Since the ALMS wasn't able to work out a deal with SpeedTV, coverage this year has been a joke. You can either watch truncated "amature hour" coverage on ABC a day to a week later, or jump trough hoops with shady feeds, or you're lucky enough to be in the 10% of the population who's TV provider has ESPN3.
I didn't realize 53 million homes, plus 21 million college students and military personnel was 10% of the US (roughly 310 million). All the major Internet providers carry it, plus many small, local companies, like my own Frankfort Plant Board. I don't know the exact number of individuals but even if we assume every home only has one individual that puts ESPN3 availability at 74 million people. According to
this article from June, Speed is available for 78 million viewers.
I think it is only a big loss for the small handful that are on an Internet Provider that doesn't carry it.
What a way to alienate their fans. That Scott Atherton can bill this as "great thing' and do it with a straight face, is a joke.
As someone who does get ESPN3 I do feel that the ESPN3 coverage is a great thing. It has been the best coverage I have seen of ALMS since its inception, purely because the endurance-length races aren't interrupted by crap like NASCAR testing and reruns of Pinks. Speed was, and is, a poorly mismanaged network for any series not associated with NASCAR. Add in that I can still pull up ESPN3 and watch Sebring in full even now that the series is over and I definitely feel this is the better way to go for this.
I feel that what we are seeing here is the early stages of where TV is headed for the future. I know people that have canceled cable/satellite for Netflix and Hulu. Today ABC News
announced a new partnership with Yahoo News that will result in online special features. Anyone who watches The Daily Show on Comedy Central is probably getting familiar with "the rest of this interview will be online." And Speed themselves is launching their own online channel to cover all the things that they can't on TV. I won't deny there are some issues for the ESPN3 coverage, but those are basically the growing pains of the evolution of TV. If ALMS had stayed with Speed they may have very well put them on Speed2, making the coverage no different than what we have now. Although they only list four providers for Speed 2 right now, so it is actually available to far fewer than ESPN3.
Really? The only other way to watch it "officially" is on ESPN3.com and thats exclusive to the states, so being in Canada I can't get that, and the only other option I have if I want to watch it on TV(I hate sitting at the computer for hours on end watching stuff) is the 2 hours ABC is covering, of a 10 hour race? that sucks!
I don't know what your setup is at home, but depending on your TV and PC you could probably have your PC playing out to your TV for $15 or less worth of cables and/or adapters. My TV accepts an SVGA plug, so I could even set it up for a couple of dollars.
Anyway, I had a blast at the race and got to meet Lucas Ordonez. He was an incredibly nice guy, and a pleasure to meet.
However, I do believe that I see the main problem that ALMS has to overcome. Driver recognition. My friend and I were in the paddock and I saw Lucas Luhr in the pits and I pointed him out. My friend had a blank look. I asked if he had any clue who I was talking about and he said, "What car does he drive?" Then while checking out the cars on the grid I overheard two guys talking and one noted the driver names on the side of a Ferrari and mentioned he was looking for someone else's car. The guy next to him said, "To be honest, I don't know anything about these drivers. I just care about what they drive." That really nagged at my brain for a bit. As I was looking at the cars I heard Lucas Ordonez doing an interview in the press box and so didn't attempt to look for him. As they began asking us to clear the track I noticed that some of the drivers had made their way to the cars. Some people were talking to them, but most walked by without a second glance. While walking wby the Signatech Nissan I say Vernay talking to some girls and decided to look for Lucas. He was sitting on the pit wall, talking to someone with the team, and no one was around him. I went up and wished him luck and mentioned I was a member of GTPlanet and we were all cheering him on and he happily had a conversation with me and the guy he was with even took our picture together. When I walked off he hopped back onto the pit wall and no one else looked his way. I couldn't help but feel that if this were NASCAR I wouldn't have been able to get near him for all the people trying to get autographs.
I think they need to tell the drivers' stories a bit better. Otherwise, everyone just cares about Porsche vs BMW. And to be honest, the kind of guys that will sit around and have fanboy arguments, as if the guy behind the wheel has nothing to do with it, is a douche. I know the drivers and the team owners as much as I know the manufacturers. But it seems there are way too many people that just care about the cars. It reminds me of the failed XFL, which tried to compete with the NFL, but let guys put their nicknames on their jerseys and paid more attention to making it hard-nosed than making the story of the game. No fans had specific players they cared about. ALMS has a similar problem and they need to find a way to make fans continue to cheer on someone like Chris Dyson when his team switches from Porsche to Mazda.
I am a fan of Allan McNish and Audi, but without them in the series I was still pulling for Lucas Luhr in the Aston Martin. Had I cheered on car brands alone I would have likely been cheering on the Mazdas. Similarly, once it was clear Audi was out I was cheering for Team Oreca, because I have fond memories from their Viper days.
Anyway, as the series grows its fanbase the fans are becoming more car-centric, and that could spell disaster if certain teams or manufacturers were to leave.
Anyway, I have a lot of pictures to sort through but for now I will leave you with a couple of all the free swag I got and one of myself with Lucas Ordonez.
Everything is freebies, except for the toy VW Bus. I bought that for my daughter. She loves cars and at 19 months I thought that would be easiest for her to hold. I handed it to her when I got home and her face just lit up.
And the poster Audi was handing out.
And myself with Lucas Ordonez.
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