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I have a day out of the office at a broadcast expo show in London and one of the first people I bump into was Sky Sports Speedway executive producer he had some very interesting things to say about British Speedway and how it should move forward

Sky are quite strict about people that they offer work to do not take work on with BT sport in particular. This applies across the board from Camera crew,Vision engineering staff and even more so with on screen talent. Although I am not 100% sure on the facts I believe that Nigel & Kelvin had to get high up clearance at board level to get the ok to do the GP comms when it moved to BT and at one point BT may have got their own comms team in.

This is rather difficult for me to post much at the moment but hopefully in the next couple of days everything will become clear. I will update further on my personal thoughts then. The general production on Sky Sports cutbacks have been happening across the board right from Football with the EFL final not being in UHD,Two less cameras on PL Darts,More Sky sports news live inserts done using mobile technology rather than satellite uplink trucks and less Wireless cameras for Cricket. So hopefully many can now see this not related to viewing figures,Speedway has always performed well with viewing share especially considered it's often up against the soaps and sometimes Football on Sky & BT. It always has been on par with sports of similar interests and some with much larger crowds I did post the full average figures in a previous post a couple of weeks ago I think it was about 70 odd thousand over the year as some weeks were very good. This data comes direct from All Sky users that box has a Broadband connection the system is clever and very detailed like was it paused,were the ads watched and even has this person watched before. This is much more detailed rather than the limited BARB panel so Sky data is much more accurate and can also see how much time shifted viewing is done e.g Recorded and watched later and also takes into account on demand/Catch up viewers Where Speedway does have a problem is that during live coverage advertisements just don't sell apart from to BSI for GP ads there are no brands that say want to buy ad space during Speedway coverage and most ads shown are just part of bigger package like Ford have guaranteed 30 mins during course of the day.

The most important thing for viewers is that Speedway fans will be able to watch UK Speedway on TV in 2017. There may not be as many meetings as before but something is better than nothing and some viewers with 4K televisions will get to see Speedway in Ultra HD

Glyn will there be a chance to get a big road blade on the track to level it all out ? I know quite a few riders over the last couple of years have suggested getting this done to make the base more consistent and level as well as making the home straight less downhill out of last bend. Hopefully the new promotion can make this happen as well as the shape changes

I am very glad to see the track changes are finally happening hopefully that Glyn will be allowed to do what he wants with the changes to try and provide the best track possible for racing. This should get fans back in watching if the racing is better and will answer some of the critics on here who blame the track for lack of entertainment. All I keep hearing from the new promotion is positive things and understand that they have plans to make more changes to give fans better entertainment and value for money

I have been meaning to reply to this thread for a few days even when as far as getting the stats from the insight team. But have been very busy at work with a couple of projects and a couple of technical hurdles thrown in by FOM in preparation for the new season look out for the UHD coverage it is very impressive. Anyway in 2016 over the whole season the average viewership for EL Speedway on Sky was 84,650 with unsurprisingly the play offs being a lot higher than that with peaks of 109,000 for the first leg of semi finals. The finals did even better pushing close to 116,000 these figures are very good considering the size of support at tracks and proves there are lots of armchair fans watching too. Speedway does perform very well when considered against other sports and regularly gets higher figures than Pro 12 Rugby,Superleague and some Cricket coverage One of the problems for Speedway future on TV this is on both Sky & BT is that advertisers are not keen to purchase space during Speedway coverage, most ads shown are just inserted as part of a bigger package which financially makes it difficult to balance the rights & broadcast costs against revenue incoming. Another interesting fact is that Speedway viewers do a lot of time shifted viewing they tend to keep meetings stored on their boxes for quite a long period of time and then watch them back sometimes months later. As is quite common knowledge now this financial year there has had to be some cutbacks made on outside broadcasts due to increases in purchasing broadcast rights. Some of these examples can be seen on PL darts coverage where two cameras have been changed for robotics remote cameras which in my opinion are still not at the level as beingbale to replace a manned camera and also on Superleague the amount of cameras being used and also the amount of graphics that can be used.

The problem I can see with Lebedevs is other European commitments as I am sure that he will be doing the Euro individual qualification rounds and maybe the finals,Then GP qualifying rounds and then add in possibly the One Sport pairs series which all of the above take place on non GP weekends when of course is when Leicester have their meetings The rest of team looks ok without being anything to write home about it is Auty and Wolbert that I have concerns over as think they may struggle

The next Leicester signing in my opinion is the most crucial on what type of season the club has based upon who has already signed. If what I have heard tonight turns out to be correct it will be a very positive signing and I wonder if it will mean that the Speedway forums man of many names e.g. KKS,Morriseyfan,MJJ fan will be making regular visits to Beaumont Park in 2017 in fact maybe this poster could confirm whether the rider in question is coming to Leicester .

