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Next season. Cancel BT deal and take broadcasting inhouse.


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The deal that the BSPA have with BT is not worth it. A few promoters argued this at the time and I was one who thought it was imperative that speedway in the UK had a tv deal. Now I have changed my mind and believe BSPA should pull out of the deal and get a streaming channel up and running for next season. 

The BT deal brings in no money. In fact it costs clubs as the hosting club loses revenue when BT are in town. Unless BT come in with a deal similar to what Sky were paying, then time to say goodbye.

In its place, a monthly subscription to a streaming service. £20 a month for 2 live meetings a week, one from the Prem and one from the Championship, as well as behind the scenes shows, interviews, q&a sessions live where fans can ask questions to riders/promoters etc, which are being produced by companies such as speedway portal. The money is then divided up between clubs. This will bring in far more than BT are offering. 

Promoters may think they would lose money as fans would watch online and not attend. But I wouldn't’ attend Belle Vue v Swindon but would pay a subscription to watch it. And then clubs would benefit.

There would be no problem having video companies do the streaming. I bet Pete Ballinger or Speedway Portal would be keen as mustard to get the chance.

Thoughts?

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2 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

The deal that the BSPA have with BT is not worth it. A few promoters argued this at the time and I was one who thought it was imperative that speedway in the UK had a tv deal. Now I have changed my mind and believe BSPA should pull out of the deal and get a streaming channel up and running for next season. 

The BT deal brings in no money. In fact it costs clubs as the hosting club loses revenue when BT are in town. Unless BT come in with a deal similar to what Sky were paying, then time to say goodbye.

In its place, a monthly subscription to a streaming service. £20 a month for 2 live meetings a week, one from the Prem and one from the Championship, as well as behind the scenes shows, interviews, q&a sessions live where fans can ask questions to riders/promoters etc, which are being produced by companies such as speedway portal. The money is then divided up between clubs. This will bring in far more than BT are offering. 

Promoters may think they would lose money as fans would watch online and not attend. But I wouldn't’ attend Belle Vue v Swindon but would pay a subscription to watch it. And then clubs would benefit.

There would be no problem having video companies do the streaming. I bet Pete Ballinger or Speedway Portal would be keen as mustard to get the chance.

Thoughts?

Too expensive - i only pay £13 a month for 4 Swedish Elite matches a week with full Swedish commentary.

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I think Clean Cut sports, who do the DVD's for Belle Vue amongst others already do live streaming of Ice Hockey I think, I may be wrong on the sport but they do live stream so they have the technology. I pay for BT sport just for the speedway so I would definitely subscribe.

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Trouble is Speedway comes across on TV like a big pile of steaming horse rubbish, to many tape recalls and strung out meetings, take the last Leicester meeting on the box no one new what they were doing and looked so amateur, but my point of it remaining on mainstream TV is in the event someone flicks through the channels and thinks oh whats this and enjoys it for some reason they may think along the lines as oh we have a local track lets go down one evening etc.

 

If what Steve is suggesting was to happen no one would know about it or see it on the off chance,  except for the current crop of fans etc, although I take my hats of to Steve for trying to think of new avenues but for me its a non starter.

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Guest GiveusaB

Before the perfect TV package/promotion, is put in place, we need to rid the sport of the dinosaurs at the helm of the BSPA........imo !

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1 hour ago, Orbiter said:

TV is a must to keep in with current sports and of course give it maximum exposure especially for sponsors.

 

Can’t see that the current BT deal brings much for sponsors with only say 12 meetings, but a dedicated channel with 40 might!

 

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Much, much cheaper than you would think. There’s a lot of companies manufacturing completely affordable equipment. Several thousand would have a very pro setup. The studio mixer is a laptop. A quality internet connection is the main requirement but nearly everywhere has fibre broadband nowdays. Certainly good enough for this. Any of the video boys could have a setup running in no time.

All revenue to speedway for minimal outlay plus wages for the guys.

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16 minutes ago, BluPanther said:

 

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Not even half of one of those stacks. We are not talking broadcast setup.  No cafe bus. No producer, scaffolder, satellite links etc. really is cheap to do. Sabmar in Poland do exactly this. If you have seen their internet broadcasts you will see what can be done on a budget and its free from them. The advertising pays for everything.

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Many years back I appeared before the National League/Division 2 BSPA Management Committee to propose a scheme to indeed take broadcasting 'in-house' and produce programmes for sale to the network. The response was "But we don't know how to do it". I'd rather hoped they'd got the point that they'd need to hire someone who did.....

I doubt very much whether the attitude has changed.

It would be interesting to know how Sweden is coping with the lack of a TV deal this year. They have a deal to sell matches to Poland and Britain with the Swedish (and international) markets covered by pay per view. 

One small point that is ignored by most BSF people, probably because of its subtlety, is how promotion of speedway on BT Sport treats it as a major sport, slotting in promos alongside their European football and Premier League matches and their Rugby, either sharing ad breaks or being promoted in the ad breaks of those matches.

For example, during the Champions League Final, watched by about 3 million people, a record for pay-TV, there was at least one promo for the Rye House v King's Lynn match the following Monday.

Just as you can have guilt by association so you can have credit by association. Anyone watching BT Sport's premium events would have no doubt that they covered speedway and see promos that made it look like one of their top sports.Of course you could pay for such publicity - if you could afford it.

The last time I tried to explain this one BSF charmer responded "Well it was a crap meeting" which does rather sum up the BSF and perhaps speedway as a whole. Unless something gives direct cash in the hand its benefits are too hard to understand. 

Edited by RobMcCaffery
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17 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Not even half of one of those stacks. We are not talking broadcast setup.  No cafe bus. No producer, scaffolder, satellite links etc. really is cheap to do. Sabmar in Poland do exactly this. If you have seen their internet broadcasts you will see what can be done on a budget and its free from them. The advertising pays for everything.

I watch Sabmar's coverage frequently. It's just about acceptable if you don't mind the very limited quality, constantly inaccurate captions and general feeling that it's made by amateurs. 

Still, it's only speedway, doesn't deserve having it done properly eh? Let's just do it on the cheap and hope the punters are desperate or easily pleased, eh? Lovely jubbly!

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