RobMcCaffery

Okay, it's big in Togliatti.....

There are several versions of Eurosport, Philip, with some having some distinctive deals. For example the Hungarian/Romanian service used to show the FA Premier League live. As for stations in Denmark, Poland and Sweden being unhappy with Eurosport showing SGP in opposition, well imagine what Sky would have said a couple of years ago if it had been suggested that Eurosport would show the SGP as well when THEY had paid for the UK and Ireland rights?

The greatest please I got from the Rugby League World Cup was from the matches between the minor nations, especially Scotland's two games at Derwent Park. They were well-matched sporting events, unlike those at the higher level. Now I wonder which sport that reminds me of?

By a fundamental change in mindset when dealing with the media and many years of very hard work. A good starting point would be when making a decision or public announcement considering what impact it would make on the wider world outside speedway and those many lost or future supporters. Of course we should try to exploit Tai's success but it is only a part of a much longer battle. The sport's reputation needs rebuilding in so many ways.

Of course both Rugby Union and Cricket are played at all levels of society, but that does not mask the fact that they are both cornerstones of public school sports, and as such are a firm part of Britain's social elite's culture. They are very much 'establishment' sports at heart despite involvement at other levels of society and as such have a huge advantage over others.. At my state school they had pretentions of being some kind of quasi public school and so competitive football was banned with only 'rugger', cricket and hockey allowed as team sports so I've really resisted all three sports since. They are important sports but along with football they are allowed to dominate the sporting 'conversation' far too much. As for Rugby League, it is an odd case but the BBC did rely on it as a convenient Saturday afternoon live sport and so, helped by the unintended comic novelty value of Eddie Waring's commentaries it was a major exception to my point but then I was trying to offer a suggestion as to the problems speedway faces, not absolute fact. If only the world were that simple. Anyway, perhaps I should have just posted. "Speedway's face doesn't fit." My previous employers long ago decided to ask the IBA if mud wrestling was acceptable as a sport. The answer was "As long as the audience doesn't join in'".

Again, whatever your views on whether sailing is a worthwhile sport Ben Ainslie has in successive years won Olympic gold and the Americas Cup and received much media attention in the past. I again suspect far more people would be familiar with the Americas Cup than the Speedway Grand Prix It's really a matter of breaking into what you might call a journalistic 'circle' of 'worthwhile' sports. Every cock-up speedway makes just makes that entry barrier higher. I read the autobiography of a particular sports commentator who questioned on his first paper in the 50s why public school 'soccer' and athletics were given such priority. The answer was that it was the way of the world. What in fact was going on that people from a certain social level were reporting on what they and the elitist colleagues were interested in, not what the general public might want. You see this in the disproportionate coverage given to sports like rugby and cricket. Essentially if your sport isn't played at the public schools or in the Olympics you struggle unless you're a huge corporate juggernaut like F1 or are dirt cheap to cover like darts and snooker. The battle for hearts and minds of those with the true power in sport and sports journalism has a hell of a long eway to go.

Whatever your view on what constitutes a sport those included in the BBC list all have prominent media, especially TV exposure on the major networks. Sports such as sailing and the paralympics do benefit from rather significant TV coverage, even if only every four years in the main. Tell the average person that Tai is a speedway racer and most would ask which car he drives, I suspect. Speedway simply has a low profile, even amongst other minority sports and that's where the real problem lies.

Oh no, I'm not implying that the EL would or should follow either formula, but since the new scheme compares itself with those two countries I thought I'd show how they arranged matters abroad. If the reserves are up to the standard of the top five the system works well, but otherwise it's harsh, especially in Poland for many youngsters getting two rides and thoroughly beaten in the process. Shovlar's endorsement clearly shows he believes Poole will have the best two juniors.....

Just so that people can see how it works in Sweden and Poland here are the race formulae: Sweden 1 1 2 1 2 2 6 7 6 7 3 3 4 3 4 4 6 5 5 7 5 2 7 6 4 6 3 4 1 2 7 1 2 3 4 8 3 4 5 7 9 6 5 1 2 10 1 7 6 5 11 6 7 6 7 12 5 4 3 2 13 3 2 1 4 14 1 5 3 5 15 Nominated POLAND (the home side's numbered 9-15 but I've converted it to 1-7 for clarity) 1 1 2 2 1 2 6 7 7 6 3 3 4 4 3 4 5 7 7 5 5 3 4 2 1 6 5 6 4 3 7 1 2 6 5 8 5 7 2 1 9 1 2 4 3 10 3 4 7 5 11 5 2 2 3 12 3 6 6 1 13 1 4 4 5 14 & 15 - Nominated Now, bear in mind that riders such as Patryk Dudek can be found racing at reserve in Poland There are some pretty raw juniors in both leagues. In Poland you see many cases where young riders just get heat 2 and one other, usually pointless rides. I think it was 2011 when one Polish team had a promising young rider at reserve through the season - one Emil Sayfutdinov. You really can't compare Swedish and Polish reserves with our NL talent. I have nothing whatsoever against the NL - I've enjoyed thoroughly what I've seen at that level but let's not fool ourselves about the present level of development of most. I've seen far too many riders promoted too soon with the result that they leave the sport equally prematurely.

