Sky 2014

[Mad Potter 2]

Why would Sky want to keep showing Elite League Speedway. In the whole of the Elite League in June & July there where only 5 meetings (out of 46) with both Teams having their own 1-7 racing.

 

June

Matches 22

Matches with teams own 7 riders 2 (Aces v Robins & Brummies v Aces)

 

RR 27, Guests 14, Guest reserves 22.

 

Worst culprits Poole – Aces v Pirates RR, Guests 2, Guest Reserve 1

Swindon – Bees v Robins RR, Guests 3, Guest Reserve 1

Poole – Eagles v Poole RR, Guests 2, Guest Reserve 2

 

 

July

Matches 24

Matches with teams own 7 riders 3 (Aces v Robins, Eagles v Brummies & Panthers v Brummies)

 

RR 24, Guests 15, Guest reserves 11.

 

Worst culprits Wolves – Pirates v Wolves RR, Guests 2, Guest Reserve 1

Aces – Robins v Aces RR, Guests 1, Guest Reserve 1

 

Is it any wonder that Speedway is not taken seriously by the Media

[A ORLOV]

If the EL has a problem with missing riders show more PL meetings, quite often the ones they have shown have been better than the EL. Share the money between more clubs.

[SteveLyric2]

Whether the sport gets any sort of TV deal or not for 2014, it must not detract from a major move to cut costs - for everyone! Undoubtedly this will not all happen in one go, but there has to be a dramatic plan that every club signs up to and agrees to stick with - even if a TV deal comes in at a later stage!

 

One huge problem imo is if a 'big money' sponsorship deal (TV or not)is secured, then many promoters will use the cash to offset past financial losses, rather than to improve the promotion and presentation of a value-for-money product!! (ps. Which is what has happened to much of the Sky money in the past, other than that which has been passed on to riders and onward to tuners etc in inflated payments!!)

Edited September 27, 2013 by Skidder1

[SGP]

If no deal can be agreed with Sky for 2014 British Speedway I would be very surprised if BT Sport did not come in with an offer it may be very low offer just to try their hand or even on a we will pay the production costs and give TV exposure to club sponsors but not pay anything for the rights. Which I could not see the Elite league operating on that basis as the clubs need their share of media rights income.

I do know there is one large well known brand who are interested in sponsoring a club for a large amount and even possibly sponsoring the league if on TV. They dont care about corporate boxs,letting staff in or fringe benefits they just want to see their logo on tv on a regular basis.

 

Although Speedway does not always attract the marketing groups that may be desired by some it does have niche markets to appeal to.

 

As well as filling BT's summer schedule it would also increase subscriber numbers for them which they have got to do especially the 3 play business which in simple terms is getting the phone and broadband business off Virgin media and Sky.

 

i agree they have set some strong contarcting terms for the football and Rugby but Speedway would likely be produced by their internal production teams like Sky do currently. BT's Speedway production costs would likely be 10-15k a week cheaper than Sky as they do not physically have to pay for their broadcast circuits on the fibre network or switching via BT tower even more saving from the more remote tracks that require Sat uplink tracks as little costs as they do not have to pay for any bandwith as all leased whether they use it or not. Just as a side note had a quick look at the Sky internal figures for Mondays play off and they were very good including a very high number of people watching time shifted e.g On Sky + also good number who watched via Sky Go and Sky catch up on HD boxes

 

EXCELLENT post as always. From the view I have on the 'inside' is that the ball is in the BSPA's court in terms of showing SKY what it has to offer. By that, I mean SKY wouldn't be against the idea of renewing if the BSPA would 'improve' and outline exactly what product it wishes to offer. My own view, is that Speedway SHOULD stick with SKY, as SKY has stuck with Speedway. I am aware of interest from BT Sport, well, it's certainly on their radar; but for me, Speedway should stay with SKY.

[PHILIPRISING]

AT the end of the day the decision rests with Barney Francis, Head of Sport at Sky. So far he has not even been prepared to even talk or listen to anything Terry Russell has to say. Not a good sign.

 

And to those detractors of TR ... if I ever needed anyone to negotiate a deal for me Terry would be at the head of the queue. Sharp as a tack and lets not forget it is in his interests as much as British speedway as a whole to secure a TV deal.

 

ALSO being suggested that Sky Sports are garnering their financial loins in preparation of a BT onslaught on their (soccer) Champions League rights...

