LMS & Le Mans to be on Eurosport in 2008

[Speedman]

Eurosport to cover LMS and 24hr? Cutting away mid race to yet another tennis match, programmes not on when they're meant to be, No! No! No!.............

[chocmonster7]

This is very depressing news. Motors have done a brilliant job over the past few years and have shown a dedication to sportscar racing that no other channel has been willing to do before.

[Down F0rce]

Awful news. Motors TC did a great job last year, and now we get the crapfest that is Eurosport. Obviously LMES decided that they had too many fans.

[Justin Moran]

Eurosport need to up their game considerably if they are to rival the coverage that Motors TV gave us, or I feel the media farce will do more harm than good to the Series, I dont think it would effect the 24Hr too much as that has a historical following but as far as promoting the LMS and AMLS to a potential new audience, I dont think at their current state Eurosport are capable of giving anywhere near as good a coverage as Motors has maintained and furthered in recent years.

Come on Eurosport proove us doubters wrong!

[Speed-King]

Hmm, what's better?

LMS with good coverage on Motors TV, which I unfortunately can't get in any legal way, or LMS with mediocre coverage on Eurosport, a channel I actually get?

I think I'll gladly take Eurosport.

[isynge]

For all that my immediate reaction to this was, like a lot of others, dismay, I think it's perfectly possible for Eurosport to be able to do a decent job here and it's a great opportunity for them to prove use all wrong.

Thinking back Eurosport were good to sportscars in the last days of Group C - showing races live and having good highlights packages. Their ChampCar coverage too was perfectably acceptable.

Motors, for all I've got a lot of affection for them, were perfectly capable of hashing up coverage (at times I wondered if I was watching the same race as they were commentating on, Houston 2006 in particular springs to mind, as did the antics of Tony Delahunty) and not showing races live. Eurosport at least should have the budget to perhaps have commentators at the track etc.

So, in short, let's see what Eurosport can do to wow us. They've a hill to climb to be sure, but come on - prove us wrong - make the LMS a showpiece of your coverage and you'll win a lot of respect.

[Justin Moran]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Hmm, what's better?

LMS with good coverage on Motors TV, which I unfortunately can't get in any legal way, or LMS with mediocre coverage on Eurosport, a channel I actually get?

I think I'll gladly take Eurosport.

What would be better is If Eurosport can up their game to at least match the great coverage that Motors TV gave us. However I cant see them doing it due to what they consider to be less marginal sports coverage.

[Mal]

Originally Posted by isynge

For all that my immediate reaction to this was, like a lot of others, dismay, I think it's perfectly possible for Eurosport to be able to do a decent job here and it's a great opportunity for them to prove use all wrong.

Thinking back Eurosport were good to sportscars in the last days of Group C - showing races live and having good highlights packages. Their ChampCar coverage too was perfectably acceptable.

Motors, for all I've got a lot of affection for them, were perfectly capable of hashing up coverage (at times I wondered if I was watching the same race as they were commentating on, Houston 2006 in particular springs to mind, as did the antics of Tony Delahunty) and not showing races live. Eurosport at least should have the budget to perhaps have commentators at the track etc.

So, in short, let's see what Eurosport can do to wow us. They've a hill to climb to be sure, but come on - prove us wrong - make the LMS a showpiece of your coverage and you'll win a lot of respect.

Quite right - back in the 90's the Eurosport coverage of F1 was far better than the BBC. So much will depend on the quality of the production as well as the length of time the races are shown.

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

for the LMS races, I really hope that Eurosport will bring LIVE coverages to the series, I will never forget their FIA GT poor coverage in the former LG Super Racing Weekend !

[FIRE]

Every few hours (short) updates on Eurosport 1 (like in the pre-Motors TV days) and full coverage on Eurosport 2?

Are Eurosport and Motors TV owned by the same French company (Canal Plus?)?

[Nick49]

Hello

I have to say that I've only just come across this thread today and my initial reaction to the heading was "this will be a disaster" and until I see the first race I will stay with my first reaction.

Has this actually be confirmed officially?

Nick

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Are Eurosport and Motors TV owned by the same French company (Canal Plus?)?

Motors TV is a privatly owned channel IIRC.

[Bernard Bram]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

.... And, to take that speculation one step further, the increase in cost may be such that is now beyond the reach of a small specialist motor racing channel such as MotorsTV....

I don't buy this. Eurosport is doing everything on low budget nowadays. I think it's more a case of Audi/Peugeot paying for the coverage like Audi has done with LeMans and Premiere 2 years ago. And i'm still convinced we won't see any live stuff on Eurosport"1". I hope the beancounters at Audi/Peugeot/ACO do know the difference between ES1 and ES2.

[JAG]

Motors TV's LMS coverage, in terms of entertainment value, was awful.

You needed to be online to check DSC etc. to actually know what was happening!

The Le Mans coverage was quite the opposite, the extra resources invested provided great, informed and detailed coverage.

Back in the day Eurosport did show full live coverage of the World Sportscar Championship, FIA GT ('97/'98) and DTM, including qualifying.

Their WTCC coverage has also been good.

It seems if the series is of a sufficiently high standard, with manufactuer support (and resulting advertising budget), their coverage is usually decent.

I'm as big a sportscar fan as anyone, but even I cannot sit through 6 hours of coverage if it isn't backed by the trimmings the likes of Speed TV consider essential, not an afterthought.

Live LMS coverage was a welcome novelty initially, but after 3 seasons, no discernable improvement in production values, and having our eyes opened by Speeds ENTERTAINING coverage, and to be fair Motors TV's excellent Le Mans coverage, it was either time for them to step upto the challenge, or lose the broadcast rights.

