Will speedway disappear from TV following Eurosport merger?

[Bunce]

On 3/26/2025 at 7:38 PM, Fromafar said:

EE &BT customers can get TNT Sport as an Add On for £20/month on a rolling  1 month contract.

That's what I have done. The £20 deal is just about bearable as I enjoy the GP's and I get MotoGP as well. Still bloomin expensive when I was getting the Discovery+ app including the speedway last year as part of my Sky package for no extra cost.

[Fromafar]

12 minutes ago, Bunce said:

That's what I have done. The £20 deal is just about bearable as I enjoy the GP's and I get MotoGP as well. Still bloomin expensive when I was getting the Discovery+ app including the speedway last year as part of my Sky package for no extra cost.

They seem to have problem loading in to disc +.Maybe just my area.

[r8gdp]

Rang sky yesterday,explained to them that I went with them because dis + was included in the package so I could watch speedway and it as now been move to tnt with them wanting £30 per month.Was passed to 3 different people all seemed very polite but they couldn’t do anything for me .The last person did say that a few people had rung with the same complaint.So that’s me done .

[IainB]

1 hour ago, r8gdp said:

Rang sky yesterday,explained to them that I went with them because dis + was included in the package so I could watch speedway and it as now been move to tnt with them wanting £30 per month.Was passed to 3 different people all seemed very polite but they couldn’t do anything for me .The last person did say that a few people had rung with the same complaint.So that’s me done .

Unfortunately if you want Disc+ or TNT you'll have to play a game of brinksmanship and do their little dance of actually cancelling and then wait for the customer retentions to call you... of course they may not actually call you like they didn't with me lol and then you'll either have to eat some humble pie or move elsewhere.

Fortunately I am able to get Virgin Media in my area and managed to get  my TV (inc Sky Sports), Telephone & Broadband (0.4gb) at a very reasonable £59.99 pm for 18 months and £180 cashback (currently around £100) from TCB and then when WBD pulled their TNT stunt got that free for 5 months, which will see me through the majority of the Speedway season.

I assume this will only be a one year thing as TNT have already binned Speedway off once and according to other reports the SGP series is on the verge of collapse with WBD considering pulling out of that early.

[Noodles]

On 3/27/2025 at 5:20 PM, r8gdp said:

Do the codes get you tnt sports for free lol

It was Discovery Plus premium (Including TNT) for £15.49 for seven months.  Deal ended on 28th March though.  

Edited Saturday at 09:18 AM by Noodles

[The Third Man]

4 hours ago, r8gdp said:

Rang sky yesterday,explained to them that I went with them because dis + was included in the package so I could watch speedway and it as now been move to tnt with them wanting £30 per month.Was passed to 3 different people all seemed very polite but they couldn’t do anything for me .The last person did say that a few people had rung with the same complaint.So that’s me done .

Did the same, but have mobiles and broadband with EE

Went into the local EE shop and after a bit of negotiation they repriced my broadband, i transferred TV to them including TNT, it has cost me about £3 per month extra for 24 months, so quite pleased with that

 

[The White Knight]

3 hours ago, IainB said:

Unfortunately if you want Disc+ or TNT you'll have to play a game of brinksmanship and do their little dance of actually cancelling and then wait for the customer retentions to call you... of course they may not actually call you like they didn't with me lol and then you'll either have to eat some humble pie or move elsewhere.

Fortunately I am able to get Virgin Media in my area and managed to get  my TV (inc Sky Sports), Telephone & Broadband (0.4gb) at a very reasonable £59.99 pm for 18 months and £180 cashback (currently around £100) from TCB and then when WBD pulled their TNT stunt got that free for 5 months, which will see me through the majority of the Speedway season.

I assume this will only be a one year thing as TNT have already binned Speedway off once and according to other reports the SGP series is on the verge of collapse with WBD considering pulling out of that early.

I didn't know about that. When did this news emerge.

I'm very surprised.

[IainB]

On 3/27/2025 at 9:31 AM, Gambo said:

Copied from Facebook

American defeat. Losses amounted to millions. Even Poles are fed up.

There were bold visions, announcements of global expansion, and a surge in popularity. It culminated in the purchase of a new podium and new boxes for the riders competing in the Speedway World Championship. A new promoter can have big problems.

When it was announced in 2019 that the rights to organize the Speedway Grand Prix series would be acquired by the global brand Warner Bros. Discovery from the USA, everyone expected a total revolution and the opening of new markets. Speedway was supposed to function similarly to MotoGP, with speedway riders competing year-round on every continent. Today, it sounds like a joke. After three seasons, none of the goals have been achieved, and sponsors, fans, and even players are beginning to turn away from the new promoter.

Although Bartosz Zmarzlik has already won the World Championship five times, these competitions are beginning to evoke less and less emotion in our country, too.