[arthur cross]

AT the end of the day the decision rests with Barney Francis, Head of Sport at Sky. So far he has not even been prepared to even talk or listen to anything Terry Russell has to say. Not a good sign.

 

ALSO being suggested that Sky Sports are garnering their financial loins in preparation of a BT onslaught on their (soccer) Champions League rights...

 

As far as I know, any previous speedway tv-deals with Sky (including the current one) would have been negotiated with Barney Francis's long-serving predecessor Vic Wakeling and there's been a consistent difference across many sports between Mr Wakeling's approach and Mr Francis's approach in the past couple of years.

 

Back in the 1990's, Sky's policy under Mr Wakeling clearly included signing up a wider variety of sports to support their main attraction which has always been their partnership with football's Premier League (and in due course, the Champions League once the European courts ruled against terrestrial channels like ITV maintaining the monopoly on their country's coverage) ... speedway fitted really well into that policy.

 

Two decades later (along with all sorts of audience research and a much bigger back-catalogue of memorable highlights of major sports they can show), it's now clear Sky's policy under Mr Francis is to hang on to their really major events at almost any cost (the Premier League, the Champions League, Formula One, cricket's Ashes, tennis's US Open & golf's Ryder Cup).

 

If that squeezes the funds available to cover more minor sports, then they don't mind wheeling out more of those legendary highlights as a cheap alternative (look how many more re-runs of last season's live Premier League games they showed during the recent close-season) or trying to see if those minor sports themselves can help to fund retaining their place in the Sky schedules (this year's Sky greyhounds deal being the prime example of that trend).

 

In these circumstances, the only surprise about Terry Russell getting nowhere fast with Barney Francis is that Philip Rising feels able to report that on this forum ... many thanks for doing that, even if it's grim reading.

 

The greyhounds clung onto roughly two-thirds of their previous programmes (albeit with more basic production) because the Greyhound Board of Great Britain has teamed up with the bookies to reckon it's worth using a hefty chunk of the bookies' expected profits from greyhound's big races to help fund the Sky coverage ... it soon became apparent that was probably the only way to ensure plenty of those big events could still go ahead (otherwise, with a much lower tv-profile, they'd only have been run with savage cuts in prize money).

 

Given the lack of progress for Terry Russell so far, unless he or the BSPA can find a group of people within speedway who are prepared to team up in the same way as the GBGB did with the bookies, it's hard to see how there can be any progress with Sky ... I suppose speedway's engine tuners wanting to maintain their business might be the closest equivalent to the greyhound bookies but can you really see those tuners helping out with any tv-negotiations ? !!

 

And while the greyhounds have clung on to most of their Sky coverage for the time being, it'll be very hard for them to climb back up to the previous years' value and production level now that they've settled for this year's standard of coverage.

 

Overall (and plenty of other sports are also finding this out), it's only now that sports like speedway are discovering how relatively good they've had it for tv-money for many years compared to what's likely to be on the table in future years.

[PHILIPRISING]

VIC Wakeling, a former newspaper journalist, was much more sympathetic towards speedway than the current regime.

[flagrag]

All I can really say as the last two posters have put there has been a huge change at Sky sports in management style and securing content rights and keeping the Safari products which is the big aports eg Premiership, Champions league This new style will possibly not help Speedway but do want to add the door is definitely not closed yet. Speedway does have one or two benefit over the greyhounds is that it can be replayed two or three times to fill schedules. Also there is good resale of the coverage to help with production costs with I believe live coverage going to Poland,Australia and South Africa.

I fully agree that the bspa first choice should be to stick with Sky but don't be greedy if that deal falls through and BT sport offer an alternative deal.

[RobMcCaffery]

All fascinating stuff and thanks to those 'in the know' for letting us see more deeply into the situation.

 

So, it looks like we can sum the situation up as..

 

"If you sort yourselves out, you have two possible outlets, just don't expect the kind of money you've been used to"?

[EC Rides Again]

All fascinating stuff and thanks to those 'in the know' for letting us see more deeply into the situation.

 

So, it looks like we can sum the situation up as..

 

"If you sort yourselves out, you have two possible outlets, just don't expect the kind of money you've been used to"?

