Is there a TV deal at all??!!

[touringlegend]

This decision was meant to be announced 2 weeks ago wasn't it, put of to last week and still no news yet? It's obviously proving hard to get one sorted out if its taking this long.

Is there going to be one at all, which would be a massive blow to the BTCC.

[Guy Goddard]

The deal is in a fragile state from what I have been told, Sky T.V an option.


Regards



Guy

[touringlegend]

nasty, that isn't good at all. Guy, why would they tell the teams that?

I have got Sky, but many haven't so I'd rather it goes to C4, ITV or C5

[MrTTraces]

I hope it doesn't go to sky.

If it does they are shooting themselves in the foot because they are missing out on a good audience.

[Paul Rayner]

I would rather TOCA went crawling back to the BBC than lost it to Sky. If I was a major manufacturer I wouldn't be happy, and as a spectator I wouldn't be happy. Channel 5 should be a last resort (only because not everyone can get it), but they could really do good, same day, PRIME TIME, coverage, in the Motorsport Max slot (although a bit longer).

But rumours are pointless. Rockingham was rumoured to be on the calendar for next year, and it was rumoured that Formula Ford was going to be on the TOCA package, but still nothing's been confirmed. Everything will be sorted in a week. Just nobody knows which week.....

[Eddie_harasym]

It certainly is concearning and would be a big blow to the series.

Surely the propostion of screening the BTC would be on many TV compaines wish list, wouldn't it?

Maybe there just keeping us all in suspense though

[Jonny Apex]

Five packs of cigarettes says Richard West walks sooner rather than later

[Eddie_harasym]

Originally posted by Jonny Apex
Five packs of cigarettes says Richard West walks sooner rather than later

Is that walks or talks?

And why only five packs may aswell gto for a full 200

[Stephen Green]

Channel 5 wouldn't be that bad. Those who can't receive it in the normal terrestrial manner can always get it via Sky (like me). Channel 5 also needs to get a few decent things under it's belt to attract new advertisers. Remember how Channel 4 struggled for years?

[MJB RETURNS]

is this the end??????? anything could happen. i never guessed that honda would return,so u never know. maybe some teams are helping out.you olny look at bad news when it comes! n0t before

[Jonny Apex]

MJB - has Honda returned? we were talking about this the other day and it was agreed it was just wishful thinking based on rumours in the press. I think Proton is all we're going to get ...

[rdjones]

Both Honda and Proton are confirmed for next year, but know drivers are confirmed yet.

As for the TV I can not see the BTCC ending up on Ch 4 next season, the reason for this is Cricket, most BTCC race take place over the summer, as dose cricket and as C4 have the rights to show England home test matchs, they will not be able to show the BTCC aswell.

Also they have the rights to the WRC next year aswell and with them showing the last stage on a Sunday live, again the BTCC would not be able to be shown live on a Sunday.

But if it did end up on C4 and there were to be live races, I would like to see the meeting from Donnington, Brands and Silverstone shown live as these are the meetings where the BTCC is sharing top billing with F3 and the British GT's.

I have a feeling that the BTCC will end up on either ITV, the races will be live on the ITV sport channel and highlights on ITV1 the weekend after the race. As for C5 I think they are out of the running.

[touringlegend]

A smal article which interested me yesterday was that BSkyB and ITV have signed a deal for ITV1, ITV2 and ITV Sporty Channel to be shown on Sky.

If ITV Sport Channel isn't a subscrisption channel the comnined ratings between ITV Digital and Sky Digital would surely make up something respectable.

[redshoes]

Vauxhall and Proton are confirmed, nothing from Honda yet. Regardless of who gets the deal you can forget live coverage, TOCA don't want it, at least not for now.

[Eddie_harasym]

mmm, that is interesting, ITV on Sky,more price rises ahead I suspect

[Stephen Green]

The ITV/Sky deal has been on the cards for ages. Let's be honest, how many ITV digiboxes have been sold compared to Sky? If ITV want their second channel and Sports channel to work, they have to tie in with Sky.

