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From what I am hearing from ex colleagues at Eurosport and BT I would not put any bets on that. Eurosport events have been very impressed by the early interest in Speedway rights in certain countries which will be Poland and UK. BT have got some very interesting times ahead as Amazon are after getting some of their rights off them, with large bids expected for Premiership and European Rugby Union,Premier League football and MOTO GP from Amazon who are trying to find more ways to keep customers paying their Prime subscriptions. So BT may well be very keen to keep Speedway GP if they can one thing though is they will not get it on the cheap as Eurosport will be putting in their own tender

The GP coverage was studio based and as basic as they could do with the studio sections in SD quality for some events. I also remember well when they did Cardiff GP and Kings Lynn World Cup meetings they would not pay for lighting operators and runners which ended up with the KL meeting ending with the presentation very dark

Tony Millard was a lovely guy and it was such a shame when the style of the Sky Speedway production was changed to have commentary and presentation done together so Tony was no longer required. I do still think the ride in studio presentation was the best although the amount of times the floor managers nearly got ridden over trying to get riders into the studios was quite a health risk. Getting back on topic I have a feeling that Eurosport may have a slightly different style to their coverage than BT. I am hoping that they do a better job of it than when they had the GP coverage as it was low budget as basic as they could get. Hopefully the money people in Paris will give Speedway a realistic budget to produce a high quality broadcast . As much as people moaned about BT coverage you have say that technically their production was the best yet with all meetings being in UHD and with a fresh style

Not that I am aware of in fact in 2021 Sky will be working even closer with Eurosport including having a UHD HDR channel which will be used to show the Olympics and some Tennis in UHD HDR What may and must stress May be leaving Sky,VM and BT Tv is Eurosport player and catch up services as Discovery (Owners of Eurosport) are keen to separate them from tv carriage deals and are looking to monetise them better with some sports being on Eurosport player when there is clashes. That is my worry for British Speedway is this get pushed online when Tennis,Cycling and Olympics are on

It looks like this assumption may be incorrect as I understand that Eurosport events have put together a tender document for the broadcast rights to Speedway GP and interestingly World Cup. These rights are for individual countries inc main Speedway nations UK,Poland,Denmark and Sweden. So possibly they have realised that better return on investment will happen if they sell the rights off on an individual basis and then show it on their own channels in countries that do not take up a broadcast rights contract like France,Holland,Spain and Turkey . The other that also has to be considered is that this tender process could just be a EU law compliance exercise to say it was put out to competition tender but Eurosport TV always have the highest bid

Trust me the viewer numbers are a lot higher than the ones being indicated by BARB just on Sky some meetings have been getting 15-18,000 alone

The Leicester track is near one of the factory’s that has had an outbreak but the main area where many of the people live is about 4-5 miles away and any further lockdown will be more localised so don’t see any issues with Leicester practice sessions continuing. Why Leicester has been popular this year is an interesting one but so know the clubs that have hired have been Southern based ones and more to come in July . Not sure why Kings Lynn have not been doing more but have heard Mr Chapman can’t be bothered with private hire any more. Also some young riders have said previously that they get more out of practicing at Leicester than Scunny as you have to ride and turn harder at Leicester so learn more .

Racers and Royals- This is the issue that Sky sports had they required to have a clean feed out of Poland so just pictures and graphics with no audio and when they cut to interview the clean feed to go to a beauty shot so comms can do their bit to fill the time and can go to adverts if required. Not sure how Premier are getting the pictures but to me the picture quality is not good and is actually worse than some of internet channels so it’s not the host material and I checked on Monday at work on Sky there was plenty of bandwidth available on Satellite for Premier sports. I do wonder if they are taking a standard at home Polish satellite channel and then just rebroadcast it as I cannot see any uplink feeds coming out of the stadiums other than one channel for the Polish broadcast I am not sure how good N Sport and Eleven are with letting Premier sports know the running order and timings as Dave Goddard does not seem to know when they are going into interviews so cannot prepare what he is going to do and say easily. The production does seem a little better on the N sport matches to me though and if I was Premier I would be making sure that they get a guarantee on a min amount of interviews in English from the non Polish riders and maybe even get the interviewer to do a little section mid meeting and at end about what’s being said in the pits and rider reaction it would add more engagement with UK fans.

Polish Speedway is going to struggle to get the Sunday evening meeting live in the UK as this clashes with NASCAR and Serie A football on Premier sports both of which are their two biggest audiences They could put it onto Freesport but it will depend on how much subscribers they have gained by adding Speedway to their portfolio

They definitely won’t be the only Championship club not taking part in 2020 with a couple of Southern clubs reviewing their options. I have a feeling that we may have 7-8 Championship clubs if we get the season started all with limited capacity

Saturday 29th August to replace the Russian GP as issues getting visas currently along with worries of logistics getting riders & equipment there in current situation and It’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK

Peterborough would be the best venue plenty of car parking, Space for vans,Broadcasters and could have lots of catering and drink outlets, maybe have a entertainment after the meeting The show ground would also allow for the biggest crowd with Vojens style temporary raised stands on bends and back straight with fans standing in the area below. However this would be very expensive for BSI and large financial risk. Likely to be at another location further South and East than Peterborough though I think

