TNT no more?

[DJC]

3 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Does Kelvin have a clue who some riders are?

"I'll be honest, I don't know much about him" is a refrain heard far too often....

One of the key requirements of a commentator is to do research and inform the viewers of some background details about the competitors...

His enthusiasm is first rate, but his lack of general speedway knowledge outside of the Premiership doesn't help...

 

That and everyone's been going well on the continent when in fact they're really struggling winds me up no end. 

It takes 2 minutes to have a read through the Polish results on a Monday morning before a TV meet to throw some colour and insight into things. Unless its Erik Riss and his long track achievements he hasn't a clue what's going on.

I've never watched a football match where the commentators don't know anything about a player on the pitch.

[Fromafar]

52 minutes ago, PersonalResponsibility said:

I thought it was interesting at the SON that Marcelina came across as a lot more natural than Abi often does. Maybe she's just a better presenter, but it is clear  she's genuinely a speedway fan. 

There was one point in an interview with Kurtz that she recalled his league debut at Torun. It was completely minor at the time, but it stuck in my head.

Does Abi have a clue who most riders are riding for outside of the meeting she's at?

I feel like that depth just adds something. It might be team mates in Poland facing off, a rider's Polish/Swedish track compared to that meeting's track, etc., it would get that whole close-knit family aspect of speedway.

Marcelina and the other Polish female presenters all come over well and know there stuff about the sport.

[1 valve]

7 minutes ago, DJC said:

That and everyone's been going well on the continent when in fact they're really struggling winds me up no end. 

It takes 2 minutes to have a read through the Polish results on a Monday morning before a TV meet to throw some colour and insight into things. Unless its Erik Riss and his long track achievements he hasn't a clue what's going on.

I've never watched a football match where the commentators don't know anything about a player on the pitch.

Although I’m no great fan of Tatum as a commentator and agree that at a good number times he appears to lack knowledge of basic topics relating to riders, it is a tad unfair to compare his performance with football commentators.  who besides there own research & prep are provided with up to date media guides by the teams which contain a wealth of information about each player as well as having A "spotter" in the booth with binoculars to identify players and provide crucial information. There are also statisticians in the production truck  providing “in ear” information on stats/time gone, remaining - subs warming up etc.  That type of support is something Kelv can only dream about.  

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

14 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Marcelina and the other Polish female presenters all come over well and know there stuff about the sport.

Well she been to bed with a few of them 😉

Edited yesterday at 11:22 AM by THE DEAN MACHINE

[Youhave2minutes]

2 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Well she been to bed with a few of them 😉

You got a pair of binoculars looking from the window opposite 🤣

[mikebv]

25 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Marcelina and the other Polish female presenters all come over well and know there stuff about the sport.

It is always clear, when they interview riders in English during a Polish match, that they follow the sport over here, and often discuss, with prior knowledge, how they are doing in the UK...

UK Speedway, (off track), has a huge opportunity for growth, from marketing, advertising, and awareness raising, through to operating model credibility...

Will they bring in people with the required skill set to deliver the obvious potential the sport has though? 

Tracks will spend eye watering sums (for a sport with such a small following), on riders each season, and that alone should be used to give the sport some push, as many non Speedway fans would be truly amazed at the salaries of some riders..

With those salaries alone suggesting it isn't "small time"....

"Hype up everything" has to be the mantra of the sport to gain traction amongst the millions who live less than 45 mins from a Speedway track.....

Any decent marketing company should be rubbing their hands at an opportunity to make UK Speedway successful given the ultra low base attendance across the country...

Getting on mainstream TV, for me, is the quickest way to kick that growth in...

As that will also mean national newspaper and radio coverage of the sport too...

Add in some regular daily/weekly, social media content (even Sunday League Football teams do this, and can get thousands of followers), and the sport can surely only move up given its low starting position...?

 

Edited yesterday at 11:37 AM by mikebv

[DJC]

13 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

Although I’m no great fan of Tatum as a commentator and agree that at a good number times he appears to lack knowledge of basic topics relating to riders, it is a tad unfair to compare his performance with football commentators.  who besides there own research & prep are provided with up to date media guides by the teams which contain a wealth of information about each player as well as having A "spotter" in the booth with binoculars to identify players and provide crucial information. There are also statisticians in the production truck  providing “in ear” information on stats/time gone, remaining - subs warming up etc.  That type of support is something Kelv can only dream about.  

But he has Abi and Scott for that kind of stuff and they don't seem to provide it either.

Football is probably considered the gold standard in that they have the resource to pull in all kinds of real time data, so whilst perhaps a tad harsh, the basics aren't there for Speedway.

There are plenty of armchair stattos that I imagine would gladly give up a few hours on a Sunday evening to prepare such a 'pack/guide' for Kelvin but he appears to not want to take on that role and is happy giving the absolute bare minimum. That is the perception that's given off to me and it doesn't do anything to help the sport's profile.

 

 

[Sir Sidney]

4 hours ago, SJA said:

The ad window is 7 minutes per hour at peak times. Speaking to a Commercial Manager of a Premiership club he said the issue is not only the raw numbers but the demographics. Fans are to old, and to poor to appeal to mainstream brands. The comparison he gave was a netball viewer was 28 years younger and earned £22,000 more per annum than a speedway viewer. This would make the sport a hard sell to free to air channels. 

 

It always amazes me that British Speedway makes no attempt, seemingly, to try to attract or appeal to a younger and / or more affluent fan base.

