a few years before my area was introduced to BT Broadband and was fast. Whilst I agree with Flagrag about speeds, the service doesn't have to be a HD stream for laptops/smart device. A SD stream uses a lot less bandwidth and is still completely watchable. As for people mentioning Eurosport and Premier Sports, that would be a non starter. Neither would spend money on a bespoke broadcast and 99% of their content is provided by other stations. They just pay for the feed and stick their brand mark on it. Of course the meetings don't have to be live if it means saving money. A show can be filmed, edited and then broadcast online within 24 hours. That way there would be no bandwidth issues as the content would be straight onto a server to be pushed out or downloaded. Not as good as watching live but guarenteed no issues. However, would people be prepared to watch a meeting when they already know the score? Not so exciting.

Yes if it was done correctly. Took me a few minutes to find this, one of many solutions. http://www.telestream.net/wirecast/overview.htm Live streaming, multi camera, no need for a mixing deck as all done through laptop or Mac. price? US$995. Simple to use. The cost of such software have plummeted in the last few years.

I couldn't do it without some research. I could certainly find out the running costs of equipment etc by attending BVE in February. A few minutes talk to the relevant people would have the price pinned down exactly. Cameramen are not expensive. Rob at Poole charges about 40 quid to film the meeting, plus expenses when travelling to away meetings. It can be done on a shoestring budget and still look good enough. I say good enough because it could never look as good as a TV Broadcast. The most important issue is making sure the races are covered and that there is decent commentary. It would have to be acceptable quality to warrant a subscription.

The customer base is worldwide, not just from UK tracks. A Polish version of the site would surely attract customers. Cameras needed would not be that expensive and the cameramen used may have one anyway which is usable. Certainly Pete Ballinger, who films at Coventry, would have suitable gear as do Rerun. The expense would be on the mixing deck and these are no longer expensive. A trip to BVE (Broadcast video Expo) at Earls Court in February will reveal many different companies offering low cost live internet streaming setups and quite amazing prices. A server with relevant software to push out a live stream is extremely cheap. My server with unlimited bandwidth costs me 88 pounds a month. A website would cost no more than a few hundred pounds. Wages for the three/four crew would need to be paid. I think if pushed correctly all clubs could benefit quite well. A very good post but I think you are over-egging the pudding by saying 8 staff would be required. Three cameramen, engineer/director in charge of the mixing desk, plus 2 commentators. It would have to be a "we all get our hands dirty" production with cable laying etc. Don't forget Go Speed have the rights to Polish league Speedway and already have experience with online streaming ( albeit with a HD feed coming into London) EL and Polish speedway in one monthly subscription sounds very exciting.

OK so it's looking like Sky are either playing hardball, or more likely, going to end its association with British Speedway. If it is the latter, what are the options? Forget about TV and just get on with it? Or is there a better option which could generate funds for all clubs? With a fast broadband connection now covering most of the country and certainly in the towns and cities, it 's not prohibitively expensive for the BSPA ( or go Speed for that matter) to continue bringing live speedway to a living room near you in 2014. Whilst the quality of the production would certainly be nowhere near a Sky TV production, it could certainly be "good enough for most fans who are interested in the racing action" and cost a tiny fraction of what a broadcaster pays out. A live speedway meeting could be broadcast with two or three cameras, one in the pits and two covering the track or even leave the pits out and settle for two cams at first. Two commentators to bounce off each other. All cameras go into a suitcased sized mixing desk with engineer and then onto a live streaming service which charges a subscription fee to the viewer. Of course this is simplified but not far off. Clearly there has to be a website set up but the software to use and do all this is an off the shelf package and can be purchased for just a few thousand pounds. Fans could pay, say for example, £20 a month and in return receive 2 or 3 meetings a week. As long as there's fast broadband at the stadium this is achievable. On demand would mean the meetings would be available to watch at anytime afterwards. There might not be much money in it at first but as a season progressed it should make money. I would be happy to pay to watch a meeting on a live stream if I couldn't make it to the meeting in person. I believe Sweden have a similar system where fans can watch meetings online. Thoughts? Would you be prepared to pay 15-20 Pounds a month for live EL and PL meetings via your phone/ipad/laptop/smartTV ?

Only free for a few days. It is free to all BT Broadband users 365 days a year.

One would hope they have, and to be honest it would be great if the speedway switched to BT Sport as it's a free channel in my household.

Time for action by the BSPA. No point waiting any longer for Sky to answer the phone. If they are refusing to talk, then time for the BSPA to pick up the phone and call BT Sport. What's the worst that could happen? Sky get the hump and refuse to give a new deal? it sounds like that is going to happen anyway. Get on the phone to BT Sport, try and arrange a meeting and see where it takes us. If they are not interested then nothing is lost. If neither Sky or BT want to show UK Speedway in 2014 then TV coverage is gone for the time being and clubs can build their sides within the new budget levels. Clearly the product would be much weaker and we would lose all the top riders but the sport will survive. We should not be beck and call to Sky's current refusal to speak.

Well done to Tai Woffinden. Great effort and deserved. Next year it is going to be extremely hard to defend so I am very pleased he did it quickly tonight. The 2014 GP Series is going to be the best ever with Tai, Emil, Darcy and Noddy (if fit) all battling for top spot. Throw in Iversen as a spoiler and it has the makings of a stunning series. Sky threw it in the bin at exactly the wrong time. Well done to Eurosport for picking it up and reaping the rewards. And well done again Tai.

Think you mean Eurosport. Good luck to Woffinden tonight.

Nearly choked on my Dorset Cereals this morning when the BBC mentioned the speedway. The presenter didn't have a clue and kept glancing down to his notes, but said Tai had to score 6 points to wi the first title in 13 years and that he could do it tomorrow in Poland, and his nearest rival was a Pole. And if he wins it he will hopefully be in the studio next week.

Poole have battled to the playoffs and are there with a team built within the budget of the club. The riders are paid, there are no debts. Both Swindon and Brum are there under almost false pretences, as neither promotions can afford the teams they are running this season.

Good meeting and some nail biting racing. Well done to the track staff. Tai doesn't really need 6 points as Hampel is not going to go through the card in 2 weeks time. Even if he didn't ride it would be a hard task for Hampel to over haul Tai. Brave riding by the Brit and the points he picked up tonight were crucial.

When Chris Holder won the title last year Matt Ford milked it for all it was worth, and that was with an Aussie WC. Surely having a British WC has got to make the media take note. And if he does win it and stays in contention next year, it will be the biggest Cardiff attendence ever.

What channel is it on? ITV or BBC?

I listen to 5live every day and speedway never gets a mention. Ladies Golf, some obscure snooker match in the far east al get on but here we are, 24 hours away from having a British WC and not a peep from the Beeb. The problem is the sport has no voice, or commentator in the BBC. They just don't know about it. Really, Woffy should have been interviewed live on air, and it should be in regular sports news tomorrow. But it won't be mentioned even if at 9 pm tomorrow night he wins it. Very unfair and in such circumstances it should make the sports news. But it won't. Best bet is all of us to email 5 live from now and tell them the situation. They can't ignore hundreds of emails telling them of a potential British WC, can they? Probably but worth a try. 5livesport@bbc.co.uk I have thrown them a quick email.

Get well soon Bryn.

You can watch the whole meeting in HD here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z11eACyrGjA The 7th heat starts at 43 minutes. Nasty nasty crash and get well soon Emil.