IndyCar: St. Pete Race Discussion Thread

[CreamyCornCob]

I can't afford and the TV I have it's not worth the effort..........so I just wait days weeks whatever and why I dislike spoilers

Yup, thats what I thought. You cant afford even a TV so stealing is a-ok in your world.

 

[CreamyCornCob]

No I just made a short statement I get some of my series from torrents ....big deal !?
If someone goes and searches formula 1 2018 and finds races I am happy for them

You are the ones making something out of nothing and acting all self righteous

Are you done patting yourself on the back yet? Self righteous? Dude YOU were the one that started in on the piracy and torrent talk. Because YOU cant afford even a TV - we are the self righteous ones?
And you post a stupid Youtube link and something to do with piracy? Its NOT piracy - get it?

You'll just have to do your darndest and avoid the internet for weeks to avoid spoilers, as you say, to get your little torrent and "give back to the community" by increasing your seeding %. Good grief

 

[Ryno917]

As a swede, this will be the first season that I'll follow. Not only because of the two swedes in the championship (but yes, it is a big part of it) but also because for the first time since Bräck, I can watch it. They haven't showed Indy Car on Swedish channels/streams since Bräcks era, and now finally I can watch it without hassle and illegal methods (not a fan or pirating, I don't care if you guys do that, but I don't).

All of the 2018 races in full (minus the commercial breaks) are on Indycar's official YouTube channel. They were uploading them 5-8 days after the live airing last season.

On a side note, aren't you guys annoyed that the graphics with the time takes up ~25% of the screen? It feels really clunky and lots of wasted space. F1s and MotoGPs feels so much more clean and effective. Lots of just filler grey, the names and numbers are huge (but the numbers are hard to read on some) and why have a huge timing-screen far from the edges (~120 pixels from the right edge on a 1080 screen) down in the right corner? They really need to update their looks, this looks like worse than F1 did back in ~2001

God, yes. It's terrible. Far worse, though, is the sheer volume of commercials. It's insane. It's got to be at least 50% in some races these days.

I'd love to watch, however Canadian coverage of Indycar has moved from a regular cable channel (Sportsnet) to a prime cable channel, Sportsnet World, at 20$ a month. Needless to say, Canadian fans are really pissed off by this, because Indycar has always been on regular cable. This will be the first Indy season that I will only watch in parts, because some races will be on NBC, which we all get as part of our cable package. I already have a few streaming subscriptions (Netflix, DAZN, etc.), so I don't want to add yet another 20$ on top of all that.

I refuse to pay for cable, so all of my live race coverage comes from series/events that run a live stream (PWC, Bathurst 12hr, SuperGT via NISMOTV). I'd happily pay any series directly for live streams, too, like I did with the WEC when it was offered, but I will never, ever buy a cable package again. It's simply not worth it. In my area to get the channel that the Daytona 24hr was played on in Canada I'd have to pay $95 a month, and I'd be locked into 2 years. Not happening. Never, ever, again.

On that note, SportsNet announced today that they will be broadcasting a live stream of the season opener for free, so at least I get to watch this race live!

 

[Carlitox]

I'm just going to do some shameless promotion for my IndyCar skins for the VRC car, some of them already available at the AC Skins session and more coming soon, like this one. Spot the missing logo, and you'll know what's stopping me from releasing it

 

[wombat999]

TV coverage of most forms of Motorsport in Australia is appalling!
FOX started buying up everything some time ago and aside from some really bad presentation your 'Pay TV' subscription comes with as much advertising as the average FTA networks.
In an apparent move to placate the general public major events (Bathurst, AGP and MotoGP Australia) have been shown on the crappiest FTA Network in the country, a single hour of 'coverage' comprises 30 minutes of race action and 30 minutes of advertising, with the local 'presenters' being dumber than a bag of hammers.
I refuse to pay for FOX and have to put up with advertising, I gave up on ATV10 last year and I have simply shelved any scruples about downloading from 'other' sources.
Without advertising I'd ante up for a FOX subscription but as long as they continue on their present course I'll do the same.
I did watch the occasional NASCAR round but the interminable advertising throughout the coverage makes it unwatchable.

And I'm sad to have to wait for the Indycar series, most of the racing on road circuits is entertaining.

 

[TheGrunt]

I can't afford and the TV I have it's not worth the effort..........so I just wait days weeks whatever and why I dislike spoilers

NTT put all races up eventually here is last year at Pete

Except they won’t upload races this year because of the new TV contract with NBC, where they have the race replays on NBC Sports Gold.

 

[CreamyCornCob]

Except they won’t upload races this year because of the new TV contract with NBC, where they have the race replays on NBC Sports Gold.