Initially, the organizers cited the pandemic as an excuse, but today, activists and fans respond to such excuses with a pitying smile. It's not just speedway fans who complain about the level of Grand Prix competitions, but also the competitors themselves. Even though they received a substantial raise immediately after the new promoter took office, they're slowly losing patience, and the fight for the World Championship is no longer fun.

It's already known that the company Infinite Reality will no longer advertise on the competitors' Kevlar clothing this year, and the organizers haven't been able to find a replacement. In the fourth season of Warner Bros., Regent Discovery Sports has had to admit defeat and insert the logo of the World Championship instead of its biggest sponsor's logo. According to estimates, this could result in a deficit of at least several hundred thousand dollars in the World Championship budget. When we asked representatives from Grand Prix about this, we received only the perfunctory answer that Infinite Reality remains a partner of GP.

However, this is nothing compared to what could happen before next season. Although no one from the management of the energy drink giant Monster wants to be identified, representatives of the company are sending unofficial signals that they are dissatisfied with the way the World Cup is going and their collaboration with the organizer so far. This year, in turn, is the final year of the current contract, which, according to unofficial information, is worth up to one million dollars per year.

According to our information, the company is currently seriously considering withdrawing from the Grand Prix series and changing its strategy. If this happens, it would be a blow to the World Cup organizers from which they may not recover.

Talk is slowly emerging of a losing streak, as this year's series will be the first in over 20 years that the legendary round will not take place in the large Cardiff stadium. Fan interest waned until the tournament eventually became unprofitable. This year's competition was moved to a smaller venue in Manchester. Next year, the last major venue, the PGE Narodowy, will disappear from the GP calendar. The Poles decided it would be better to take a break and organize the Team World Cup finale. The loss of two series' calling cards certainly won't make negotiations with potential sponsors any easier.

In addition, there are growing rumors in Poland that the promoters at Warner Bros. themselves might have had enough of speedway racing. It's a sport of discovery. Although this hasn't been confirmed yet, it's possible that the promoter won't have to stay with speedway until the end of its current contract, which runs until 2031.

Due to the strange decisions of FIM representative Armando Castagna, Polish fans have lost interest in the Grand Prix series, and without funding from Poland, it's difficult to think about developing a full-fledged product.

There are currently no news of plans to broadcast the series outside of Europe. So far, it hasn't been possible to organize a single round in Australia, let alone the US or other countries. The new promoter presented his tenure as the beginning of a new era in speedway racing, and no one currently associates anything good with such a slogan. The recent rule changes are not only completely incomprehensible, but also threaten to distort the sporting competition. The senseless adoption of models from other motorsport disciplines could lead to a distortion of the competition for the World Championship this year, and the decisive factor may not necessarily be the direct duels between the drivers on the track during the tournaments, but rather the times achieved in the morning qualifying rounds alone.

- I have the impression that the fans and the players themselves weren't expecting such changes. Most tournaments can only be watched online, and given the low level of competition, I didn't even want to buy a package. I think the vast majority of speedway fans in Poland will do the same next season. On the other hand, if we have enough of such races, it's difficult to pin our hopes on the Germans, the Czechs, or the Swedes, because the sport is beginning to play a marginal role there," admits former Polish national team coach Marek Cieślak.

 

35 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

I didn't know about that. When did this news emerge.

I'm very surprised.

 

[The White Knight]

IainB - thank you so much for taking the trouble to Post this.

Worrying times indeed.

I never heard a squeak about this.

Cheers.

[FromBendThree]

15 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

IainB - thank you so much for taking the trouble to Post this.

Worrying times indeed.

I never heard a squeak about this.

Cheers.

Nor me. 

[IainB]

20 minutes ago, The White Knight said:

IainB - thank you so much for taking the trouble to Post this.

Worrying times indeed.

I never heard a squeak about this.

Cheers.

 

4 minutes ago, FromBendThree said:

Nor me. 

It's taken from Sportowefakty apparently and although it does state "rumours" there's generally no smoke without fire and the SGP series is undeniably on a downward trend.

WBD dropping Speedway early could be a blessing in disguise.

[GeneralMelchett]

16 hours ago, IainB said:

 

It's taken from Sportowefakty apparently and although it does state "rumours" there's generally no smoke without fire and the SGP series is undeniably on a downward trend.

WBD dropping Speedway early could be a blessing in disguise.

It could certainly have a good effect on U.K. league speedway but let’s see!

[1 valve]

On 3/29/2025 at 5:02 PM, IainB said:

 

It's taken from Sportowefakty apparently and although it does state "rumours" there's generally no smoke without fire and the SGP series is undeniably on a downward trend.

WBD dropping Speedway early could be a blessing in disguise.

Could be Polish speedway propaganda being “leaked” in their efforts to remain the “untouchables” of influencing how speedway operates their way.