[LM24] Television & streaming & Shirt

[billy bleach]

Well it didn't take the WEC feed crew of Addison, McNish, Turner and Gavin long to figure it out. A quick look at the pit stop cycles soon pointed to fuel or Battery so when batteries were not changed the game was up really..I found the Eurosport commentary painful and kept their visual whilst alternating between RLM and WEC audio.

[S griffin]

Anyone else notice when Frijns was going through all the problems he had during the race, TK then pointed out he won? Reminds of that famous Fry and Laurie sketch!

[Greem]

I flicked between the RLM and Eurosport audio while watching the race breaks between the interminable ads on Eurosport.

I thought that Jake Sansom and Charlie Richardson did a pretty good job for their first time at Le Mans, Charlie's racing brain was useful in terms of strategy.

[The Fat Clerk]

I found the Eurosport commentary painful and kept their visual whilst alternating between RLM and WEC audio.[/QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more, within 10 minutes of watching on Wednesday night I'd turned the volume off and was getting the Laptop set up for RLM.

[chernaudi]

Unfortunately, Discovery owns Eurosport and that's who they had Motor Trend source for their commentary (video feed was controlled by the ACO and French TV). I believe that the deal that the ACO have Discovery for LM and the WEC and Motor Trend have their own web streaming app is why (or a big part why) the WEC app is geoblocked in North America.

It's like back in the Audi R10 days where people watching LM in NA when it was on Speed Channel complained about the coverage (I liked their commentary, but their NASCAR coverage commitments due to being owned by Fox Sports butchered LM coverage). However, when people from NA asked about Motors TV back then from people in Europe, the European fans often said that they would rather have had Speed's coverage, not just with Eurosport, but even Motors TV.

IMO, Discovery need to bite the bullet, and either stream video and commentary from the WEC app or at least rely on RLM for commentary, but I doubt that'll happen until either Eurosport loses rights to European coverage for LM or the ACO move the LM24 and WEC away from Discovery/Motor Trend in NA, though, realistically, where else would they go? Motor Trend is the only option to show most of the race right now on TV in NA. NBC Sports is dying and will be largely replaced by NBC's/Comcast's Peacock streaming service. ViacomCBS won't block out 25+ hours of coverage on CBS Sports Network, or shuffle it between like CBS SN and MTV (granted, last things I'd watch on MTV were Eye Candy and Beavis and Butt-head, and they haven't shown much anything directly music related in like 20+ years, anyways). And Fox Sports will butcher coverage by moving it between FS1 (formerly Speed Channel) and FS2 (formerly Fuel).

The ACO can give up on cable and satellite TV and just stream it on the internet, and make it available for smart TVs or streaming devices like Roku or Amazon Fire, but I don't think they will any time soon. Motorsports in general seem to be stuck on trying to make network TV and/or cable and satellite TV work, though it's all declining due to streaming and the use of smart TVs and computers to watch TV now. IMO, it's sort of like when Netflix blew up whey they moved towards streaming instead of just being a DVD on demand service, and Blockbuster Video died out except for one location in Oregon. Blockbuster just got on the DVD by demand and steaming stuff too late, and paid for it.

[seanyb505]

So uh, Motortrendondemand had the Bonus World feed, which was WEC comms. I used it all race long.

Not sure what options were on traditional TV, but in today's age it's too easy to get something from a phone or computer to show on a TV screen.

[chernaudi]

IMO, WEC app needs to be available in NA on smart TVs or stuff like Roku or Amazon streaming. Is Motor Trend OnDemand avialble on smart TVs or streaming devices? I'm of the opinion that it's bullcrap to have to use two devices to get the footage and commentary that I want. Doesn't help, either, that I'm seemingly the only person in the western world who doesn't have a mobile phone, and I don't feel like lugging a laptop in my space restricted living room to watch. And I prefer not to run my laptop for 25+ hours straight if I can avoid it.

[seanyb505]

Well a lot of that is unfortunate. But the exact thing you want to watch is available to you. A lot of different ways.

[broadrun96]

Setting restrictions that would limit how the service is designed to be used is 100% a you problem and modern distribution has left your preferred consumption behind, and it's not going back. Surprised it has not been attacked get given the power, and cooling, needs of our streaming demands but we pick and choose our CO2/energy battles on personal comfort sometimes. I choose not to pay for the Motor Trend app as a me thing, but that's because last time I did they charged me every day for 11 days for a new subscription. It was refunded but an annoyance. And RLM with Motor Trend TV through YouTube TV was fine for me as I was not 100% paying attention.

That said, for US market watch for the holiday and Father's Day annual subscription and it's been 10 bucks at times for the year. Now the app has been improved and is finally somewhat stable, last year it was BAD.

[Mal]

I have just watched F1 reporter, Will Buxton's film about his First experience of Le Mans on motorsport.tv ... I have to Say it captures the Le Mans spirit as well as any film I have seen ...

[Adam43]

*bump*

I can see the listings on Eurosport, but only when I search for it. But it is there. Woo.

Anyone know of a decent link to the full schedule?

[Graham Goodwin]

I can add here that we will be broadcasting all Free Practice sessions on LM24 TV plus both Road To Le Mans races and the second Ligier European Series race

Eurosport and MTOD will be taking our commentary this year

[Adam43]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Aysedasi]

Darn it, I won't be at home to watch it this year...........

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Darn it, I won't be at home to watch it this year...........

Strangely enough i will not be home to watch it either, see you in France Andrew

[Adam43]

[S griffin]

I assume Quest will show parts of the race again?

[Gingers4Justice]

Noticeable step up in quality in the official streaming/social media presence this year. Seemed to have ditched royalty-free musac in favour of more poppy/charty stuff, which whilst I don't personally care for does make the whole thing feel a lot less cheap.

A lot of decent footage from scrutineering too. Seems like someone's given the camera workers new toys to play with.

[crooky]

Presumably there's no TV coverage or a stream of the Test Day?

[XtC24]

No, I guess there never was.


Live timing on WEC site is not working for me.
Now I found, that this one works:


https://live.24h-lemans.com/en/live

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by crooky

Presumably there's no TV coverage or a stream of the Test Day?

Only radio.

[GT6]

Seems very strange that now it is all compressed into 8 days they could not put the camera's in for test day

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by sceptic

Only radio.

Same as last year.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by GT6

Seems very strange that now it is all compressed into 8 days they could not put the camera's in for test day

Currently they put in some cameras on Tuesday (approx 16), and take them out on Sunday. They are effectively paying for those for 6 days.

Other cameras (another 20 approx) aren't put in until Friday. Those are only charged for 3 days.

So the number of camera days they are paying for is 156.

To do test day coverage, they would have to put cameras in on Saturday. That's a 9 day hire.

Given the budget isn't likely to rise, that means fewer cameras at other points in the race week.

To maintain full coverage of the track during the race, you'd have to drop down to 8 cameras. So the already patchy coverage on Wednesday and Thursday would get even worse.

[Adam43]

Why don’t they put in those 16 cameras for the test day? I mean it would only be 1 camera per person who’d watch.