george.m

From a financial POV this would be impractical . For SKY to close for example, a Polish website, would be a legal mine field with far reaching implications for the internet as a whole. It would take years, probably go to Brussels, and would cost more than it's worth. And if they did close it, a new site would open up next day in a non-EU country. SKY make money from advertising. Although they'd never publicly admit it, they want to show advertisers an appealing audience figure, whether or not these people have subscribed is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things. In a similar vein, you can walk into almost any pub in the UK and 'buy' a SKY card that allows you to watch without subscribing. How much effort have SKY put into stopping this? Not a lot! Again in the grand scheme of things, if viewers are watching SKY rather than BBC they're happy. Occasionally SKY will claim to be changing your SKY card to stop this practice. This is done in the main, not to gain more subscription money, but to demonstrate to those people honest enough to be paying to watch, that SKY takes their business serious and will not tolerate the non payers.

We are simply now seeing the start of 'TV' viewing of the future. In ten years time or less internet TV will be huge. Personally I sometimes watch GPs on my laptop whilst watching TV in the same room. I can watch a TV programme with the family and interrupt this with one minute's racing. I'm sure I'm not the only one. One of the flaws with the argument that declining viewing figures directly correlates with a reduced interest in GPs is that this takes no account of the quality of the product SKY delivers. SKY have kept the same basic format and commentators/analysts, hence this is another potential factor. Non-hardcore speedway fan viewers may not be watching the programme, rather than the GP as it could be a case of 'same old, same old'. Jeff Scott chose to respond to my posting about transmission time by belittling it. Transmission time is a significant factor in TV viewing figures. A prime example being late evening news. Just look at how ITN changed News at Ten to 9pm and then reverted back to 10pm. This happened for various reasons. Transmission timing is key to viewing figures. A little known 'trick' employed by satellite companies is the timing of TV breaks. Have you ever been watching a programme, the adverts come on and you switch over to another channel and the adverts are on there too? Sister channels deliberately do this. Yes, I appreciate this is not the same as absolute transmission time, but it demonstrates how important timing is.

Well Jeff unlike you I don't have a pre-conceived personal agenda that I'm working to and/or a single, self opinionated point of view of people who at least try to improve speedway. They don't hide behind a keyboard critiquing it, they have the entrepreneurial spirit to aim higher. The tone and content of your reply was exactly what I suspected it would be ... but thought I'd put to the test! Thank you. You really should show more respect to the people who buy or could potentially buy your books. PS ... Having been involved in brand marketing and advertising for over 30 years I do have a wee bit of knowledge of what can affect TV ratings and despite the stand point you write from I have seen little evidence of a valid, impartial and credible argument from you on this "catastrophic further collapse"!

Sorry Jeff I remain to be convinced. We are not comparing apples with apples. You cannot ignore the fact that the world cup was on at this time. That has an impact on viewing figures, not only from a perspective of direct competition i.e. simultaneous broadcasting, but time available to watch TV. In other words, "only X amount of sport allowed on the TV in our house today".There would be world cup parties and barbecues. A 5pm start means there is less latent viewers available as 5pm is a time when people could be returning from an afternoon out or getting a meal ready. An evening start means more people are available to watch. The weather in both years is also a factor have you considered this? More factors need to be considered before a valid and impartial conclusion can be drawn.

Why not?

It's not an open meeting, it's the top riders of the year who qualify.

Fingers crossed for a double!

Another good win today Paulco!

We all know it makes sense, the fact that the powers that be don't do it makes me suspicious!

Ouch!

Or maybe for walking on the cracks in the pavement!

There's a joke in there somewhere...

LOL!! How's the holiday?

Please expand.

At last a rational post without all the personal back handed comments aimed at individuals who dare to say anything anti-Monarchy! Common sense has officially broken out! Thank goodness!

I get there eventually Merlin ... like you the years have caught up!

... any space for James Wright?

Come, come now folks Ryan is the world's fairest rider! Ryanfair. All those races where you suspected his racing ethics .... dreams! Never happened!

I'm sure Stewart extends the same courtesy with Embra's new stadium project.

LOL!!!! Coming up a treat!

Hope you do win!

Absolutely delighted for young Nick! :D :D

.... or even 4 race jackets?

A serious point, and not one of my usual mickey takes about Embra. All the goings on of the semi final seem to have over shadowed this point about tyres. The Scottish Open should be one of the premier meetings in Scotland every season, in theory. Even if some of us are not too keen on individual meetings. Punters pay more at the gate and hopefully see a stronger field of riders than normal. It might even attract a few new spectators and some existing ones from further afield. This begs the question, who made the decision to test tyres at the meeting? This was a high risk strategy. Testing of any nature involves a degree of uncertainty. I'm amazed that anyone would risk this meeting and at the potential downsides to test some tyres? Just why would anyone do it? Does anyone know who agreed to it and why? P.S. Reported by Mike Hunter on the Edinburgh website as: "There were tyre problems". Reads like economy with the truth to me!

Thanks DavyH, every Scottish Open I've been to takes an age and there always seems to be waits between heats longer than league meetings. Usually meetings at Armadale run smoothly, it just seems the Open takes an age. If they did it after 8.45pm last night, why not every Open?