They get two reserve races but in others are up against heat leaders.

There is a heck of a difference between the best twenty young British riders, whether under-23 or under-21 or any other arbitrary figure, and the top twenty National League riders, for what are pretty obvious reasons unless the Premier League has mysteriously ceased to exist. Yes, it's great to give protected team places to young British riders but only if it is the best that are included. Using the best is a talent-developing strategy, just using 20 NL riders is suspiciously close to just employing riders on the cheap and passing it off as some grand strategy. Funny how the BSPA wake up to promoting British talent once the financial drip-feed is under threat. If this was a properly though-out scheme to promote young British talent I'd support it completely. I really don't think it is. The comparison is made with Poland and Sweden. I would suggest that the riders involved in those countries are at a rather later stage of development than the NL. The progression of course should be NL-PL-EL. The fundamental failure of this scheme is the suspicion that that vital middle step is being omitted. I hope it works but really can't see how it's more than exploitation rather giving opportunities - as it has been every time I've seen it tried before. What we have here is instead of stripping cost out of the EL consistently through the riding order we're probably seeing second strings replaced by NL riders. On a different note we are told that a new TV deal is imminent - it would be interesting to see how much money is on the table....

They really do have to keep the reserves away from the heat leaders. No more teams relying on flying reserves to get an advantage. With that gone and with the traditional tactical substitute system not being mentioned just where are the opportunities for team managers to use tactics? They needed to cut cost but as usual it looks like they've come up with an unworkable compromise that'll have to be re-thought in a year's time. The reduction in cost needed to be spread through the teams to keep racing competitive. Difficult days and I don't think this is at all radical enough. The Premier League seem to have defended their product reasonably well though but I really fear for the EL now. Very sorry for Peterborough - that's the biggest disaster in there. Hopefully it's only a matter of time before a deal to run them in the PL is found.

This was an idea that Barry Klatt tried when he joined Ron Russell at Rye House. Yes, it was an entertaining alternative but ran into opposition from riders who were happy to do one clutch start and four laps but weren't prepared to run to four clutch starts over four laps. Like so much 'post-match/second half' action it was killed as much by rider attitude as spectator apathy. I'd say that when rider apathy was picked up on the terraces that was the killer for not only second halves, but individuals,challenge matches, pairs and four team tournaments - and even the KO Cup in the case of the Elite League, leaving the sport in the desperate situation of only being able to sell league matches. One very serious problem for speedway seems to be the shift from people going out for a night's speedway racing to people going just out to see their team win league points. It's not a shift from white to black though, there were always people who only went to see the team win and there are still people who go for the racing, where it stiill exists - I just feel the balance has shifted, much to the sport's cost.

I see that I am not allowed to comment on anything you say on the basis that it must be due to a personal dislike. Well, you are correct, I do have a very strong personal dislike due to the offensive way you have spoken to me on here. However, unlike yourself I based my comments on what you wrote, not as a cheap opportunity to score puerile points. You really are a very nasty piece of work. I really could not give a damn about your opinion of my work on Screen Sport since your comments are clearly based on personal venom, not reason. I make no great claims for what I did in speedway many years ago, but at least I got off my backside and did them unlike poisonous snipers like you. Yes it was amateurish, but on a budget of £1000 per hour what do you expect? At least we tried to help the sport, at considerable personal cost. It's 'supporters' like you who make it such a pleasure not to have any professional involvement in the sport now. 'Grow up'? I suggest you look in the mirror. One thing you can be sure of in speedway, no matter what you try to achieve there will always be someone like you to make you regret it. I remember you turning on me initially because I dared to criticise football. What a shocking crime! I also note John Hyam, hiding behind his rock as 'gustix' endorsed your posting. There is no greater discredit to your posting than to have that man's endorsement. I've tried to help this debate by offering points from my knowledge of television generally. As ever, you can rely on ignorant posters such as yourself to make you regret it. As for getting out to see meetings, I would love to but ill health has prevented me for most of this season. A very cheap shot from a very cheap person. Anyway, you like Sky. Great, now what has that got to do with the future of speedway on TV? Nothing, which is why I responded, but you obviously don't have the intelligence to understand that.

"If you look at GSI website it states that its properties include The International rights to the Elite League, along with others " Thanks, I was already well aware of that. I was referring to an apparent transfer of rights from the old Go Speed Company to Go Speed International.

