ALMS viewing woes

[Lazy B'stard]

I just heard that the rest of the ALMS races will not be covered by Radio Le Mans. So, nothing on Motors TV, or Eurosport, or RLM. The only way you will be able to get coverage is the live streaming on the ALMS website, which anyone who watched Sebring last weekend will know, was frankly pants, with the commentary which ran behind what we were seeing on track, dodgy work from the producer (great ding dong battle in GT with two cars side by side,,lets cut to a pit interview with no sound!) and general poor quality streaming (which crashed for 70 minutes at one point). I also hear that the streaming wasn't available in the states!

Discuss

[Barry]

Money, the root of all evil I'm afraid. 

[geoffd]

Rubbish isn't it!

I've always enjoyed watching or listening to the ALMS.  RLM is always entertaining of course, and delayed highlights on Motors wasn't the end of the world, but I can't believe that the ALMS organisers think that they have made the right choice, with a series that is going to have to rely on the GT battles as the prototypes are pretty much non-existent this year, the manufacturers are going to think twice surely about funding teams in a series that doesn't appear on tv!  With no RLM coverage it also means no satellite radio either, christ they do know how to alienate their fanbase don't they!

Maybe internet coverage is the way forward, but not yet I don't think, and if it is then anyone offering the service needs a great deal of technical infrastructure to support it, which Sebring proved that they don't have yet!  And using a service that isn't available to all isp's in the states but allowing the rest of the world access via the ALMS website is just plain daft.

Let's hope that Scott Atherton and his team see the error of their ways, not just for us but for American enthusiasts too!

Good news for us in Europe though is that Motors are showing the first two LMS races,  bad news is that Sunday is Mothers day here, so it'll have to be highlights in the week for me 

[Boorish Grobian]

So much for the slogan "For the Fans"
I do wonder how much of the lack of proper TV coverage is a case of Speed TV not picking up the ALMS because of their affiliation with NASCAR and by default, Grand-Am, which is essentially a NASCAR series, bankrolled by the France family in much the same way George-Hulman money kept the IRL afloat.  But yes, this does suck.  The ABC broadcasts are absolute crap, they try to dramatize the event buy focusing on particular teams rather than just doing a straightforward recap of the race, and it usually ends up being laughable its so bad.
This isn't a good omen for fans of sportscar racing here in North America any way you look at it.  Looks like some races will be on ESPN2. which some of us actually receive, just hope its not the same garbage ABC spoons out.
Fax

[mgmark]

Reading the ALMS website, there appears to be a marvellous amount of believing their own bulls*t going on about viewing figures, success, blah etc. Google reveals plenty of useful opinions on various forums, including the RLM forum (which showed that they had got funding in place but have not been allowed to cover it, presumably as a result of an exclusivity deal).  

I for one have always enjoyed the coverage of the ALMS rounds on Motors TV or Eurosport, because I can't get across the pond to see it in the flesh and it is an amiable way to pass a significant chunk of a UK weekend with beer, my favourite motorsport fed live, an RLM commentary, and a feeling of connection to our cousins across the pond, whether watching Sebring and building up to Le Mans, or whichever round afterwards remembering it.  I imagine there are plenty of petrolheads in the US who do the same and who will equally rue the passing of Speed TV coverage.    

Internet streaming may be the way ahead of the future, but reading the blurb and checking the ALMS and ESPN3 websites (the latter on which I can only find reference to indigenous American sports at present) it seems the only way I would be able to do that in the future is a separate subscription to something on top of my broadband and Sky package. althougb it is  not clear if that is the case for those watching via the ALMS website. ..... I suspect I will, sadly, be forgoing that pleasure from now on. 

"For the fans" appears, sadly, to have an increasingly hollow ring to it, as sponsorship is based on marketing and viewing figures, but then I suppose also that public broadcasting and "free to air" have never been a great hit in the US.  I just hope that the ELMS and Le Mans proper do not suffer the same fate.   
     

MG Mark

[Lazy B'stard]

There is an interesting article on dailysportscar.com regarding the whole story behind it. It makes depressing reading. Its not just the ALMS either.... Eurosport got the rights to show the ILMC via the contract to cover this years LM24 and would not allow Motors TV to show any of the ILMC rounds (even though they wanted to show the races in full). Motors would be much better, they show most of the races. Most likely, all we will get with Eurosport is 30 minutes at the start, between babminton and golf and then an hour at the finish (and the last hour in most endurance races are pretty dull to watch as a general rule), followed by a highlights show at midnight a week later! Its hardly going to up the profile of the series is it?

 Then there is radio and the other internet feeds..Radio Le Mans had a deal in place to cover the ALMS races which the organisers backed out of at the last minute. Hindy and co will however do the comentary for the ALMS races shown on ESPN2 which will be a highlights show only. Sirius XM which also carried live streaming of the races around the world has also been shown the back door.

Even more depressing is how the organisers and broadcasters have spent the week after the race telling everyone how much of a success it was. They have their heads in the sand for sure. Look at the figures they put out for the number of hits on the live streaming for example......it crashed and went off for 70 minutes in the 4th hour, how many people tried several times to reconnect to get back on stream? So you can half that figure for starters. I had to log out and re connect at least 8 times during the race and I'm sure I was not the only one... as the marketing men would say 'Do the Math'.

