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From what I have been Martin is taking the U.K. racing very seriously and will be coming over to do extensive practicing at Leicester with his engine tuner not just sorting his U.K. equipment but also his GP bikes. With this level of professionalism I am sure barring injury he will the U.K. sorted

No need to worry the league racing is happening in 2018 had this confirmed again today by a former colleague now at BT. He understands the delay in announcement is due to the forthcoming confirmation of whom has won the PL Football rights 2019 onwards. If BT are unsuccessful in getting what they want they will likely run an ad campaign about what other sport they still have on the channels inc Speedway.

The British Basketball on FreeSports is a paid for broadcast with the league and sponsors paying to get the sport on TV. Basketball is very fortunate that the owners of Sheffield based OB company Televideo are huge basketball and Netball fans so do offer their services at a very low rate. So much so to help get the SuperLeague of Netball going and live on Sky sports they waived all the fuel costs for the broadcasts and covered a lot of their riggers wages. I really do not think Speedway fans have much to worry about it’s hust a case of timing the announcement correctly and I’m sure there will be some noticeable improvements with coverage too. One thing that always surprises me is that Speedway cannot get a league sponsor and that sponsor involved in Speedway already doesn’t take up the TV coverage sponsorship rights

Sky are fully aware of a loss to sport subscriber numbers and action is being taken to try and combat this. Over the next couple of years there will be quite a few big changes in UK sport broadcasters to try to keep out foreign competition e.g Netflix,Amazon,BEIN sports and Canal + It is has already been announced that from late 2018-19 Sky sports and BT will wholesale each other’s channels to subscribers. Getting back more on topic with I am hearing a higher production budget that coverage can be improved with more camera angles and production staff to improve the output. Dont get me wrong Steve and the team did amazing job last year on such a small budget but it did show at times. It’s interesting that it has been mentioned on here that we may get same amount of meetings but over a longer period that will entail some quite big gaps with no tv meetings which armchair fans will not appreciate

I have heard the same as Phillip Rising that BT will be covering The Premiership Live in 2018. Last I heard was that tenders for OB work had been done so not sure what the hold up is

From what I got told this evening is a further complication that is Nicholls has offered to ride just in the Championship for Peterborough but the BSPA have said the rule still stands which then does open up avenues with employment law and discriminatory rules preventing employment in the U.K.

One clear confirmation of the continued BT deal is clubs have the BT sport logo on race suits and team wear. For example when Poole posted picture of Sundstrum wearing a 2018 Pirates replica race shirt which is big BT Logo on it and having seen the Leicester ones again featuring BT sport. its just a case of they go public with the deal I have a feeling it will be around start of February

What Garry Stead ?

So who would the fans like to be the new Lions manager ? Jim was a lovely bloke but did struggle at times wth seeing the programme and consequently made a few tactical errors.

Skidder1 Kim Nillson has decided that he will not be riding in the UK at the start of the season as now has a regular place in Poland and wants to try progress his career on the continent. I would not be surprised to see him back in the UK later in the year though

The most important thing is that British Speedway remains on tv and the clubs really need this to keep their commercial partners happy. As it turns out on this occasion there is no need to worry about production

Well the 7th rider was at Beaumont Park on Wednesday and was only too pleased to have his picture took as a Lion and as expected said he is excited for the new season.

The announcement of the last Lion is just waiting on local media being able to run the story so should be in next couple of days. The PR Shots have been done with the rider in question and he looking forward to riding at Leicester in 2018 as thought that may have been frozen out of British Speedway this season.

RobboBee Vaculik average will be 8pts and KP will be 6pts as confirmed by BSPA management team

Leicester have now got a complete team just awaiting to announce the last rider which will surprise a few as would not think he would want to come to the Lions.

The hint I gave was not actually about Scotty but someone that may be at the bottom end of the team. As I said it all depends if they go as I think they should for another heat leader and then this rider will likely be in at Leicester. If not they may go for two 5-5.7 point riders

I have a feeling that a former Witch and good friend of Danny King will be one of the last two signings for Leicester. It all depends on the next signing on which route the promotion take.