The agreement could easily have been transferred from one legal entity to the other in the same way that a promoting company at a track can be replaced by another. Similar names and ownerships don't stop you having two legal entities and switching contracts from one to another. It's just speculation though unless you have access to privileged information. Putting a company into liquidation and transferring business to another with a similar name and ownership is a pretty commonplace matter. You might but it's the engineers at the stations who have the say.

Many of these clips may look good enough to the amateur eye but they may not meet the technical standards demanded by actual TV stations.

The situation seems to be that Premier will be free until 31.12.13 at which point a decision will be taken, based on the channel's performance, whether to absorb the costs and carry it on XL without extra charge like BT or to charge £7.99 a month, £2 less than via Sky or the online player. It's a case of 'watch and see'. Let's hope they will renew the contract for Swedish Speedway.

I can't see anyone here seriously blaming Sky for the current state of British Speedway. People do have concerns about Sky's influence on sport generally, especially in view of the Murdoch influence but that is a matter for media forums, not here. If you are happy with the service you pay for then fine - that's not the point at issue. What IS relevant is that if they're no longer prepared to carry the sport then we must look elsewhere. Sky is a hard-nosed business not a charity and if they don't want to renew the deal we must move on.

Regarding comments about gratitude to Sky, senior management has changed there and I doubt very much that sentiment is high on their priorities. The rise of the Grands Prix is as much about the role of Polish, Swedish and Danish TV stations who also take the BSI programme as Sky who showed precious little sentiment or loyalty by dumping coverage in 2013. It's about the next 15 years, not the past.

British Eurosport is included in most basic satellite and cable packages while BT at most is £15 a month. If you have Virgin's top level package both are included. If you are already paying Sky high prices it's a great deal extra to add these and Premier Sports. If you don't have Sky to pay it's not too bad. Premier's coverage is of course a version of Swedish pay-TV's programme and we miss out on all of the interviews and analysis. In any case although TV techniques and policies still fascinate me years after my own involvement in the case of Swedish Speedway like all other forms it's the racing that matters.

Based on what I have read here from Phil Rising whose credentials are pretty impressive, plus those of both flagrag and SGP who both would appear to know what they are talking about there has been no termination or withdrawal of rights in this case. Instead a fixed-term deal has expired and not yet been renewed with it suggested that the new contact at Sky was not prepared to meet with GSI over a renewal, although it seems that a meeting had now been arranged. So, ijn this case I would suggest that it IS a strong possibility that the deal will not be renewed or will be on reduced financial terms. My own observations are based not only on my own involement in such matters but also a continuing study ofr media matters over the best part of fifty years. I cannot claim to be right but I offer my thoughts in order to assist the debate. To suggest that comments on this thread are just being based on the usualo BSF uninformed speculation isn't very helpful. I want the sport on TV and am keen to help the debate on how it can be achieved. Of course we can all just bury our heads in the sand and lety opportunities pass us by then moan about the outcome. There are few certainties until a contract is signed. However there is one painful certainty if no agreement is found. Let's hope GSI succeed, with whichever broadcaster is interested. Personally, I'd love it to be BT, as I expect is pretty clear from my previous ramblings.

Delighted to hear both BT and British Eurosport are contenders, especially in the latter's case where until recently their policy has been mainly to show international sport. A change in this policy came with their deal to cover the British Basketball League, and also you would argue, the NFL. Clearly times are changing at what used to be, in effect the sports side of Eurovision, who do a little more than organise a song concert...... My earlier comment about BT related to it being unlikely they would take on the Swedish racing, at least without having the British product first. Either way I would be very surprised if ANY broadcaster would be interested in paying a million a year for coverage, as with the Sky deal currently expiring. Surely the wisest policy is to plan without TV revenue and any that arrives be seen as a bonus? But this is speedway.....

I expect the price must have been higher than the Swedish rights which I believe weren't brokered by GSI. I'm just surprised that Premier Sports went for the Swedish racing, even though apart from NHL ice hockey it does base its schedules on sports ignored by rivals. As BT are finding, despite the quality of action and presentation even foreign football has to work hard for an audience, let alone an obscure sport like ours.

You're omitting my personal weekly highlight - Swedish Speedway on Premier Sports on Tuesdays. Well-matched teams and proper tactical substitutions to keep the tactics interesting. Unlike Poand it's not all about hanging onto the bike. There is talk about Premier joining the Virgin Media package soon along with BT, making Sky Sports a rather overpriced service for those not obsessed with British football. Sky is still a huge success but the overpayment on football and F1 is having sharp effects and, British football aside other services are beginning to build good packages at far lower cost for those with wider sporting tastes. Can Sky survive with just British football? Probably, but it might be better if the smaller sports began to look elsewhere. I would be very surprised if any deal ever delivered the £5 million over five years that speedway enjoyed. I'd say the easy money flow's been turned-off for now and potentially for the long term.