Eurosport, terrible professionalism.

[AceBelle]

9 hours ago, R87 said:

No thank you.  Hell will freeze over before I pick streaming an amateurish production over getting off my backside and actually going to the venue. 

I have a season ticket for b/vue also as well as for BSN 😜

[IainB]

15 hours ago, mikebv said:

But who is now going to take on the mantle of just switching programme channels at the drop of a hat, completely screwing up your recording of it? 

Or joining a meeting 3 heats in because the tennis over ran? 

Or even not showing the speedway meeting at all live but putting it on later, (when the Kabaddi has finished)...

Add to this who are now going to consistently show the wrong captions for riders, teams, tac subs, scores, rising stars etc?

Big shoes to fill...

It is indeed a sad day, Eurosport have been letting me down for more years than I care to remember, right from day one back in the mid 90's. Premier Sports seem the rightful heirs to their crown for anybody willing to pay their fees

[IainB]

Last year Discovery+ showed:

17 Premiership meetings, including all of the play off legs

1 British Final

10 SGP's

3 SWC's

3 SGP 2's

1 SWC 2

8 SGP Quali's (meh)

2 SGP Sprint Races (meh)

That's 35 actual meetings, for a price of £6.99 p/m based on a 6 month subscription that worked out at an amazing £1.19 per meeting. Even at £30.99 p/m that's £5.31 a meeting for "world class" Speedway (plus all of the other sport that will be shown), compared to BSN who plan to show 58 meetings (of varying standard) in 2025 for £250, working out at £4.31 a meeting the TNT subscription starts to look more appealing and competitively priced, it's just a bit of a bummer that Eurosport used to be free (included) for Sky/Virgin subscribers and now isn't, Discovery+ was included at no extra cost for Sky customers and now the sports won't, you could get the Discovery Standard subscription for as little as £3.99 p/m.

Edited Wednesday at 03:58 PM by IainB

[flagrag]

I have reached out to a few contacts at TNT and WBD about the situation. 
At present the UK league racing is very much up in the air with options being considered.

Do they use league Speedway as a cheap rights acquisition that’s UK based in the summer to help fill TNT schedule this will require an enhancement to production standards and costs on producing each meeting e.g More Cameras, better lighting, UHD coverage, new graphics etc 

The other option is to remain as it is and look to cut some production costs bit further but then this will only be broadcast online via Discovery + which may upset fans and sponsors. It should all be decided in next few weeks once a few more things away from Speedway are sorted 

[AceBelle]

1 hour ago, flagrag said:

I have reached out to a few contacts at TNT and WBD about the situation. 
At present the UK league racing is very much up in the air with options being considered.

Do they use league Speedway as a cheap rights acquisition that’s UK based in the summer to help fill TNT schedule this will require an enhancement to production standards and costs on producing each meeting e.g More Cameras, better lighting, UHD coverage, new graphics etc 

The other option is to remain as it is and look to cut some production costs bit further but then this will only be broadcast online via Discovery + which may upset fans and sponsors. It should all be decided in next few weeks once a few more things away from Speedway are sorted 

thanks for update although it doesn't sound promising ??

[Heathcote]

On 1/29/2025 at 3:34 PM, IainB said:

Last year Discovery+ showed:

17 Premiership meetings, including all of the play off legs

1 British Final

10 SGP's

3 SWC's

3 SGP 2's

1 SWC 2

8 SGP Quali's (meh)

2 SGP Sprint Races (meh)

That's 35 actual meetings, for a price of £6.99 p/m based on a 6 month subscription that worked out at an amazing £1.19 per meeting. Even at £30.99 p/m that's £5.31 a meeting for "world class" Speedway (plus all of the other sport that will be shown), compared to BSN who plan to show 58 meetings (of varying standard) in 2025 for £250, working out at £4.31 a meeting the TNT subscription starts to look more appealing and competitively priced, it's just a bit of a bummer that Eurosport used to be free (included) for Sky/Virgin subscribers and now isn't, Discovery+ was included at no extra cost for Sky customers and now the sports won't, you could get the Discovery Standard subscription for as little as £3.99 p/m.

When does this change to Discovery+ Sports being free for Sky customers come into effect? Just checked and I can still watch speedway free on Discovery+ as of this morning? Also had no notifications anywhere that there is to be a change to its "free" status

[AceBelle]

57 minutes ago, Heathcote said:

When does this change to Discovery+ Sports being free for Sky customers come into effect? Just checked and I can still watch speedway free on Discovery+ as of this morning? Also had no notifications anywhere that there is to be a change to its "free" status

28th Feb it will go off I too have sky q which gets you Discovery + sports free but all Sport on that is going to TNT hence £30 fee 🤔🙈

[Byker Biker]

On 1/30/2025 at 3:57 PM, flagrag said:

I have reached out to a few contacts at TNT and WBD about the situation. 
At present the UK league racing is very much up in the air with options being considered.

Do they use league Speedway as a cheap rights acquisition that’s UK based in the summer to help fill TNT schedule this will require an enhancement to production standards and costs on producing each meeting e.g More Cameras, better lighting, UHD coverage, new graphics etc 

The other option is to remain as it is and look to cut some production costs bit further but then this will only be broadcast online via Discovery + which may upset fans and sponsors. It should all be decided in next few weeks once a few more things away from Speedway are sorted 

I've never believed anything other than Speedway being an airtime filler particularly when Sky went big on live sport. In the summertime Sky had one hell of a lot of live airtime to fill so this sport was ideal. They made a success of it because the audiences were consistent and they didn't scrimp on production costs despite BT having their pants down on the uplink charges.

Rain offs became a very expensive irritant particularly when mardi prima donnas refused to ride in not perfect conditions and stadium presentation became a bit of an eyesore (grass growing down the straights at kirky Lane and many tracks not being rrsed to clean the air fences and Sky banners) to the point when the budget was blown on footy it was easy to pay up the Speedway contract and save on production costs. Financially Sky and Speedway were doing each other a favour £1.1m a year to fill all that airtime was cost effective for Sky and for Speedway £1.1m a year was manna from heaven and some promotions couldn't even clean the Sky banners.

[flagrag]

31 minutes ago, Byker Biker said:

I've never believed anything other than Speedway being an airtime filler particularly when Sky went big on live sport. In the summertime Sky had one hell of a lot of live airtime to fill so this sport was ideal. They made a success of it because the audiences were consistent and they didn't scrimp on production costs despite BT having their pants down on the uplink charges.

Rain offs became a very expensive irritant particularly when mardi prima donnas refused to ride in not perfect conditions and stadium presentation became a bit of an eyesore (grass growing down the straights at kirky Lane and many tracks not being rrsed to clean the air fences and Sky banners) to the point when the budget was blown on footy it was easy to pay up the Speedway contract and save on production costs. Financially Sky and Speedway were doing each other a favour £1.1m a year to fill all that airtime was cost effective for Sky and for Speedway £1.1m a year was manna from heaven and some promotions couldn't even clean the Sky banners.

Also helped that a couple of senior Sky sports executives in late 90s tlll  early 2000s used to go Speedway on a regular basis.

Once they moved on it meant Speedway did not have the internal support that it used to have