It looks Poole will have two Polish riders in 2018 Woryna and Wozniak. Leicester tried to sign Wozniak but he belongs to the old Promotor who wanted too much money so I understand he is going to Poole.

JChapman- No what I was referring to in 2017 was that the BSPA received 128k total to be shared amongst all clubs/Premiership. As they wanted to keep Speedway on tv they asked BT to broadcast some meetings and BSPA paid towards the production costs each week out of the fund they got from Sky at the start of the season. What I have found interesting in these current circumstances is that Go Speed & BSPA have not tried to get Sky back on board other than a brief email to say the rights were available. To me I would have followed this up with emails and set out a deal that Speedway would accept along the lines of what BT have offered with broadcaster paying production costs and a small fee per meeting. I am not saying it would have been approved but just seems very laid back especially as the acquisition team have said door is not permanently closed on Speedway it may have at least got an increased offer out of BT.

JChapman- Its interesting that you mention about the loss of money from the Sky sports contract, I am not saying that clubs didn't make something from this final payment. However it has to be remembered out of the 128k that BSPA received they had to contribute £8000 per meeting towards BT production costs so if they accept the 2018 deal although they have not got the money coming in for tv rights they are not paying out 8k per meeting so what BT have offered is an improved deal. If they go down the PPV route it may work but there are going to be some quite significant setup costs to do it correctly if they want to monetise it. Having been to every track and done extensive site visits for Sky I think there is only possibly BV and Wolverhampton that have required broadband backhaul requirements and Wolves could be losing there's as they are due to be going on an SIS managed Fibre system in January which will not allow video as they will want you to use their broadcast service AnyLive service. The lack of decent broadband at tracks is why Sky always had to get BT out to install temporary circuits for tv meetings as stadium owners either would not allow Sky to use their service or it didn't exist. We did trial doing some bits using Live U service which runs over 4G which is fine for static interviews but turns into a blurry mess with fast racing action even if you bind 16 connections together it does not work. This is also the reason why the betting contract meant each track having a satellite broadband dish erected using RaceTech technology and staffing if I remember correctly each meeting cost £750 to do just for one camera

Personally I think the offer that BT have made is ok in today's economic market and the position that British Speedway is in. I dare say if another broadcaster was to show an interest in showing Speedway then BT would likely come back with a highly increased offer but unless that happens that offer will not happen. The GP mIn quota to me is no real problem as Cook,Holder,Doyle,Lindgren rode in UK and in all honesty Leicester and Somerset needed to sign top riders as do Kings Lynn

It has to remembered that BT are not doing this for nothing they are offering to cover all the production costs which will be over 18k a meeting and BT are keen to assist BSPA getting sponsorship so have offered to allow centre green ads like Poland and give promotions list of regular advertisers during speedway broadcasts. In my personal opinion British Speedway is lucky this deal is on the table as they could be like some sports like Netball,Rowing, and Greyhounds that pay the broadcaster to show their sport

Bw Double You may well be getting your wish sooner than you thought,

I had the opportunity to have a good catch up with some former colleagues yesterday after a trade event at the Oval in London they gave me the latest as far they are aware from the BT side. Deal has been offered to BSPA which is that BT will cover all production costs and each staging club will get a £3000 meeting fee. In return BT want minimum of 7 GP riders in the league, a minimum of 10 meetings to televise, All TV meetings apart from finals to be £10 or complimentary and full co operation of all clubs with regards to fixtures so the best meetings can be broadcast. Now some promotors are refusing to sign the deal as they feel they are being undervalued and that they are looking for more money per meeting and want some payment towards rights. It has to be all clubs or none that's the deal I just hope the No brigade can be convinced soon to save the deal.

If there is no British Speedway on tv in 2018 the blame will firmly be due to certain promotors thinking they know best. A deal has been offered and and even better offer has been made yet some BSPA members still want more which they are unlikely to get so take it or leave it. As a Speedway supporter I hope they hurry up and sign the contract before BT move onto another sport.