Yup. And, durge went and edited his post hours after now to include this addition to St. Pete. Little to his unknowing, there are NO replays for indycar on Youtube in 2019. Perhaps he should have thought about that hours after he edited his post.

When indycars highest rated race last year got an embarrassing 0.3, you'd think they want more people to see the sport. Instead, the Hulman/Georges greed shines bright.

 

[Kenny Paton]

Yes it's sad so much motorsport (in fact so much sport) is now behind paywalls.
In the UK Formula E is being shown live on the beeb and highlights on FTA Quest.
Wise way to gain an audience until it becomes popular enough to attract the paywall brigade.
We're fortunate that ITV show the BTCC live with all support races.

 

[Mark Ratzenbacher]

I use VPN and torrents for F1, Indy, ama , sbk, motogp
By seeding 150% I am giving something back to community not taking

thats the same guy thats hammering against illegal mods ? Now watching streams illegally undermining geo-locations & actively distributing illegal torrents ? uff, thats a tough one Durge , no offense.

On topic, its really bad people have to reach to these techniques just to get first hand information about their favourite sports. We need more media-control laws, get rid of paywalls, regulate licencing for free-tv and finance the greater part from the sponsors who place ads on the cars, around the track on driver suits etc., etc..
If everybody wants the biggest part of the pie, its like crows picking out each others eyes...

Once i matured over F1 being the only existing motorsport (media-coverage could have made you think that in the 80´s), my interest stretched to all series. I just love motorsport and it has been getting better and better. IMSA live-streaming, the Bathurst races, just to name examples that i can watch free and legal now (think about it for a moment why, because i dont get it) havent been available for years.

In the EU they are currently adopting a directive on copyright infringement on the Internet. Ultimately, it will force the large platforms to charge even more for licences to meet their increasing costs of complying with these rules.

As long as money is around all these problems won´t get fixed. Idealism is not feeding the hungry stomach though.

I am poor and i just want to watch these races

 

[Will Mazeo]

But Hulman/George only care about making money.
Shame.

Well racing is business and when you have a business you are in it to make money, this is not charity.
I'd argue that all they care is about money tho, I mean.... Indycar only managed to break even in 2013 or 14 if I remember right, all years before that since the creation of IRL has been money loss and by huge amounts. If I was in their place I'd have sold this thing long ago lol
People take TV deals just too easy, sometimes the series have no choice, it's this or no TV deal. The fantasy that live stream can help a series survive is just... fantasy! Only series full of gentlemen drivers manage to get that and even then they may fail, see ALMS last deals.
Did you know WEC was forced to make their app paid? Nobody would give them a TV deal if the app was free and then a free app was not sustainable, you need to make money somehow you know... bills.

 

[TheGrunt]

Yup. And, durge went and edited his post hours after now to include this addition to St. Pete. Little to his unknowing, there are NO replays for indycar on Youtube in 2019. Perhaps he should have thought about that hours after he edited his post.

When indycars highest rated race last year got an embarrassing 0.3, you'd think they want more people to see the sport. Instead, the Hulman/Georges greed shines bright.

It is not that simple. Indycars head of marketing said in one interview that when they started negotiating for new TV contracts, many big main broadcasters and networks simply weren't interested in showing full season live races. Because of the changing media environment and people's way of consuming entertainment, many boradcasters are facing big budget cuts for their licensing and emphasis has been already for a while on regional sport leagues and series, which are still popular. There are simply far less interest in showing the Indycar and other motorsports than it was a decade or a two ago. For a relatively little known series like Indycar, which is gaining some sort of momentum also internationally, this is a big problem.
Besides, what I've so far read, fans are generally happy with the US based offering and where Indycar is seriously lacking is the international side of things where especially Canadians, Australians and parts Latin America were shafted badly (although there is apparently cooking something for Latins). Canada is exceptionally bad, because they have a race there and it is one of the main marketing areas of the series and Australia, because Indycar is considering returining there starting from the 2020 season.
I agree that Indycar was probably badly prepared for the negotiations of TV rights (sans US) and those few areas I mentioned would've needed more time and effort. I don't also know how much they used their main sponsors and engine suppliers as a help and leverage in the negotiations, because for sure manufacturers like GM and Honda want to see their brands presented as widely as possible.
Positive thing in this is that Indycar has stated that most contracts, which they think that don't offer enough coverage in their opinion, were made short term for 1 to 2 years. This means that in many areas now lacking, may be in much better situation in next season. Also, they have said that though they don't have plans (probably because of the lack of resources) starting own streaming service ála Nascar Trackpass, they are considering options for partnering one with some streaming provider, such as DAZN for example.
I also think that this round of negotiations was a big learning process for Indycar and hopefully they improve in the future, because series really needs visibility to keep the growth on.
I also think that it is a shame that so many sports gravitate towards different kind of premium subscription based services, but one cold fact is that those service providers are those who are in the first place interested in getting the rights for Indycar or many other sports. For example, there probably isn't any interest for big TV broadcasters to show european Soccer league matches in North America, because it is just not wise in the business sense. Series are shown instead in premium cable and stream services, whele those fans who really want to see them, are ready to shell the money to see them. This is just how the market works and Indycar can't ultimately change that.

