Waning interest in V8SC

[Terry S]

I'm sure most people are aware of this, and there are many ways to quantify it.

May I suggest the number of views on Natsoft results service is a pretty objective basis, although by no means the only one.

Over the last weekend there have been 26,000 views of the Symmons Plains V8SC meeting as a whole.

Conversely there were 41,200 views of the Sandown round of the Symmons Nationals meeting over the same weekend.

So 58% more people were interested in Sandown than Symmons.

We will await Peckstar's excuses for this.....

[Alan52]

When the same clash occurred last year V8's won the view war 40,000 to 39,000.V8 views down a lot while Nationals views remained pretty constant.That should eliminate 1 or 2 excuses.

[GTRMagic]

Another amazingly positive, thoughtful thread...

[jiminee]

That is a terrible indicator - for one I could watch the V8s on TV live, I did not need to go looking for the results.
Two, I dont think people would automatically go to Natsoft for V8 results, probably preferring to go to the official website or team outlets on Facebook. However, Natsoft would most likely be the default go to for Nationals results.

[Alan52]

Some positive stuff then
1The Saturday race was much better than the farcical 2 x 60 format
2Crowd was up on last year.The big reduction in admission prices had an affect and should give V8SA pause for thought about doing similar elsewhere..
Now back to normal programming.

[dsg]

I think the bigger issue is the waning interest in the Natsoft results service. Is a 17.5% reduction in numbers the start of a downward spiral?

[blaarg]

Originally Posted by Alan52

Now back to normal programming.

normal programming, as in 'free to air'?

The true test will be when they walk away from the successful- touring car, v8 formula.

One has to wonder why Archer Capital are seeking to cash in their chips....

[Mixer]

General public doesn't know or care what Natsoft is. Pointless thread.

[Tourer]

The premise of this thread would be similar to suggesting that people no longer care about the weather as there are less using the B0M site but that (as this thread does) conveniently ignores that there are many other sources of that information than even a few years ago such as social media, various apps etc.

On top of that, Natsoft is a really good timing system and the Natsoft website is a great source of times set and the like but I wouldn't want to depend on it for results as there are sometimes changes or as the OP discovered on the weekend, errors on the Natsoft site through human error. It is also not a good source of getting the story behind each race and knowing what actually happened to particular teams or drivers.

When there are SO many more ways of getting results these days (social media is the biggest difference I would suggest) it is a complete fallacy to suggest that a decline in usage on one of many, many sources is an indication of waning interest.

[ford71]

I watch every qualy session and race (and now, every prac too) , and have done for years.

I've only ever used Natsoft a few dozen times, and that was for Friday prac sessions when they weren't available to me via Fox.

Edit - thinking back, its probably less than that because V8 site had Live timing working well for awhile there, which I preferred to use.

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Tourer

The premise of this thread would be similar to suggesting that people no longer care about the weather as there are less using the B0M site but that (as this thread does) conveniently ignores that there are many other sources of that information than even a few years ago such as social media, various apps etc.

On top of that, Natsoft is a really good timing system and the Natsoft website is a great source of times set and the like but I wouldn't want to depend on it for results as there are sometimes changes or as the OP discovered on the weekend, errors on the Natsoft site through human error. It is also not a good source of getting the story behind each race and knowing what actually happened to particular teams or drivers.

When there are SO many more ways of getting results these days (social media is the biggest difference I would suggest) it is a complete fallacy to suggest that a decline in usage on one of many, many sources is an indication of waning interest.

Are there really that "many, many sources" of detailed information on a race? By that I mean all starters and finishers, race time for each driver, fastest lap for each driver etc.

Perhaps you could care to mention some of these "many, many", but please be careful to compare like with like.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Terry S

Are there really that "many, many sources" of detailed information on a race? By that I mean all starters and finishers, race time for each driver, fastest lap for each driver etc.

Perhaps you could care to mention some of these "many, many", but please be careful to compare like with like.

Why would I (or anyone else) compare "like with like"? My point stands that there are many, many more sources of race results than used to be the case.

Now, I give you that not all of them, perhaps none of them list "all starters & finishers, race time for each driver, fastest lap for each driver etc" but there number of people who actually want that level of detail is small, the general fan base are looking to find out who won, how "their" driver or team went and not much more than that, same as any sport.

On the other hand, with less alternative sources of information on the Shannons Nationals, Natsoft is a convenient place to go for the results.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Tourer

On the other hand, with less alternative sources of information on the Shannons Nationals, Natsoft is a convenient place to go for the results.