The TV companies will wait to see how the land lies after the BSPA AGM before they would even think about some sort of deal. Interesting times in the sports media rights world. It's been mentioned that empty terraces are a turn-off for the TV companies but on BT Sport 2 right now is the Kidderminster v. Aldershot Conference match that's being played out in front of the proverbial one man and his dog. Despite this they have thrown the kitchen sink at the coverage with seemingly more presenters than there are spectators !

[manchesterpaul]

Just as a side note had a quick look at the Sky internal figures for Mondays play off and they were very good including a very high number of people watching time shifted e.g On Sky + also good number who watched via Sky Go and Sky catch up on HD boxes

 

You forgot to mention the numbers watching on 'illegal' internet streams lol.

 

The TV companies will wait to see how the land lies after the BSPA AGM before they would even think about some sort of deal. Interesting times in the sports media rights world. It's been mentioned that empty terraces are a turn-off for the TV companies but on BT Sport 2 right now is the Kidderminster v. Aldershot Conference match that's being played out in front of the proverbial one man and his dog. Despite this they have thrown the kitchen sink at the coverage with seemingly more presenters than there are spectators !

 

The media's ties with the omnipresent football means that i wouldn't be shocked to see a kids street kickabout broadcast lol.

[remembertheracers]

Reports on the BT Sport project are not good in the short term, so any interest there seems unlikely.

 

Sky, it appears, would want paying to keep up the current schedule. I suggest Mr Rising's earlier suggestion might be correct -that they might show play-offs only or simply cherry pick an odd match here or there.

 

The consensus here seems to be that the EL is no longer a credible sport, that is very sad. Tinkering here and there will not do this winter...

Edited September 27, 2013 by remembertheracers

[salty]

The TV companies will wait to see how the land lies after the BSPA AGM before they would even think about some sort of deal. Interesting times in the sports media rights world. It's been mentioned that empty terraces are a turn-off for the TV companies but on BT Sport 2 right now is the Kidderminster v. Aldershot Conference match that's being played out in front of the proverbial one man and his dog. Despite this they have thrown the kitchen sink at the coverage with seemingly more presenters than there are spectators !

The crowd for the Kiddie match was a touch over 2,000. Comfortably more than the crowds at most Elite League venues, especially when the cameras are present.

[MrB]

I have no idea how much money sky paid to cover speedway BUT maybe air fences at every track would of been a sound investment. Where did the money go ?

That's the main point I've heard from sources, Sky wanted it to go to improved facilities and stadiums yet it's just been used to fill the financial gaps. Sounds like excuses to pull out IMHO. Overpaid on new footie contract and it's not like they care where that money goes!

Edited September 27, 2013 by MrB

[SteveLyric2]

The introduction of a European Champions League for speedway - which has been talked about but not progressed for the past 2 years at least - is something that Sky were very interested in. There are surely a couple or three EL clubs that would be keen or can afford to participate, so maybe something of that nature plus the play-offs is what we might have to get used to as far as TV is concerned! Maybe the Polish Marketing company behind the SEC could develop the concept and get Eurosport or BT Sport to show it?!

[PHILIPRISING]

SKY, I believe, were only interested in the Champions League to the extent that they would have shown the UK legs instead of the usual EL meeting that week ... in other words there would not have been additional TV meetings.

 

Problem with the Champions League concept remains the TV production costs.

[The Know]

Where has all the sky money gone over the years. Where has the investment been which would of had sky chomping at the bit to resign a deal at a higher figure ? I think we all know what has happened to it. No forward planning by the bspa or promoters in any shape or form.

[LagutaRacingFan]

The Sky money has gone to subsidize the GP riders who are asking for silly money in order to subsidize their GP commitments due to the BSI's low pay structure.

 

The sooner Paul Bellamy and his stooge are driven out of the sport, The better.

[hans fan]

Where has all the sky money gone over the years. Where has the investment been which would of had sky chomping at the bit to resign a deal at a higher figure ? I think we all know what has happened to it. No forward planning by the bspa or promoters in any shape or form.

what do you expect 90k a year to cover ???

[The White Knight]

what do you expect 90k a year to cover ???

 

That is ONLY for Elite League Teams isn't it?

 

Negotiations with SKY seem to concentrate on the Elite League at the expense of all others. This is despite the fact that MOST Premier League Meetings that have been shown were terrific Entertainment - unlike some Elite League Meetings.