I love that these guys are doing this. It can't be for the money--at least as far as I can see--so I guess that makes me respect the effort even more. Sounds good, too.
Its too bad that the few that won't pay or have other means will never get addicted to racing. Yes Speed Channel lost its way from days past but it's the new younger fans that it will loose setting the hook in for making money off down the road.
The "new younger" fans don't watch it on tv and don't buy it from MotoGP.com. But they watch . . . I can't shed any tears over this news. SPEED was no good.
Wierd. If we watch SPEED showing stuff from over Stateside, yep, it's shit. (In every respect, especially the visual..), but here in Oz, covering WSBK, it's bloody brilliant! Dunno...
That's because its the european feed and not crappy US commentators constantly comparing it to nascrap racing.
I suspect with the right sort of promotion WSBK and GP would find the audience they are looking for on the web without the old TV broadcast model. New audience, new model.
I think that has worked for cycling here in the states. I have no idea anymore what the channel is called now that airs state-side cycling as well as the TDF and others, but my DVR catches them. When I last watched WSBK on Speed, Speed didn't bother to inject any of the usual home announcer drivel, or in-between nonsense. They still managed to cut away to commercials right at the wrong time. I take that as their way of maintaining suspense. of course ty'd return two to five laps later depending on how many back-to-back "Flo" commercials they could pile up. The odd thing I noticed was the video quality was better than the video quality of MotoGP feed. My streaming of MotoGP off the subscription from my iPad through the AppleTV puck was better than that even. Makes me wonder what the marketing morons at Speed really know about video or broadcast other than NASCAR demographics. If as the industry pundents say Speed are trying to become a mainstream sports provider, they are coming from a long way back. They have cornered themselves with all the backwash of this and that garage shows along with their cash-cow NASCAR, I don't see them edging anybody out of the US football or baseball arena. They built themselves into a "motorsports" network except the mainly cover NASCAR and auctions. How either of those hold any audience interest beyond five minutes is well beyond my guess. In the US all international sport is approached by mainstream media from only our point of view. If at all. If there happens to be a competitor from the US in the filed the focus is on that person no matter how little their performance matters to the event or overall or championship. I still maintain the best commentary example for any sporting event is the team of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen and their cycling racing commentary. If I were proposing to produce racing for US consumption I'd build a team like these two. they are not condescending but, informing and entertaining. Might have to look further than the usual shallow pond of talking heads. Greg White started off as another racer-turned yelling into the mic sideman, the networks seem to cultivate. He is growing into a more soft spoken and knowledgeable insider-view host. It is clear he loves the sport and enjoys his job and spending time with the participants. striking the balance between insider buddy and journalist will make the difference. I don't think you learn the trade of hosting these things in schools or overnight. You need good direction and a mentor. That mentor can't be the NASCAR yelling idiots. And the direction can't come from marketing.
For myself I totally agree with this but for the sponsors and manufactures they need some tv time. As with motogp I'd still watch via the subscription but the exposure is really limited to the "hardcore" fans with a subscription product. It's bizarre that the US has 3 rounds of motogp with such small exposure. I'd rather watch a 2nd British race at Donnington than the Indy GP.
Speed channel started off as a cool thing but went down hill. One off channels like that are pushed top make money and the stupid reality TV shows they had are cheaper than covering racing. It may bring in less views but still has a better margin. This I feel will be the eventual downfall of the cable companys. They have 800 channels you must pay for to get a few good ones and 99% of the stuff shown is completed shit. As time goes on Netflix, amazon, hulu, apple plus direct content like motogp.com will slowly take over. I cut cable last year and it was the best thing I never did. I can watch pretty much everything I want to see on Netfix, amazon and apple. I will admit that my parents have Comcast still and I use there xfinity online account to watch on demand over the web. Mostly to watch HBO and showtime. If those two would have a direct subscription service I would pay for it. As for racing now that Dorna owns WSBK it makes scenes to add them to their online offering as an upgrade or stand alone to the motogp.com account.
Actually, the "reality" shows got better ratings than the racing, which is why Speed said they went to that format. I had high hopes that the racing coverage would be on Speed2. I'd be willing to pay a subscription fee for real-time online race coverage, which wouldn't be that difficult to do, especially in the case of WSBK.
These links that I posted for WSBK are relevant for Moto GP, F1, and BSB. Only caveat; you will have to watch live. http://www.firstrow1.eu/ http://www.vipbox.tv On a good weekend, Eurosport goes back and forth between all (including STK and WSS) WSBK races and all BSB races. It is a racing junkies dream. You just won't get anything else done on one of those days. Make sure your popup blocker and adblocker are working and be smart.
BTW - Espargaro topped the Moto 2 test yesterday, Vinales stayed at the top in Moto 3. Ianonne will be at Jerez with the Ducati test team (presumably Pirro and Battaini) for three days, starting tomorrow.