Sky 2014

[flagrag]

The actual viewing figures for Monday are again very good this week so shows that armchair fans do like the play off format and after the Poole match I am sure more casual fans will tune in again next week.

 

If No deal is done for Speedway on Sky next year I don't think there is any risk of staff losing their jobs as a lot of the staff on the OBs are freelance like Cameramen or are provided by the facilities company Telegenic to crew the equipment. The Sky employed production staff will continue with Darts and assist with other sport the only cutback I can foresee is they will have two less Uni interns next year.

 

[Starman2006]

The actual viewing figures for Monday are again very good this week so shows that armchair fans do like the play off format and after the Poole match I am sure more casual fans will tune in again next week.

 

 

 

And all the more reason for everybody to work together to ensure a deal is done.

[LagutaRacingFan]

I personally think it's the Hancock and Ward effect, That's what is dragging up the ratings.

 

If more promoters used the Sky money like Matt has in order to bring over top GP riders then British speedway would be in a better place.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Hougaard Racing Fans

[Gavan]

the elite league is dying on its arse and will continue to do so when you have clubs like Poole and their promoter who cares not a jot for the sport.

 

my team is in the premier league and basically the racing is much much better and its a better product. ok so the times might be slower but what does that matter

[BANANAMAN]

I personally think it's the Hancock and Ward effect, That's what is dragging up the ratings.

 

If more promoters used the Sky money like Matt has in order to bring over top GP riders then British speedway would be in a better place.

Perhaps he can use the Sky money to buy MJJ & stop going him going to Brandon as part of the Bomber to Panthers deal ?

[MrB]

 

No sky, then each home team can start a streaming service of there own?

Really? Some of them still can't get there heads around using the internet/social media to promote, you really think they are going to want a streaming service?

Edited October 2, 2013 by MrB

[SteveLyric2]

Really? Some of them still can't get there heads around using the internet/social media to promote, you really think they are going to want a streaming service?

All provided by the good offices of GSI of course - subject to a properly negotiated imposed pricing structure!!

[OldBulldog]

People should remember a few things when hoping Sky come back to the table:

 

1)You have an Elite league that does not have the elite riders in the sport

 

2) You have a Premier league that is not the top level of the sport.

 

3) You have a fixture list where you take on some clubs more times than others.

 

4) All of a sudden you can have a situation where in a race you score a different number of points, (a bit like a goal couting double just because you are losing heavily)

 

5) You have random 'guests' who although they ride for other teams, they suddenly show up and ride for you (a bit like Stephen Gerrard suddenly playing a match for Man U). Then they go back to their real team.

 

6) The people making the rules are the same people running the clubs. (A bit like Jose Mourinho, Arsen Wenger and David Moyes making up the rules, and deciding what happens to each others clubs)

 

Do people honestly think Sky are interested in paying money to cover this shambles??

 

You just squirm when thinking what people would make of the Belle Vue Poole farce, the use of guests, teams calling off a match earlier in the season just because they wanted to, or multiple cases where the tracks are so poor there is simply no overtaking.

 

I took someone in my annual match this summer and there was not a single ocassion where a rider overtook. The only good thing that night was the smell.

 

Anyway, you probably get the drift

Edited October 2, 2013 by OldBulldog

[Bruiser McHuge]

i think the only way Sky will be interested...and the general viewer as well is if some very top riders are riding in the Elite League....Sky won't be interested in showing Premier League every week as they want to broadcast the best sport available and this means the best names available...they want Ward..they want Hancock..they want Holder etc....if they don't get the names then i cannot see them continuing with it .

The Premier League coverage may attract diehards on here and the product MAY be better in some cases but there is no way Sky will broadcast that every week and it won't appeal to the casual viewer who want NAMES.

If the Elite League continues to watered down and more top stars disappear then more fans will disappear from the terraces, Sky will disappear from the screens and the chances of British riders challenging at world level will diminish even more than today....domestic speedway is a mess ..absolutely nothing there to attract new supporters...nothing to keep the kids wanting to go back and if the few top riders disappear then the future is even bleaker...a few diehards rattling round a near empty stadium with no media coverage at all.

On the plus side though i think the Grand Prix's look great on TV and are a great advert for the sport.

[SteveLyric2]

Sky didn't seem that bothered about continuing with the GPs with all the 'top' riders!! Whether Sky negotiate a new league deal or not, it will be financially driven, due to the vast amounts they have committed to Premiership and other Football. Whether any new deal will financially be enough for clubs to cover the costs of the top riders is highly debatable!

