flagrag

Putting aside who my employer is on a personal level I want to see a high quality production of British Speedway on tv regardless of which channel it is on. From the information I have gained it appears that there are good numbers viewing the online content but need to see more of it shared by fans

From what I have been hearing from contacts at BT they so far are very impressed with the UK Speedway coverage especially on such a tight budget and do acknowledge that a few tweaks and improvements could be made in fact one was done at Leicester as an additional camera position was added plus a locked off beauty shot too. I do know one thing BT are very keen on and measure sports appeal and success on, That is social media they put a lot of Speedway content and coverage ads out on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram. Now we need as many Speedway fans as possible to share and repost this content as they do lots more analysis and reporting on usage than Sky have done as BT dont have the more comprehensive tv viewing stats that Sky have so have to rely on the old school and sometimes unreliable BARB figures which i hasten to add Speedway has performed well on. All of which will help provide a strong case for an improved and a permanent TV deal for British Speedway and could even create a case where there are two bidders for the TV rights in the future.

Meeting off due to riders not being available as Leicester are missing Kim and Pawel plus Erik is riding in the world games in Wroclaw

If Poole bring in Sundstrom for KK and drop AN other who can only see being Jack Holder or Hans which I can't believe that Poole would do. To bring in THJ whom will not make them any stronger. So the only positive is the return of Kurtz who is a better rider than Worrall

The problem being with signing replacements is the cut of date next week, So Leicester could make a jump and sign new riders to replace Kim and Pawel but then when they are fit they can't bring them back in so which is unfair on them and need to make sure the replacements are as good to see the club through to the end of the year.

More bad news for Leicester Kim Nillson has broken his arm in the heat 15 crash. It is a clean break but will be missing for the next few weeks so looks like we are going to have a number of guests again to cover for injuries

Pawel is back home in Poland and having an op this afternoon to plate the break then hopes to be back racing in 2-3 weeks. No messing around over there his DR had the results last night and being taken straight from airport to hospital to have surgery

The Return- Your comments about the track staff in Pawel situation are wholly unjustified if you had known facts. Pawel had buried and wrapped himself and bike deep into the deflated air fence actually ending up face first into the fence with head underneath the handlebars and leg stuck between seat and back mudguard. The track staff were having to hold the air fence back so the medics could treat him and for their protection as covering the red hot bike as space was tight and the bike was stuck in the fence behind and the riders leg had to be released from the bike without causing him further injury. It was such a good job that there was an air fence as could have been so much worse also pleased to see that fence did not lift and catch bike and rider as expected

The problem with Garrity is he is injured and looks like not being available until end of August so by then Leicester will likely have completed most of their meetings and RR just won't work so a replacement needs to be brought in. In all honesty this is the best option other choices would be Ed K or maybe someone like Peter Ljung or Ramus Jensen

He is coming with the full support of Torun and PZM it has been agreed that until the end of the season the U.K. will come first to help try get his confidence back and that he will only ride for Torun when Scores improve.

I do smell a bit of Rat with this Laguta situation as i understand this test was taken after a Extraliga match back in early June. It seems very convenient that the Poles decide to announce this on the day of Race off and before the final and rule him out of both meetings as any appeals can't take place in time.

Can anybody with BT sport 4K channel confirm whether the race off is in 4K ? It wasn't planned to be but have seen reports on the internet that it is.

I am a little surprised with GB in final and given they have had a weeks notice that BT have not moved the presentation to be live from the track as could still use Natalie and Scott with Brando to do some BT interviews in the pits.

If British Speedway and SGP continue to deliver as they have been so far this year, I predict a brighter future with regards to TV broadcasting. As I said before from a Sky point of view the door is not permanently shut for Speedway even more so with the improvements this year with viewing figures for both league and SGPs this type of thing always prompts The acquisitions team to start looking at things. You could even get into a positive position of two bids for U.K. Racing in 2018

Well on Saturday there was over 21k viewers or recordings on Sky let alone what Virgin media had or BT themselves so quite possibly hit a peak of 90k The figures are definitely up and although it's early looking very positive for UK racing although I expect may drop a little soon when the T20 Cricket starts so you lose some of the sport casuals. Interesting comments from Mr Rising about the UHD broadcast on Saturday not being that impressive as I was talking to one of the guys from Timeline OB who did Saturday he thought it looked very impressive and as good as F1 in UHD but he would have been looking at it before BT had encoded it and decoded it which does knock down the quality, I just wish that they would allow BT sport 4K onto the Sky platform so more can watch it. The Cricket on Sky this week in UHD I am sure that you will be impressed with especially if the sun comes out

Just as a matter of interest did anybody record or watch the World Cup on the BT sport 4K channel as I am interested to hear your thoughts about how Speedway cam over and could you tell the difference from the usual HD broadcast ?

