World Endurance Championship - TV Coverage?

[tje23]

Firstly, I should probably make an apology - this may be elsewhere, but I can't find it if it is! However, does anybody know any information about coverage of the WEC/ELMS/ALMS in Europe this season. I can only assume it will be the typical mixture of strange Eurosport timing of WEC and delayed Motors TV coverage of ELMS/ALMS - which isn't bad, just not perfect! What do you want, and do you know anything about this?

[alexkiller8]

i guess that all races will be available in streaming in ACO site or audi.tv

[deggis]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

i guess that all races will be available in streaming in ACO site or audi.tv

I guess too. There is already a WEC channel at Dailymotion (the place for the ILMC streams last year).

http://www.dailymotion.com/fiawec

[Speed-King]

Failymotion you say?

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Failymotion you say?

DailyMotion: The images move once a day.

That's ok though. You can make your own WEC TV coverage at home. Just fire up RLM and print this image up and tape it to your TV screen. You really won't be missing anything. Of course, that is assuming that RLM isn't using DailyMotion to call the races. If that's the case, you may get several hours of Graham Goodwin interviewing Dagys about the quality of the local KFC and McDonald's. Those discussions are more interesting than you may think though!

[alexkiller8]

even if dailymotion won't work for some reason, if an event will have the eurosport coverage for sure some channel streaming will be available in justin.tv or similar sites, so don't worry about that. The problem will be LMS races that surely won't have a television broadcast that simply means that the only way to watch it is to be there on person.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

The problem will be LMS races that surely won't have a television broadcast that simply means that the only way to watch it is to be there on person.

I thought ELMS will be on Motors TV this year. Granted, that did not work out so well last year.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by AGD

I thought ELMS will be on Motors TV this year. Granted, that did not work out so well last year.

According to Motors they will have it live, along with the ALMS.

Full list of what they show here:
http://www.motorstv.com/sitemap-and-services

Seems they are stepping up their game for 2012. Blancpain, Grand-Am, Nationwide Series plus the only place seemingly to watch WRC this year. Fair play to them.

An employee on their twitter account also said they would be showing Sebring. I'll believe that when I see it but I really hope it's true.

[chernaudi]

Of course, there's no news on WEC coverage--I'd assume that the EU would get it on Eurosport, but I think that NA will be in the dark aside from Sebring (ESPN on ALMS contract) and Le Mans (Speed LM24 contract).

If World Wide Coverage is what Audi and Toyota were hoping for (so they wouldn't have to run in the ALMS to reach an American audience), they're probably disappointed unless at least Speed gets the nod to air tape delayed races, which isn't great, but that's the price to pay for NASCAR dominating in America, and F1 in Europe (and F1 is about the only thing that Speed forsakes NASCAR coverage for, along with Le Mans).

Best chance for serious coverage might be Audi TV or if Toyota gets something similar up by Spa.

[Acid09]

I'm pretty sure the manufacturers (and especially Audi who aren't exactly new to the scene) know very well that endurance racing is a hard product to sell on TV so I don't really think they had spectacular expectations to begin with.

It will most likely be on Eurosport which does a fine job covering the races. The key is the internet, the official stream was a good idea and so are the manufacturer websites. As technology improves these streams will get better and better and will be a good compliment to the TV coverage.

Flag to flag coverage on TV for all rounds is just not reasonable, I think 3hrs on Eurosport each race + streams is a fair deal. As long as Le Mans is fully covered everything's all right.

Regarding the US, it's hardly the WEC's fault that there is not enough interest in sports car racing to warrant tv coverage. If you look at the horrible TV coverage the ALMS is getting despite being a national series and having much shorter races, I really don't see how anybody could expect a mega TV deal for 6hr races... the interest just isn't there.

But I'm sure it's somehow the ACO's fault that Bob in Iowa doesn't care about sports car racing enough..

[Simmi]

I really hope the ACO has looked at the streaming issues from last season and has actually made plans to rectify them. Now that may be asking far too much of them, but we've seen through the Dubai 24hr streaming that there is the technology out there to make these things work reliably.

