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Just to confirm that this meeting has never been planned to be on Sky sports tonight, Like most other UK sports broadcasters this meeting was offered to them by Polsat but nobody took up the option which is very disapointing especially as I hear they were offering the UK rights for hardly anything. I presume Polsat then decided that they did not want to bare the full production costs which would be around 15-18k at least.

I am not 100% sure the tv broadcast by Polsat is still going ahead as they announced it and I know have desperately been trying to find a UK broadcaster to take the feed as well to help share the production costs. The last I had heard was Sky,Eurosport,BT and Motors tv had all said no as just one off meeting. I have a feeling it may just end up being a 2-3 camera edited highlights programme later in the week on Polsat

I have spoken to a couple of contacts at Eurosport and it appears that it is good news with Swedish league being shown in the UK and across Europe by Eurosport. The coverage should be improved as the host broadcaster are very keen to make this work and will be providing a HD world feed with the main programme interviews done in English and the swedish broadcaster will do own interviews mainly with swedish riders. There will also be full English commentary and graphics You have to remember this is a lot bigger deal both financially and audience size to the Premier sports which was just the UK to a 140-200k subscribers. Now you are talking Europe wide with possibly millions of viewers as is included in a lot of tv packages and even free to air in some countries.

I also wonder whether Mads and Paddy will be riding in this meeting as they are named to ride in Morten Risagers meeting at Ipswich on the same night

I have a feeling that BT sport may well have gained these rights as have heard from contacts that they are recruiting and setting up another production team for a new content programme with core hours of Mon and Tues this could well be for the Swedish speedway. If it will almost definitely be presented from the UK studios in London

Norrie is a very clever man and has been around Speedway pretty much all of his life from Mauger,Moran,Loram and Harris like Glyn he knows his stuff about engine setups and can be a good motivator. It's good to hear that the track is getting some repairs and attention hopefully can be a smooth surface for the start of the season

I wonder if the delay is that Leicester have offered Nermark more money if they can use him instead of Doyle hence waiting till that is resolved

PhilfromCov- When we trialled the LiveU system at Sky we found on average a 64sec delay over a 3G HSPA connection. The delay did drop down when on 4G which should be a lot better this year as will now have access to Vodafone and O2 4G networks.

With regards to time delays on tv broadcasts currently there is a 1.8 -4.6 second time delay on Sky sports live sport epending on location if the pictures are sent from the event along BT broadcast fibre links usually 1.4 gig dedicated connection to a main exchange then down to the tower in London then to the broadcaster who uplink to satellite. If the event does not have BT broadcast fibre link it will be uplinked by satellite truck which will make the time delay about 6 seconds depending on encoders used and which orbital position they use for uplink as some are in inclined orbits. For this new betting project neither of these options will be used its far too costly instead the pictures will be sent over a standard Internet connection or a leased line if available and up to standard as far as I am aware this should be fine at the following tracks Coventry,Belle Vue,Poole,Swindon,Birmingham and Wolverhampton all of which have good connections. I expect delays of around 20 seconds as has to travel over Internet to the server it will be hosted on who will then send it to the betting companies Leicester,Lakeside,Kings Lynnand Eastbourne will be the problematic tracks as they will be using 4G and even 3G mobile connections to get the footage to the servers and will add quite a bit of delay as slower connection and also has to travel all the way around the mobile companies infrastructure first before even hitting the Internet so expect 60-90 second delays. The technology being used is different to what is used for greyhounds as most tracks have fixed SIS satellite links or SIS fibre boxes both of which would have less than 10 sec delay.

I still have large doubts on this project due to the logistics of broadcasting pictures from some of the tracks but also think it is open to abuse as in my experience of the technology they are planning to use there could be 60-90 sec delays

Although I wasn't able to go last night as had a prior commitment I have heard that everybody had a good night and was pleased with the sponsorship anouncement so looks like it was a success for the club with over 120 attending. My friends did say this figure may be slightly higher as all the track staff and stewards seemed to be there. There seemed to be two common questions people were asking Who the final two team members will be most have accepted that Doyle is unlikely to be there. The other one was who the team manager is going to be ? The same name kept coming up and is what I had heard earlier that is that the manager will a guy that has been around speedway for years ,worked with multiple world champions in Ivan Mauger,Mark Loram and a good business man that name is Norrie Allen. We shall have to see if that rumour is true with DH saying that he will announce the name soon.