The viewing figures for the highlights package in the states is a joke as well- a Tennis match that was being shown live over-ran by 44 minutes into the 60 minute slot for the scheduled highlights show which further distorts the viewing figures.

The ALMS is struggling at the moment. Yes the GT class is brilliant to watch but the LMP class is really lacking in depth. Will the balls up that is the TV rights encourage maufacturers and fans to get behind the ALMS?

 Answers on a very slippery slope please.

[Boorish Grobian]

Problem over here is that even when Speed TV had the rights to carry the ALMS, the TV ratings weren't great.  Sportscar racing is still very much a fringe sport in the US.  The ALMS has a hardcore fan base that will turn out in big numbers to see races live, but tend not to watch them on TV.  The only people attending Grand-Am races tend to be affiliated with the teams, and nobody watches them on TV.  Sportscar racing TV viewership numbers are dwarfed by other motorsports like NHRA drag racing and AMA Supercross.
The ALMS is going to struggle this summer, its essentially going to be a GT championship, with a few privateer prototypes honking around.
Most motorsport sanctioning bodies, and their competitors tend not to live in a world of reality.  The knit-wits that run Indycar, and participate in it, are still convinced that people actually give sh*t about their sport, when the attendance and TV numbers say otherwise.  And I'm afraid the people running the ALMS are about to fall into the same dillusional black hole.
Fax

[gturner]

It seems that ALMS always had this idea that they had to get on a bigger network for more exposure.  As a result they always put at least one or two races on CBS or NBC despite only being able to get a two hour time slot and no promotion on the part of the network.  With that in mind, I'm not surprised by this move too much and suspect it would have more to do with Speed not putting a few races on Fox rather than any NASCAR/Grand-Am issues.  I don't think having live coverage of every race on the internet is the right way to go (I still had dial up until a month ago, so I almost missed Sebring), but I do suspect that the hardcore fans will find a way, and since there are hardly any casual fans in the US, it won't hurt too much.

One positive is that I was pleasantly surprised that the ESPN3 feed had the Radio Le Mans commentators, since I knew that Speed wouldn't be giving up Leigh Diffey and, quite frankly, racing commentary in the US is horrible apart from the Speed F1 and sports car crews.

[Lazy B'stard]

So what future for ALMS races? Ditch the badly supported LMP classes and run the races just for GT class cars (as i think they are going to do in Europe next year in the LMS).

For the last few years the GT battles have been the highlight of ALMS. put them centre stage?

[geoffd]

So what future for ALMS races? Ditch the badly supported LMP classes and run the races just for GT class cars (as i think they are going to do in Europe next year in the LMS).

For the last few years the GT battles have been the highlight of ALMS. put them centre stage?

Not quite correct about LMS,  they are talking about running separately to the ILMC and dumping LMP1, and so attracting the private LMP2 entries, not dump LMP's altogether.

[Boorish Grobian]

As you mention, trying to get the major networks to buy into a two hour-forty five minute sprint race on a Sunday afternoon TV schedule isn't going to happen, especially when they're competing against MLB during the spring-summer, and even tougher, the NFL during the late summer-autumn.  I'm as commited a sportscar junkie as there is, and its tough for me to sit through a race on TV.  I'll sit & watch the races from the classic North American circuits (Road America, Mosport, etc.)  But I'm going to struggle to watch them scrabble between cement blocks in Baltimore.
Agreed about the motor racing commentators in the US, Varsha, Hobbs & Matchett are as good as it gets.  Diffey, Fish & Schrader are terrific as well.  But the rest of our lot?  Marty Reid is tolerable, but Scott Goodyear makes me want to stick a fork in my ears.  That clown dumbs everything down to the lowest possible factor.  "Hi everyone let me explain this peice of equipment, its called a tire, this goes around and the car rolls on it"....What a f**k*ng jackass!
And don't even get me started about the NASCAR morons.
Fax

[Lazy B'stard]

  From DSC.....

After a near disaster in terms of TV coverage of Sebring the American Le Mans Series have been mounting a recovery drive.

 

More of that we hope in the coming week or two but for now there’s good news for international TV audiences as a distribution agreement with ESPN International has been confirmed to deliver a one-hour ALMS race highlights programme to more than 160 million homes in 150 countries around the world beginning with this weekend’s Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach.  

 

In addition MotorsTV has reached an agreement for coverage in Europe of seven of the eight remaining races in the ALMS season (with the exception of Petit Le Mans which is subject to ILMC control).

 

With the deal coming to fruition very late in the day, coverage of this weekend’s Long Beach race will be held over and broadcast ‘as live’, next month.  The remainder of the races covered by the deal will be broadcast live on Motors.

 

“High-quality international digital and television distribution of our sport is vital to us,” said ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton. “We have an outstanding following of dedicated fans around the globe, and these commitments from both our new ESPN partner and one of our longest-running international television friends enable us to demonstrate our commitment to providing great sports car racing to our fans worldwide.”

[geoffd]

Yes, it does seem that they may have seen the error of their ways!

Thank God