We also know it's not as if the ACO streams are struggling due to the number of people trying to view them. Unfortunately for them that just isn't the case.

[Acid09]

The entry list presentation stream was a mess, yes. Silverstone & Zhuhai worked flawless for me though.

[Mal]

It would be good to see it on the new sky f1 channel in the UK as that will otherwise be off air during WEC weekends

[adam46]

As much as I love that thought it's the F1 channel, plus it's not as if they won't be airing anyhting when F1 isn't actually on, there will probably be loads of race replay's, GP2/GP3 and round table discussion stuff like one they did for the main Sky Sports channels last year.

Plus I don't think Bernie E would approve of ACO stuff on F1 TV.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by adam46

Plus I don't think Bernie E would approve of ACO stuff on F1 TV.

Neither do I ..... sportscars are much more fasinating and deserve a channel of their own

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by Simmi

According to Motors they will have it live, along with the ALMS.

Full list of what they show here:
http://www.motorstv.com/sitemap-and-services

Seems they are stepping up their game for 2012. Blancpain, Grand-Am, Nationwide Series plus the only place seemingly to watch WRC this year. Fair play to them.

An employee on their twitter account also said they would be showing Sebring. I'll believe that when I see it but I really hope it's true.

The team at Motors TV all deserve medals.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Acid09

I'm pretty sure the manufacturers (and especially Audi who aren't exactly new to the scene) know very well that endurance racing is a hard product to sell on TV so I don't really think they had spectacular expectations to begin with.

The ALMS partners know that if they want quality TV coverage, they are going to have to pay for it to make it happen. Fortunately, Porsche NA, Corvette, Michelin, Yokohama, and a few others make things happen. I guess WEC partners aren't so willing, but buying airtime across the globe probably isn't an easy or desirable task.

Regarding the US, it's hardly the WEC's fault that there is not enough interest in sports car racing to warrant tv coverage. If you look at the horrible TV coverage the ALMS is getting despite being a national series and having much shorter races, I really don't see how anybody could expect a mega TV deal for 6hr races... the interest just isn't there.

But I'm sure it's somehow the ACO's fault that Bob in Iowa doesn't care about sports car racing enough..

Grand-Am has most of their races live on TV. Ok, that might be because of who Grand-Am knows and not because of the racing demand itself. Still, it's not like the ACO is helping the ALMS pull any strings with the media here. Maybe it helped them get on Motors in Europe, but the ACO does not seem too keen on Motors.

Originally Posted by Acid09

Silverstone & Zhuhai worked flawless for me though.

Zhuhai was a mess. You must have been the only one who did not have problems then. DailyMotion was on and off all race long, one of the Audi streams died midway through and I don't think it ever came back. There was a more obscure Audi stream that still worked though. I don't know about the Peugeot stream, but the Peugeot stream wasn't worth much anyway. Who wants to see constant video of some French woman who makes Danica Patrick look well endowed pulling camera cable and eating sandwiches for many minutes during the race?

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Of course, there's no news on WEC coverage--I'd assume that the EU would get it on Eurosport, but I think that NA will be in the dark aside from Sebring (ESPN on ALMS contract) and Le Mans (Speed LM24 contract).

ILMC highlights were supposedly on Speed2, Speed's Internet ISP subscription channel. Of course, Speed2 is completely useless. Very few ISPs subscribe to it and it's not well publicized. It makes ESPN3 look like ABC in comparison. More people probably watched ILMC highlights on RacefansTV (or whatever the new name of it is) than on Speed2. Perhaps WEC highlights will be on those Internet outlets again this year though.

[stuart thompson]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

The team at Motors TV all deserve medals.

All we need is Motors HD and the world would be perfect.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by AGD

The ALMS partners know that if they want quality TV coverage, they are going to have to pay for it to make it happen. Fortunately, Porsche NA, Corvette, Michelin, Yokohama, and a few others make things happen.

Quality TV coverage? The ALMS? When? 2008?

There have been countless of angry articles about the bad quality of last year's ALMS broadcasts, nothing about their stuff has been thigh quality ever since they got booted by SPEED.