Baffling

[therefused]

2 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Well she been to bed with a few of them 😉

weird comment

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

25 minutes ago, therefused said:

weird comment

Ok I will reword it for you, she has been in a relationship with them, is that better for you?  Adrian miedzinski  being the last speedway rider but I believe she married someone else now 

Edited yesterday at 02:00 PM by THE DEAN MACHINE

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Marcelina and the other Polish female presenters all come over well and know there stuff about the sport.

I like the other main two but some of the younger ones especially on 11 sport seem abit out of place 

[TTT]

According to Sportowefakty, Article taken from the Speedway Star.

4 Journalists have said TNT aren't interested in renewing the contract, Sky Sports unlikely to be interested, Alternatives are Premier Sport who show Swedish Speedway and BSN British Speedway Network.

[GeneralMelchett]

4 minutes ago, TTT said:

According to Sportowefakty, Article taken from the Speedway Star.

4 Journalists have said TNT aren't interested in renewing the contract, Sky Sports unlikely to be interested, Alternatives are Premier Sport who show Swedish Speedway and BSN British Speedway Network.

Quite happy to lose the TNT coverage as I wasn't planning to pay £30.99 pcm to watch the speedway and the saturday lunchtime PL football by half price deal ends on 26th october whereuon I will cancel it.

Premier Sport would be an interesting option - i used to subscribe to them a few years back wehn they covered Polish (reruns) and Swedish speedway matches.

[The Third Man]

4 hours ago, DJC said:

I've never watched a football match where the commentators don't know anything about a player on the pitch.

Haven't you ever heard them when they cover a championship match or lower, or cup ties involving a non PL club, most of the time they haven't got a clue

[Youhave2minutes]

5 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Ok I will reword it for you, she has been in a relationship with them, is that better for you?  Adrian miedzinski  being the last speedway rider but I believe she married someone else now 

She loves the poles. 

[SteveLyric2]

11 minutes ago, Youhave2minutes said:

She loves the poles. 

TNT SPORTS  only took over from Eurosport at the start of this season. How long is the contract? Not wanting to renew could be a lot further down the line!?

[IainB]

5 minutes ago, SteveLyric2 said:

TNT SPORTS  only took over from Eurosport at the start of this season. How long is the contract? Not wanting to renew could be a lot further down the line!?

They were just seeing out the final year of the 5 year Eurosport contract that was delayed for 1 year due to the non covid season of 2020. BT Sport had already previously binned Speedway off at the end of 2019 so it's no real surprise that they don't want to renew now. 

[1 valve]

On 10/20/2025 at 9:18 AM, SJA said:

The ad window is 7 minutes per hour at peak times. Speaking to a Commercial Manager of a Premiership club he said the issue is not only the raw numbers but the demographics. Fans are to old, and to poor to appeal to mainstream brands. The comparison he gave was a netball viewer was 28 years younger and earned £22,000 more per annum than a speedway viewer. This would make the sport a hard sell to free to air channels. 

BSPL could be faced with decision between a small amount of money per club from a broadcast partner that has the sport "hidden" behind some form of paywall and a free to air deal with no money and where BSPL pick up the production costs but gets the sport to a wider audience. This greater reach could then be used to gain more commercial partners for the clubs as it would appear more to selected national brands.

Just a couple of points.
Ad window
Peak hours (6 PM–11 PM): Up to an average of 8 minutes per hour, but no more than 12 minutes in any one hour. 
Daily average No more than 7 minutes of advertising per hour averaged across the entire broadcasting day. 
Demographics.
Employed folk aged 40-49 have the highest median average annual pay circa £40k  
Boomers aged 61 - 70 Have a median average annual income  circa £33.
Not sure where your Commercial manager is looking for his averages but it is highly doubtful that average pay of a netball viewer is £55k per year. and similarly, to say speedway fans are to old, and too poor to appeal to mainstream brands is complete and utter misguided nonsense. 

Mainstream brands have a very clear understanding that older folk such as boomers may indeed have less income having retired but, they do have considerable disposable income and less fixed outgoings then the younger set, given that they have done with paying mortgages, Kids have flown the nest and believe it or not, now have time on their hands to follow leisure & entertainment activities.

All of the above doesn't detract from the fact that speedway promoters have for many years failed to engage in any significant activity at local and national level to greatly improve awareness of the sport.  Frankly, highlights or full meetings on TV will not make any difference whatsoever to attendance at tracks as the only folk who will watch the program are those who already know the sport exists.  

 

Edited 10 hours ago by 1 valve

[The Cheese]

19 hours ago, TTT said:

According to Sportowefakty, Article taken from the Speedway Star.

4 Journalists have said TNT aren't interested in renewing the contract, Sky Sports unlikely to be interested, Alternatives are Premier Sport who show Swedish Speedway and BSN British Speedway Network.

Premier Sports have an estimated 300k subscribers, can't see that helping to grow the sport. Sky by comparison had 6m from the last figures I can find, and 26.7m people watched content across all their platforms in the last year.

One of the worst things about TNT's coverage is that a big deal was made about it including the free-to-air highlights, only for them to be shown once a week at 2am or something ridiculous. I doubt that it attracted even a single new fan.

[Triple.H.]

4 hours ago, The Cheese said:

Premier Sports have an estimated 300k subscribers, can't see that helping to grow the sport. Sky by comparison had 6m from the last figures I can find, and 26.7m people watched content across all their platforms in the last year.

One of the worst things about TNT's coverage is that a big deal was made about it including the free-to-air highlights, only for them to be shown once a week at 2am or something ridiculous. I doubt that it attracted even a single new fan.

Might have attracted insomniacs who then went to a meeting and solved their issue by watching tractors spending more time on the track than the bikes.