[Takuma]

In view of the radidly declining quality of the product provided over the last 3 years, the "toca" organisation made a big mistake demanding a fixed time slot from the BBC. It would have been better for the series to have remained on the BBC, even with a "floating" time slot, as the BBC still has the highest viewing figures for its sports programming.

The TOCA leadership were very sadly misguided if they thought that the BBC would drop or interupt live coverage of major events live the Wimbledon Final or the Open Golf championship to show btcc highlights, however much some people here love the btcc, in the real world it is only a minor sporting series. Also the tv rights contracts for many events specify exactly how and when an event should be shown, eg the radio rights for F1 insist that the race has to be covered in full without and with restrictions on the time of any interuptions into the coverage.

Just trying to make a sensible realistic contribution to the discussion, though I have no doubt i'll be subjected to mindless vitriolic flame attacks!

[Stephen Green]

I very much hope that you don't get such replies!

The points you made were thought out and very vaild, just ignore anyone who starts to be stupid.

Stephen.

[Jonny Apex]

rdjones: Honda have never announced they're coming back in. Maybe some team said it was hoping to come up with its own version of a Honda, but that is not a factory effort

Takuma: bloody well said

I now say TEN packs of cigarettes says Richard West walks sooner rather than later

[Eddie_harasym]

Originally posted by Jonny Apex


I now say TEN packs of cigarettes says Richard West walks sooner rather than later

I have alot of ciggies availble, why not make it 20 packs

[MJB RETURNS]

can we bet vodka cos i dont smoke! we will find out soon whats gonna happen!

[Herminator]

I'm new to this subject, and didn't even know until now that there was a problem with the TV rights. I'm not suprised though,the BBC's coverage is useless. It's on irregularly, often at the same time as the live F1 on ITV, and they never give it the time it deserves. Ok a regular time slot may be a bit too much to ask but what about a semi regular time slot, with a good amount of coverage every second week, with maybe a couple of live events every year. By semi regular I mean it could be moved for big events like Wimbledon. They give loads of coverage for golf when it can be a case of watching loads of different people just hitting balls along the same holes again and again, it would be much better to have updates in a sport like that rather than three whole days of coverage, whilst touring cars strugles to get 45mins every two or three weeks.

[MJB RETURNS]

my brain must of told u to say that.well said!

[touringcarnut]

Just what i was thinking as well Herminator, the BBC showed us this year what its priorities were, and i can safely say they were not the BTCC!!!!

[Takuma]

The prority for any broadcaster is to provide the best viewing figures, within it's chosen market segment, for it's output, obviously in the BBC's case there is also a "Public Service" factor.
As popular as the btcc is with members of this forum, it is a minor event when compared to some of the other sporting events on offer.

In a year that has world cup soccer, played in a "difficult" time zone for broadcasters(probably meaning that full match replays will be needed in the afternoon sports programs) the comonwealth games in Manchester, for which the BBC is "host broadcaster, a postponed Ryder cup plus all the usual sporting events the BBC is commited to broadcasting, it would be almost impossible for the BBC to have committed to giving the btcc a "fixed" time slot. Indeed it's highly unlikely that given the weakness of the product on offer that any terrestrial station would be willing to meet the desires of the btcc management.

Broadcasting rights contracts often contain clauses about way an event is transmitted and what interuption, if any are allowed into that coverage. It is highly likely that the BBc, C4 etc actually have leagly binding contracts in place that would make it impossible to give any other events a fixed time slot.

The experience of other sports is that when they remove themselves from "mainstream" terrestrial tv that the interest in the sport actually declines, leading toi a loss of sponsorship and other income.

Surely it is the duty of the btcc leadership to ensure that the series is presented to the most possibele viewers and that the product on offer is actually attractive to broadcasters.

It would seem that this is not currently the case.

Just trying to make a sensible contribution to the debate, however I expect the vitriolic flames are already on route!