Leicester have done very well to gain Rapid solicitors as main team sponsors as they are very well known company who also sponsor a Moto GP team and a British Superbikes team along with being the league sponsors of Ice Hockey in the UK. This company would have been a good catch for the bspa to have as league sponsors as well

I hear that the club are having a party night for season ticket holders and sponsorsa only tonight where they will announce the new main team sponsors and I wonder if they will announce the new TM I hear that Peter Ljung is over for this as well as the reserves

If GoSpeed have sold the UK rights for the Polish league to BT that would be very good news for fans and them as a business as well. I have to admit I know nothing about this possible deal but have a feeling if BT have got a speedway deal it is likely to be for the Swedish league as Tuesday in summer looks light in their schedule they could of course go for both

Skidder 1 - To be honest with you I didn't even know that the betting streaming deal had been agreed upon as ATR are kind of seperate to Sky sports. I had heard that it was being considered and as a Speedway fan as well as being involved technical side of the tv broadcast I got asked how feasible I thought it would be from the knowledge I had of tracks and their infrastructure. I have to admit I do think they will have quite a few obstacles to overcome to stream these meetings I presume they will use some of the track DVD companies to film it but my biggest worry is how they propose to uplink the pictures to their servers. At some tracks this will be easy as the stadium has leased lines or good quality broadband but some others will be a real struggle like Leicester and Eastbourne even KL special broadband lines have to be installed for World Cup just to get basic access Internet to send emails. As I say this is not really my thing I just hope that they are not planning on using the Live U system which Sky trialled last season it works over 4G and 3G HSPA at a push, it's not too bad for static interviews but we found live action a no go as turned it a blurry mess with often lags which will be useless for betting. That system is also very dependent on mobile coverage but also network traffic especially in areas where they are near big built up areas or if track has big crowds like Poole,Birmingham or Belle Vue although all these have good broadband links. It used to work really well at Wolves as EE have a mast right behind the pits. If it works ok good luck with it and I'm sure will be well used although I expect you will have to use a min of bets to get access to the streams

Hopefully now everybody can see and understand why there has been the delay in officially announcing the deal. Any announcements about rights and new services have to be announced to the stock market first before anybody else, I believe there is a law about this hence why Speedway star could not be given the green light to publish an article in today's excellent magazine. But it is all confirmed now and have also heard that a deal has been done again with BSI and an agreement with Eurosport to feature action from GPs during the British Speedway coverage. Just as a side note what would people's views on being given 5-1 cards upon entry like used at darts and 20-20 cricket ?

I don't think Leicester would have the option to change their reserve race night to Wednesdays as their Danish riders and possibly Doyle have agreed to ride in Denmark. I think if the Thursday nights are going to be a problem then Mon would be the next best night

I would be very surprised if it will be Eric Boocock as last time he was asked turned it down as didn't want all the travelling as said too old to be driving up and down the country. That was in premier league with lots of Northern tracks now in the elite most clubs are southern or midlands. I keep hearing the name of Dave Howsrd and the announcer guy Rob who does all the excellent interviews as being in contention for the job. This may just be what the fans want or think though.

So where is North planning on basing himself Poole or Swindon ?

Where has it been announced that the new team manager will be experienced ?

The review show does not need the league sponsors to be agreed to to go ahead as in 2013 it was the Sky sports elite league. The tv rights deal announcement my understanding does need to have the sponsor in place but there is plenty of time to announce this. It may be that the bspa agree to announce the new tv deal without the sponsor it would just mean the new sponsor misses out on free prime time exposure and also they will likely buy some ad time on Sky sports news

The Sky sports Speedway review show will start to be produced on Monday as yet it has no screening slot. The delay this year is due to the uncertainty of a future deal back in November/ early December when it is normally done as would not have been able to show it after 31st December if no agreement was reached as would no longer be rights holders. When talks did take place it was then too late to put it together in time for its usual New years eve slot .as the Speedway production team also do the coverage of the Darts on Sky with the world championship taking place for 22 nights during Dec they have all been tied up with that. There has also been the task of trying to tie Nigel Pearson down to do some commentary and foreword with all his other work scheduled in. Charlie is also busy with her personal challenge tasks and variety of other work. Another issue has been rider/Manager interviews with various people going on holiday. I may be wrong on the next bit as not had this confirmed but my understanding the delay in announcing the new tv rights deal is down to the BSPA trying to agree league sponsorship deal so that the sponsor can be included in press releases to gain maximum exposure e.g 2014 Wonga.com Elite league or Cash converters Premier league

Now the owners at Sheffield have been confirmed as the local consortium I think the race night will remain as Thursday it was if it had gone to Alex Edgberg dad when it would have changed as obviously wanted to use his son and Linus Eklof both of who are signed to ride in Sweden on Thursday. So if Nick does want premier league Sheffield seems his only option and then a move to Leicester in the elite league.

No big Al I don't have details of Magnus deal in Poland but have heard that he plans to be there on regular basis obviously providing performances are good and gets his money. I believe he also turned down a premier place as wasn't available on Sundays. The statement that DH gave on Leicester radio on 19th I wonder if that refered to Ljung rather than the last rider,As Swindon and Poole looked at Ljung and some others probably thought he didn't want to do UK

The only reason I did not suggest Magnus was that he has signed for a Polish club in 2014.