 

[Filip Carlén]

All of the 2018 races in full (minus the commercial breaks) are on Indycar's official YouTube channel. They were uploading them 5-8 days after the live airing last season.

Yea, you could, but for me sports are a lot better live. I can't really explain why I feel that way, but watching a race a week after makes it feel much less fun. I also follow quite a lot of racing/rally media which report on these, so I often end up spoiling the results for myself

And for paying for cable isn't a problem in this case. Yes, it costs some, but Viasat owns the rights to V8 Supercars, F1, MotoGP, FIM Speedway GP and now IndyCar. So here, that is quite a good deal, and they have pretty okay streaming service included in the price, plus Swedish advertisement-laws are quite different from the US ones. Here, only 12 minutes per hour is allowed, and Viasat usually have none and instead are founded by customers paying and instead has commercials on their free channels.

 

[Carlitox]

We're fortunate that ITV show the BTCC live with all support races.

But outside the UK their copyright is guarded even harder than that of F1. I have no legal way of watching it, all of their content on their website, Twitter and Facebook is geoblocked, even the 1 minute highlights! Video re-uploads are swiftly killed, as are livestreams. If there's one brand tougher than F1 in copyright protection, it's the BTCC. I miss watching it.

 

[Kenny Paton]

If there's one brand tougher than F1 in copyright protection, it's the BTCC. I miss watching it.

And Codemasters still hold the game license.

 

[CreamyCornCob]

I mean.... Indycar only managed to break even in 2013 or 14 if I remember right, all years before that since the creation of IRL has been money loss and by huge amounts. If I was in their place I'd have sold this thing long ago lol

In 2017 Mark Miles was interviewed by Forbes. When the interviewer asked if the Indycar series was profitable, Mark Miles, without hesitation, said that it was not. https://www.forbes.com/video/4823576464001/

So no, up until 2017 the series has never been profitable. And 2018 had lower numbers of people walk through the gate and even lower tv ratings then 2017. And come 2020, per Robin Miller at Racer, the series will lose two more ovals.

 

[CreamyCornCob]

It is not that simple. Indycars head of marketing said in one interview that when they started negotiating for new TV contracts, many big main broadcasters and networks simply weren't interested in showing full season live races. Because of the changing media environment and people's way of consuming entertainment, many boradcasters are facing big budget cuts for their licensing and emphasis has been already for a while on regional sport leagues and series, which are still popular. There are simply far less interest in showing the Indycar and other motorsports than it was a decade or a two ago. For a relatively little known series like Indycar, which is gaining some sort of momentum also internationally, this is a big problem.

That is a falsehood that is expounded every year, that there is growth and momentum. There is none. If losing two more ovals in 2020, 18K in the stands, the indy500 sporting the LOWEST tv ratings in its history along with its highest race earning a 0.3 - the series is not enjoying this mythical 'momentum'.

And internationally? They are completely invisible. Theres some that think they are like CART - uh they're not even today .0001% of what CARTS international presence was.

Besides, what I've so far read, fans are generally happy with the US based offering

Um its exactly the opposite. Asking your loyal customers to Buy race tickets, Buy a cable package that supports NBCSN and watch on tv, buy memorabilia etc. They turn around and tell them "Go buy a Gold Package for $40-50". People are NOT happy and this step will ensure indycar falls farther into the unkown in the US.

 

[Tim O'Glock]

Race starts in 30min.

 

[Ryno917]

The sad reality of the matter is that racing fans are in the minority these days, and as a result our sport is harder to watch. That's just how it is.

 

[Will Mazeo]

In 2017 Mark Miles was interviewed by Forbes. When the interviewer asked if the Indycar series was profitable, Mark Miles, without hesitation, said that it was not. https://www.forbes.com/video/4823576464001/

So no, up until 2017 the series has never been profitable. And 2018 had lower numbers of people walk through the gate and even lower tv ratings then 2017. And come 2020, per Robin Miller at Racer, the series will lose two more ovals.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breakeven

 

[CreamyCornCob]

Use Mark Miles words. "it was not (profitable)". Absolutely nothing about breaking even. If he said the series was at least breaking even, he would have said that. He didn't.