The Eurosport broadcasts are Emmy-worthy in comparison.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Quality TV coverage? The ALMS? When? 2008?

There have been countless of angry articles about the bad quality of last year's ALMS broadcasts, nothing about their stuff has been thigh quality ever since they got booted by SPEED.

The Eurosport broadcasts are Emmy-worthy in comparison.

Surely this post is meant to be a joke. The ALMS will have about half of their races live on a premier sports network. The Mid-Ohio ABC race may be a joined in progress deal, but I think the others are live in full. The others get next day highlights. Obviously highlights of the enduros won't satisfy the handful of diehards, but I think 1.5-2 hour highlights on a good network works for most casual fans. Expecting someone with only a mild interest to watch something for 6 hours straight on a weekend day/evening isn't going to net great results I don't think. Showing 2 hours of the most relevant action works better. Live look-ins like Eurosport has for some/most of the races is a very disjointed way of following a race unless you watch the rest through other means (which probably only diehards do).

The biggest problems the ALMS has is that A) the international live Internet stream is seemingly unreliable and B) some US viewers (like myself) can't see the ESPN3 stream because their ISPs don't subscribe to ESPN3. As for A, the ACO's web streams aren't exactly reliable either. At least the ALMS archives the streams so they can be seen later on in full or one can watch the racing action on Motors or one of the other international channels that carries the races. As for B, well, there's no excuses for that. That is a problem that needs to be taken care of.

As for the production of the races, the ALMS wins that competition against the ILMC/ELMS hands down. The ALMS actually shows racing action in all the classes. The ACO shows, well, Ullrich's forehead. Some of the sponsored segments on the ALMS broadcasts can get trite and annoying, especially when Fehan is talking, but that's the price that is paid when partners buy the airtime.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

All we need is Motors HD and the world would be perfect.

...and a way to subscribe to it via satellite in Germany.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Quality TV coverage? The ALMS? When? 2008?

There have been countless of angry articles about the bad quality of last year's ALMS broadcasts, nothing about their stuff has been thigh quality ever since they got booted by SPEED.

The Eurosport broadcasts are Emmy-worthy in comparison.

I find it funny how people wax lyrical about Speed. When was the last ALMS race shown live in its entirety by Speed?
By the way, a few days ago I've watched a VHS-rip of Sebring 12h '99, apparently SpeedWorld didn't show the later part of the race and returned just 8 minutes before the finish to cover the battle to the flag. And why did they interrupt the coverage of Sebring 12h the coverage way before the darkness? I'm not joking here, it was for Women College Basketball That's right up Eurosport's alley with their famous 'Unknown Sport'.

[TF110]

I'll be tuning into Justin.tv surely if it's not shown live on the net on an official site. I really hope Toyota broadcast onboard's or something. I don't want to see Audi.

[chernaudi]

Speed showed the LM24 live flag to flag with pre- and post-race shows in 2001. Since then, due to Speed's NASCAR commitments, coverage has ranged to be about 14-16 hours total for LM.

Speed usually showed the Sebring12 for about 9-11 hours in the past, and in '09 and '10, Speed showed PLM from flag to flag, with pre- and post race shows.

But there in lies the problem--to get endurance races on live TV, let alone significant live coverage, the sanctioning body and race promoters have to shell out big bucks, and that doesn't work for sportscar racing unless the big factories and sponsors do a lot of the shelling out of cash--one of the complaints of Audi for the ALMS (over whether Audi AG or Audi of America should pay what there) and I believe that Audi and Peugeot complained about that to the LMS a few years ago.

A lot of this is money, and it's balancing that with who'll pay for what and spend how much and trying to get the best bang for the buck. But the ironic thing is that the ACO partnered with the FIA, which since Jean Todt came on board has become heavily America-centric, with the goal to help promote the WEC. It's slightly odd that Todt, who wants the WEC to succeed, having witnessed the 1992-'93 melt down of the previous incarnation of the series personally along with his interest in American racing and promoting the FIA in NA, and the FIA can't really get momentum to get a good media package for NA.

[NightStalk3r]

just seen the advert on Motors TV listing the events for March and they list Sebring as live.