[Guest]

there can't be much in the way of profits from these shared events. the attendances are small compared to those in the 1970's when the british final used to pull in crowds of over 15,000 at west ham and coventry for a midweek meeting. no wonder the promoters drove rolls royce's in those days!.

 

What about the early post-war days when 85,000 and more locked out for Wembley against West Ham at the old Empire Stadium on a Thursday night?

Edited October 3, 2013 by Guest

[Blazeaway]

Sky didn't seem that bothered about continuing with the GPs with all the 'top' riders!! Whether Sky negotiate a new league deal or not, it will be financially driven, due to the vast amounts they have committed to Premiership and other Football. Whether any new deal will financially be enough for clubs to cover the costs of the top riders is highly debatable!

 

Spot on, I really can't see the "top rider" factor affecting SKY's decision.

 

At the end of the day it all comes down to ££££ if they are not generating enogh advertising revenue to justify the outlay then clearly speedway will be dropped.

 

That said we are seeing more and more "classic" and "gold" sport events on SKY, strange for the station that calls itself "the home of live sport"

[arthur cross]

Sky didn't seem that bothered about continuing with the GPs with all the 'top' riders!!

 

When will forum members like yourself finally understand that Sky's biggest problem with the GP's was that they had no chance of altering the "Saturday-evening-every-fortnight" schedule for those meetings.

 

It didn't matter how many big-names were taking part because Sky were often struggling to find space on their 4 channels for live coverage (or even overnight repeats) because that was already one of their busiest times all week for other more expensive rights (Spanish football, Premier League highlights, US golf & tennis) and they knew they had the 5.30pm live Premier League games coming up when the current football season started.

 

If the GP's took place on midweek evenings and Sky could have a say in which night suited them best in each particular week (like they do with their Elite League coverage or other sports like greyhounds and county cricket), then there's a reasonable chance they'd have been keener to stick with their GP coverage because they clearly love showing the big-name riders.

 

The "big-name" situation with the Elite League is a different load of economics completely ... clearly, nowhere near all the Elite League teams can afford to sign a couple of big names each (I suspect barely half the Elite League clubs can realistically afford to do that).

 

But the extra factor that it's easy for British fans to overlook is how low down the list of priorities a British contract has become for many big-name foreign riders (epsecially if English isn't their first language) ... Philip Rising has mentioned on this forum about a chat he had with Martin Vaculik at a recent Grand Prix during which Vaculik made it clear he didn't have a British deal in his future plans ... in fact, Vaculik went as far as admitting he could see little point in adding the haphazard Elite League fixture list into his much tidier weekly schedule of GP's, other individual meetings and his existing club commitments around Europe.

 

So even if Sky (or BT Sport or anyone else) demand "big names" to help secure a new Elite League tv-deal, the clubs have then got to go and sign those big names ... in theory, the tv-executives are looking at a list of all the big names but, in practice, the clubs have got a smaller list of big names that's limited to the ones already established in the Elite League or the ones who can be persuaded to join if the wages are high enough to justify wrecking their tidier schedules elsewhere.

 

But, of course, overpaying for reluctant big names means the clubs are still flinging too much tv-money at their line-ups and not enough tv-money at their infrastructure.

[RobMcCaffery]

What is the point in offering 'big names' to the casual viewer/general public if they have no idea who those 'names' are?

 

It's easily tested - just ask your non-speedway friends who Tai Woffinden, Chris Holder and Darcy Ward are - or maybe stetch it further with Emil Sayufutdinov or Nicki Pedersen. Unless you live in the Bournemouth area I very much doubt whether they will have heard of the 'Turbo Twins. There is a little more chance of Tai being known thanks to recent national publicity - my manager for example mentioned having heard an interview before Cardiff , saying 'he's an aussie isn't he?'. I quickly explained....

 

The biggest job with the general public I feel is persuading them that speedway isn't car racing and that it is a team sport where it's not just about the winner of the race.

 

Attract the casual viewer with interesting racing, draw them into the team aspect, then after a while they'll learn those names.

 

Saying 'Poole are in town with Chris Holder and Darcy Ward' is not going to impress anyone who isn't at least a casual fan.

 

If I catch an unfamiliar sport such as hockey or gaelic games for example I will stick around to see what the action's like, then what the score is, maybe go on to check what the implications of the result are- the last thing at that stage is to know who the stars are.

[SGP]

SKY wouldn't say no to more big names, but what is important to them is better value for money... They want closer racing, better presented venues and fuller crowds. For me, the Premier League can offer much more of this than the current Elite setup.

[RobMcCaffery]

As with any pay TV station, they want subscribers and viewers and whatever attracts them is what they'll show. The 'hard core' speedway fans are surely substantially outnumbered amongst their subscribers so to make speedway work they have to catch the eye of their other viewers.