If a British Speedway GP happens in 2020 think you will find it more South East than Manchester , Belle Vue issue is the Speedway of Nations BSI do not want to dilute that especially if the events are quite close they may only be 3-4 weeks apart. Which ever way it is going to be a very different experience to Cardiff with all the social gatherings and drinking it will be all about the Speedway this year

It will be interesting if BSI get statement out in the morning now that National Media have confirmed that the stadium will remain equipped as a hospital until the autumn. I suspect that they are trying to do a release with new details of British GP at another venue with lower capacity(Not Belle Vue ) and also to confirm ticket prices and any GWG discounts they will offer to existing ticket holders so that BSI can keep the majority of money paid. Any restaging of the event will also be subject to UK Government allowing events of over 2,000 people

BSI really do need to get on and cancel this event or at least stop selling tickets otherwise they could be setting themselves up for some legal challenges from customers. They were informed 4-5 weeks ago by WRFU that July wasn’t available and they couldn’t offer any alternative dates until at least November and that Cardiff Police have indicated that any events at the stadium cannot take place on the same day as Cardiff city are playing at home

Racers and Royals- You are correct a clean feed has previously been provided from Poland for Premier Sports and I am sorry I should have been clearer the question has been asked in the last two weeks about having a clean feed or them providing one with English comms which they have declined.

To be honest I am not sure how they are doing the production based upon current situation but on based upon how ExtraLiga was previously produced then yes it would be very easy to produce a clean feed it’s just another section on the vision mixer. Where there would be a cost is getting the pictures from the stadiums to broadcasters as unlike the UK Poland does not have a national fibre optic network for broadcast. So in the UK this would just mean sending two feeds down the connection to then be distributed by BT or NEP UK around the world to broadcasters. In Poland it would require another satellite channel and you pay per minute for that and is a more costly way of broadcasting but can easily be done so yes the declined request is likely to have been based upon a cost decision. Personally with the current situation and the lack of live motorsports I feel that the PZM and their media partners have missed a good opportunity here to sell to new markets. Broadcasters worldwide are desperate for professional live sport content now and I strongly believe countries that are motorsport mad that previously have shown no interest in Speedway like Italy,Spain,Germany etc would take the Polish league as long as it was priced reasonably.

The question has already been asked about ExtraLiga on UK tv but PZM , their media agents and N+ are all not interested in providing an English feed or even a clean feed with no comms so unless a last minute change of heart will be the usual internet sources

That’s very interesting that they are still continuing to sell tickets for an event that has already been cancelled with the WRFU for July. Further evidence today with Welsh FA finishing all league football as no crowds going to be allowed in Wales until September. I don’t think anybody knows why BSI do not want to formally cancel this the only assumption that can be made is that they are trying to make decisions about the whole series for 2020

BSI Were told nearly 3 weeks ago that the stadium was unavailable for the Speedway GP and the WRFU couldn’t guarantee any future 2020 dates due to uncertainty when the stadium will be returned to them as although it is not in use the time it takes to get it equipped the government need to have these emergency hospitals in place in case of a second wave of outbreak. The WRFU like NEC and Excel are getting very good compensation payments for venue hire. Getting back on topic not sure why BSI are reluctant to cancel Cardiff whether it’s financial and want to keep ticket sale money for as long as possible or more likely that they are looking at putting the whole GP series on hold for 2020 as they have already lost a number of events and Warsaw and Wroclaw are in serious doubt at present as well. There is also no firm information coming out of Russia about when and who they will let into their country following Covid19 it was already a pain to get visas and permits but fully expect even further restrictions. I note with particular interest that Both the German and Czech GPs are held at traditional Speedway tracks and promoted by the relevant clubs but yet when cancelled cannot give new dates this I believe due to having no plans to stage these events this year

Ty Proctor is working for the Bates family PBHS as he does most winters fitting and checking Water meters in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire I think the longer that this goes on more riders will have to take temporary employment to provide for their families

My understanding is that the insurance and ACU licenses have already been extended until 30th November this preparation for a later end to the season if required this is the same in other motorcycle sports too.

With regards to medical cover it has to be remembered that as far as I know no tracks use NHS ambulances for track cover or NHS paid Paramedics or Doctor’s the staff that cover it do it on their rest days or time off. What may have to be considered is that tracks have two ambulances and double medical cover so if there was an incident there would be no need to call an NHS ambulance. If you look back at government briefings on Friday they have actually seen a substantial drop in A&E cases with the lowest waiting times for years.

I agree that the positioning of lighting had an effect but last season it was more of a problem that the bulbs are coming to the end of their lifetime remember they were not brand new when installed. I can understand that the promotion do not want the expense of all new lighting but if they installed arc discharge bulbs along the straights the additional light would radiate into the bends

It looks like Cardiff will have to be moved or cancelled as I understand that BSI have been advised today that the stadium will be used as a hospital until at least 5th July at the earliest and WRFU cannot guarantee whether this will be extended or not it will then need to be derigged which could easily take a week it is then Cardiff week so will they want to take a gamble or not