Having been down to Poole a couple of times I know the problems that can occur with the stands and views. Sky's coverage used to be done by platform from the grandstand roof without problems. The same camera angle was used at Belle Vue last week too so does seem more of a choice issue I do wonder if BT have done any site visits to check out camera angles and facilities available. The actual on screen production is ok but last night with the bright sunlight it showed up the older kit that is being used this year. From what I know CloudBass who are BTs OB partner for Speedway British league is using the same truck and equipment that used to be used for Sky's coverage back in 2009 so obviously technology has advanced a lot in this time. You will notice a big difference on Saturday where BT are the host broadcaster for BSI with a full UHD production so will be more than what has been expected

Not sure why but yet again after last week BT sports and their OB partner CloudBass have put a camera right at the back of the main stand. This means that you keep getting shots of the stand beams and stand roof which is poor on one of your main cameras this needs to be corrected for future weeks.

Overall I thought it was good considering the budget that was involved for BT coverage compared to Sky's previous productions. as others whom have or are involved in TV production it could be seen on screen. Many of cameraman used will have done Speedway before for Sky and Eurosport/BSI but they can only work with the equipment provided the same for the graphics wasn't so much the design it would have been the play out system used. Just to clear something for Mr Rising about Sky executives visiting Speedway, Barney Francis has attended a couple of meetings before as has his deputy Darren Long down at Poole and Coventry. The great late Vic Wakeling was very much a fan of Speedway and he often used to ask me about it and he was the one that pushed to try and get weekly magazine style show With regards to next season let's see what happens with the tv meetings this year and how the viewing figures are. The door is definitely not welded shut for Speedway at Sky even more so for 2018

Have a feeling that he may be coming to Leicester and this is just based on Jim Lynchs comments on Saturday. He said that the club were looking at a couple of changes and were hopeful that BSPA were going to be realistic with an average of a rider coming in.

Well both Morris and Josh G are named to be riding in Kev Doolans meeting at Berwick on Saturday so guess they must have let him down if they are riding at Leicester. Will Kenneth Bjerre be fit as well as believe he missed Sweden tonight with a shoulder injury

As I mentioned yesterday Gomolski is on his way back to Poole and the rider being dropped may be on his way to Leicester to help strengthen them up obviously subject to him wanting to do that. Don't think anything can happen till after the World Cup though

The next signing for Poole will be the return of a another ex pirate Kacper Gomolski. They really are strengthening up to make that push for the play offs. It is very hard luck on Kyle especially as he is local and served the club very well. He may be an option up at Leicester to replace Danny Ayres but we already know from Danny King doubling up that Ipswich have some Saturday meetings coming up and some away clashes. The Lions also have more points to play with so may wait for a better option

I thought there was some very good racing last night at Leicester and the track looked looked very good to race on. It is a shame that the Lions could not have got that heat advantage in the last race to stop the Rebels getting a point as they will all be crucial at the end of the season. I know some fans have been complaining about the presentation and about in general not being able to hear the PA and race results myself included . So I spoke to the promotion at length about this to get the facts as was going to offer my professional help if they were having equipment problems. There are two people to blame here the Leicester Speedway haters and Leicester City council. After all these seasons there has been a number of complaints from housing residents some 3miles away and along large A roads that claim that they can hear the music and announcements from the Speedway along with the bikes. The consequences are that the council have given the Speedway club a warning with the possibility of a ban which then means no meetings as cannot run with no PA. They accept that the bike noise cannot be controlled but the Announcements and Music can so the club have turned everything down to a minimum and both the presenters have been told to keep announcing down so that is why there has been less interviews and war crys it obviously isn't helped when there are less fans in the stadium as the sound will echo more. I can see the next thing being an air horn ban like other clubs have had, the strange thing is all the noise that both the Rugby and football club generate but the council say that's unavoidable.

From what I heard at Leicester last night was that team changes will be happening at Poole soon and also that a Pirates asset could soon be racing for the Lions to help strengthen Leicester up at the top end of the team.