 

Now, the personality route is very effective, as any tabloid newspaper reader will know - it's all about 'personalities' and gossip about them. First though you have to get the public to know those names.

 

In the case of speedway on TV it has to catch attention fast and hold it. Ideally it will be a great piece of racing, but back-up selling points are atmosphere, spectacle and names. Take NASCAR - not much actually going on, but set in massive stadia with massive crowds. It looks impressive - at first.

 

Once you've got people interested you can then develop personalities.

 

Sky's much-criticised presentation works to that end - it's a hard sell to catch attention. What's being said is "Hey, don't change channel, watch this, it's great, it's important - look at these personalities" - and also completes the big 'sell' by giving strong mentions to tracks around the country. It's not always pleasant listening for the already-committed but Sky aren't selling to them - they already have them.

 

Where it a ll goes wrong is, quite simply when you have poor racing, no atmosphere and 'stars' that only the committed know about. AZt the very lowest depth you have the farce of Belle Vue vs Poole, farcical racing on an unfit track in an aborted meeting just to contrive a result.

 

At the heart of it all is the racing. It is all about four guys (or girls if they're good enough) having a race that's good enough for people to want to watch - and that applies to speedway on whatever stage - televised or live at the stadium.

[FTM]

SKY wouldn't say no to more big names, but what is important to them is better value for money... They want closer racing, better presented venues and fuller crowds. For me, the Premier League can offer much more of this than the current Elite setup.

All promoters need to tidy up their stadiums to make them more presentable to their own fans and away supporters there is a lot that needs to be done in most (if not all clubs) .Most stadiums have more than one sport on their itenary and when a Sky match is shown there are an awful lot of overhead or long shots showing stadiums shortcomings and vehicles connected with Stock Cars or Greyhound not really in the best condition making the Stadium itself looking like a Scrap Yard effect.It doesn,t take a lot to tidy up most fans would probably volunteer to help and if there was a little incentive as well even better with a bit of money spent in the process but therein probably lies the problem Promoters don,t like to spend money .I think that the case of bigger crowds will never be changed well the meetings are shown live as most fans prefer to not spend hard earned cash if they can watch in the comfort of their own warm front room also not knowing who your

1 to 7 is going to be every week doesn,t help Maybe Sky could show matches on the same night from say 10pm to allow fans time to get home or record for later viewing so the diehard fans could get a double fix of their favourite sport .Most football matches are over by then which would give Sky another chance to increase their coffers with what is a fairly good fanbase sport to maybe attract more viewers .

Edited October 3, 2013 by FTM

[StevePark]

All promoters need to tidy up their stadiums to make them more presentable to their own fans and away supporters there is a lot that needs to be done in most (if not all clubs) .Most stadiums have more than one sport on their itenary and when a Sky match is shown there are an awful lot of overhead or long shots showing stadiums shortcomings and vehicles connected with Stock Cars or Greyhound not really in the best condition making the Stadium itself looking like a Scrap Yard effect.It doesn,t take a lot to tidy up most fans would probably volunteer to help and if there was a little incentive as well even better with a bit of money spent in the process but therein probably lies the problem .I think that the case of bigger crowds will never be changed well the meetings are shown live as most fans prefer to not spend hard earned cash if they can watch in the comfort of their own warm front room also not knowing who your

1 to 7 is going to be every week doesn,t help Maybe Sky could show matches on the same night from say 10pm to allow fans time to get home or record for later viewing so the diehard fans could get a double fix of their favourite sport .Most football matches are over by then which would give Sky another chance to increase their coffers with what is a fairly good fanbase sport to maybe attract more viewers .

The trouble with that, is, of course, the main majority of promoters only rent the stadium from Greyhound/Rugby/Football folk, so have very little or no say in what the 'stadium' looks like. There are exceptions, but the vast majority are rented. Edited October 3, 2013 by The Abbott

[mickthemuppet]

SKY wouldn't say no to more big names, but what is important to them is better value for money... They want closer racing, better presented venues and fuller crowds. For me, the Premier League can offer much more of this than the current Elite setup.

So where is it that Premier League is getting bigger crowds than Elite League?

Did Ipswich get bigger crowds from last weeks play off against Workington. No they did not

Compare that to the Elite League play offs on Monday night.at either venue.

[hans fan]

SKY wouldn't say no to more big names, but what is important to them is better value for money... They want closer racing, better presented venues and fuller crowds. For me, the Premier League can offer much more of this than the current Elite setup.

if they want that they should pay a decent amount ,