Shannons Nationals audience is far more hardcore enthusiast, than V8Supercars. Cherry picking of facts at its finest.

It is really comparing an apple to an orange and deciding an orange is better because it has more seeds...

[Compromised]

Yeah not sure natsoft can be used as a marker of any sort. Should have used Archer big losses/trying to sell stuff to anchor your thread, far more meat on that bone

[Akrapovic]

I don't know if this means much, but from an outside perspective I cannot get interested in V8SC due to the coverage. Just advert filled nonsense.

The racing itself seems fine, although I don't think it appeals to an international market (not necessarily a bad thing. Aussies target Aussies - that's pretty sensible), but the coverage stops me watching it. Compare that to the live streams of SuperGT that are ad free on YouTube, and it's quite a difference.

Just my two cents, from a (very) outside perspective.

[Armco Bender]

Natsoft.......isn't that the stuff I shampoo my sheep with to make them all fluffy and cuddily.....

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

The racing itself seems fine, although I don't think it appeals to an international market (not necessarily a bad thing. Aussies target Aussies - that's pretty sensible), but the coverage stops me watching it. Compare that to the live streams of SuperGT that are ad free on YouTube, and it's quite a difference.

That's a commercial TV reality - Foxtel has no ads during the _actual races_ but has plenty of ads in between.

YouTube is hardly ad-free either, it has plenty of OBNOXIOUS ads even when your content has none. Pre-roll, pop-over, etc, very annoying.

I do wish V8s had kept control of their streaming rights but there are 241 million reasons they didn't.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Mixer

That's a commercial TV reality - Foxtel has no ads during the _actual races_ but has plenty of ads in between.

YouTube is hardly ad-free either, it has plenty of OBNOXIOUS ads even when your content has none. Pre-roll, pop-over, etc, very annoying.

I do wish V8s had kept control of their streaming rights but there are 241 million reasons they didn't.

This is commercial TV reality in Australia (and the US), but not Europe. We do not have KFC Zinger replays, or cut away from races to show wee special features about the races - something the last V8 race I watched had.

YouTube ads are device specific. If you watch YouTube through a games console or TV app, then you get the pre-video ad (30 seconds, skipable after 5) then after that there is no role-over of pop-ups. SuperGT and Blancpain both have live YouTube streaming with literally zero ads after the initial pop-up.

Again, this probably isn't a big deal about the Australian coverage. I'm only giving my view from the complete outside.

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Tourer

The premise of this thread would be similar to suggesting that people no longer care about the weather as there are less using the B0M site but that (as this thread does) conveniently ignores that there are many other sources of that information than even a few years ago such as social media, various apps etc.

On top of that, Natsoft is a really good timing system and the Natsoft website is a great source of times set and the like but I wouldn't want to depend on it for results as there are sometimes changes or as the OP discovered on the weekend, errors on the Natsoft site through human error. It is also not a good source of getting the story behind each race and knowing what actually happened to particular teams or drivers.

When there are SO many more ways of getting results these days (social media is the biggest difference I would suggest) it is a complete fallacy to suggest that a decline in usage on one of many, many sources is an indication of waning interest.

So there are "many other sources of that information " but you CANNOT name them. Is that not very poor to make a statement but not be able to back it up?

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Terry S

So there are "many other sources of that information " but you CANNOT name them. Is that not very poor to make a statement but not be able to back it up?

Really?

Facebook
Twitter
Speedcafe
V8Supercar website
Forums

Your argument flat out doesn't hold water.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Terry S

So there are "many other sources of that information " but you CANNOT name them. Is that not very poor to make a statement but not be able to back it up?

Really? It's not hard - to help you though, here are a few other sources for getting results:
Driver social media accounts
Team social media accounts
V8SC social media accounts
Broadcaster social media accounts
V8SC website
Speedcafe (and many other news outlet) websites
Speedcafe (and many other news outlet) social media pages
Forums
YouTube
Broadcaster news channels

No doubt I could come up with many more with a bit more though - this list took about 2 minutes or less.
Please note that it multiplies too - there are over 20 drivers (double that if you include co-drivers) for example.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Another amazingly positive, thoughtful thread...

Does this fit your criteria GTR?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/dataroom/v8s-supercars-are-racing-to-seven-as-archer-regrets-purchase/news-story/225d07817fd75344ebd028e20ed834d5

[Matt]

Methinks Terry is an older fellow who doesn't understand how social media works these days.

[Woolley]

And judging by a post in another thread, something of an issue with Natsoft.

Can't see there's any mileage in this discussion, closed.