I think Gomolski will be a good signing especially at home I don't think there is a need to worry about equipment as understand he plans to bring two new bikes over and Peter Johns will be looking after his engines and will have a good mechanic. It is a shame that Wozniak has not been able to be persuaded to come back with a new promotion in charge but don't say never maybe later in the year

A question for Leicester supporters if the land in front of the stadium that is currently a grassed area was to be turned into a tarmac car park along with existing parking would fans pay £1:50-£2:00 to park there ? I have a feeling that most fans would say No and continue to park at Tesco or on the street

No Steve I wasn't referring to Dave Darcy it was somebody else with the same First name. Mr Bates was interested in purchasing Leicester last season but didn't want to take on the debts that had been incurred and also the price quoted to him for promoting rights and to have a lease on the stadium was a lot higher than what deal Buster negotiated to "Save" Leicester from closing and for the good of Speedway. The Chapmans made it clear in this contract that they had the rights to sell the business on if they wish and the lease was included in this. I am sure there will be a couple of familiar names involved in the Leicester management format all with good speedway background the club is in a lot stronger place now so well done to all No Steve I wasn't referring to Dave Darcy it was somebody else with the same First name. Mr Bates was interested in purchasing Leicester last season but didn't want to take on the debts that had been incurred and also the price quoted to him for promoting rights and to have a lease on the stadium was a lot higher than what deal Buster negotiated to "Save" Leicester from closing and for the good of Speedway. The Chapmans made it clear in this contract that they had the rights to sell the business on if they wish and the lease was included in this. I am sure there will be a couple of familiar names involved in the Leicester management format all with good speedway background the club is in a lot stronger place now so well done to all

It's taken a while but finally the end objective has been reached with some very positive moves happen. There is only really one loser from this situation and they have had the wool pulled over their eyes and have lost out.

The stadium hire fee from Coventry meetings will be paid to DH as the contract originally signed was just for the promoting rights at Leicester

Well finally the statement has been released I think the best thing has been done for Speedway in general there has had to be lots of negotiation and arms twisting to be done to make this happen. Let's hope that both clubs benefit from this and that sufficient Coventry fans travel to make it viable for them. Sandu is very much involved now from both the Brandon side and also with Coventry at Beaumont park venture from a financial and supporting nature Now this has been sorted Leicester can push forward with their announcements of the team I expect the first one on Tues or Wednesday

I am here TMW just have nothing to add at present apart from to say British Speedway has other serious issues to contend with now other than just the Leicester & Coventry situation which will please some fans but not others.

DamoSuzuki - Well hopefully your view is not the one shared by most fans as without Sky British Speedway is in another mess It's strange how people are very quick to criticise the coverage but am sure many of the same people will be the ones that complain when it's disappears of Sky

Colin Pratt lives in Norfolk now so suspect that they were looking at old Cradley pictures

Have you considered that the Coventry promotion have requested a delay to their season so that fixtures don't start until May to enable track work to be done

As has been posted by Richard Lawson tonight there will be more info for Leicester fans and EL clubs tomorrow about who is running and on which night. Now this has all been confirmed I expect the first Lions signing to be announced very soon with another to follow shortly after.

VOLTY/Mick- Thé lease is signed therefore Leicester are confirmed as operating if you go back over my comments I said the track work is going ahead and that negotiations are still ongoing about the work and who pays what. This is partly due to obviously the work being permanent and the promotion having a 15 year lease and also some of the work actually involves stadium infrastructure e.g lighting may need changing and what happens to centre after the work is it grassed again or tarmac

StevetheLion - Yes that is Kevin Blunder Thrift I will never forget the nights he jack knife the tractor and bowser in the middle of the track and also drove into the start gate we are going to need some luck although I expect that Buster will do most of the preparations and in the event of poor weather will be the one to sort it out. I am sad to see Glyn go as a nice bloke with some ideas and always tried his best to sort the track, To be honest I think if it had been anyone else than Buster buying Leicester then Glyn would still be there.

I am Sorry if my comment has been taken in the wrong context the deal for the running of Speedway at Leicester this season and for the for the next few years is done and completed. I believe there are clauses in there from both sides but they will remain between the two parties but are all good for the operation of Speedway. As i said before the track changes will happen and is just a case of confirming the work and start date, The promotion know it's important and that what riders & fans want/need at the end of the day it's their business and money so they need to make it a success which I am sure they will do.

Robert72 - Mr Hemsley is no longer pulling the strings at Leicester with the Speedway operation he is just the stadium owner and I understand relationship with the new promotion is good and positive talks have been had about track changes it's just case on ironing out the financials of the work as the promotion feel that DH should pay towards it as his stadium

I believe today could be an important day for the Bees future as they need to provide a guarantee to BSPA that they will be operating in 2017 and I don't think they will accept them on the basis that if the work is completed in time. The club has to be fair to other clubs to arrange fixtures especially with such a busy international fixture list and also trying to fit in with Championship to avoid clashes. It is also only fair to the signed riders to guarantee them a job as if not other clubs have shown interest.