We'll see, but I doubt Eurosport would have bid for the LMS package if they didn't have the schedule time for at least 3-4 hours live coverage on Eurosport/Eurosport2.

Both Audi and Peugeot demanded improved coverage, we'll have to give Eurosport the benefit of the doubt, the solid commentary team will be similar at least..

[JAG]

One more point, it's telling Motor's TV's Le Mans scrutineering coverage is often more entertaining than the LMS race coverage!

Why, because the SAME commentators are on location, and able to dig out the news and interview the key players. It add's a whole new dimension to the coverage.

Motor's TV's LMS race coverage comes across as a glorified internet stream with commentators watching on with monitors, two hands tied behind their back!

[Piglet]

Is Eurosport a "pay" channel on Sky? This might solve some of our problems, we only pay for a Sky package currently as it's the only way to get Motors TV for LMS/LM coverage. Sounds like we won't be bothering with that from now on.

Eurosports Daytona coverage was dreadful, only one or two of the sections of coverage either started or finished on time. One of those was a technical problem at the track but there was no explanation for the remainder of the sections.

I don't want frills from Motorsport coverage, I don't care if Motors coverage isn't entertaining, it's been the best thing for full coverage of Motorsport events in years and I doubt whether Eurosports coverage will come close to Motors.

[Adam43]

Eurosport are renowned for never sticking to their schedule. They will drop coverage of a race because on the day they decide another sport is more interesting. And they won't tell you. We will be sat waiting and wondering if the coverage will ever come on. The is it delayed or abandoned conundrum! A waste of everyone's time. Sky Plus won't work either; if you manually set your recorder be sure to add three hours either way.

I will likely watch a lot less of this if it is on Eurosport. That is good for the sponsors.

The days I have wasted waiting for CART, WTCC and Sportscar coverage to start have slowly eaten away at my soul and I now consider Eurosport to be a cunning work of the devil to turn me.

[Zytek_Fan]

Great...

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by Piglet

Is Eurosport a "pay" channel on Sky? This might solve some of our problems, we only pay for a Sky package currently as it's the only way to get Motors TV for LMS/LM coverage. Sounds like we won't be bothering with that from now on.

Eurosport and Motors TV are both in the News and Events Mix on Sky.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Piglet

I don't want frills from Motorsport coverage, I don't care if Motors coverage isn't entertaining, it's been the best thing for full coverage of Motorsport events in years and I doubt whether Eurosports coverage will come close to Motors.

I don't consider upto the minute information, or an ability to monitor battles and build a picture of the race for viewers, to be frills.

That 911 vs 430 battle at Sebring last season, would it have been half as thrilling if we didn't watch the battle unfold over the race, rather just cutting to the pass on the last lap, with little context?

Speed's ALMS highlights are now showing on Motors TV, it is quite amazing for a sport that is traditionally difficult to cover on TV, live, to be so entertaining, nevermind that coverage standing upto repeast viewing.

If someone like me is tuning out of the LMS coverage, and turning to DSC and this forum, god knows how many casual viewers stick with it. Right now I'm only wathcing a couple of hours LMS coverage intensely, the rest of the race is spent online.

I'd settle for 2-3 hours live Eurosport coverage, if production values were increased.

Manufactuers will only pour cash into a program if their exploits are watched by the public. For that to happen, the coverage has to be entertaining.

The ALMS , Champ Car, IRL, NASCAR, WTCC, DTM, BTCC, and in highlights form, British/French GT, manage it, so should the LMS.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

The only real quality live coverage of sportscars comes from Radio Le Mans. SPEED works, but I prefer listening to the radio broadcast. If RLM covers LMS the season has been saved...

[supermario21]

I missed the Speed RLM combined coverage last year. That was the best part of the race, but Speed's coverage is outstanding. I'm hoping for no truck race or ARCA race to cut the afternoon coverage down, we've been missing dusk quite abit here in the states.

[Paddy_NL]

Originally Posted by JAG

Motors TV's LMS coverage, in terms of entertainment value, was awful.

If I want entertainment, I will go to Blockbusters. If I want to see a race, I don't want to see commercial breaks or other sport's highlights.

Have you seen the Eurosport coverage of the Daytona 24? No, that was great coverage. One coverage block of 45 minutes was filled up with exactly 17 minutes of cars on the screen (yes, I counted the minutes). The rest was filled up with commercial breaks and advertisements for other Eurosport programs.

As said earlier, we should give the Eurosport people a chance to prove us wrong. But I'm holding my breath...

[minimangler]

Let's not panic. I think this could be good- Eurosport 2 would be ideal- their coverage of champcar is superb from what I've seen, and they show the entire WTCC raceday and most supports live as well I believe. I think this could be a positive news. More positive now would be Motors picking up FIA GT coverage as a replacement.

[Marcel ten Caat]

I quote the Motors TV April selection mail:

LE MANS SERIES: PEUGEOT AND AUDI FACE TO FACE ON MOTORS TV

Having shown coverage of all the LMS races since its creation in 2004, Motors TV keeps its title of ‘Endurance channel’ in 2008. Five European races are planned, the first two being in April. Barcelona and Monza will see the beginnings of the titanic battle between Audi and Peugeot that should last the whole season. The 908 against the R10: a battle of diesel and speed, the fight between two huge manufacturers, this is the dual endurance fans have been waiting for! On the drivers’ side, the leading pairs will no doubt be Stéphane Sarrazin-Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian-Marc Gené (Peugeot), Allan McNish-Rinaldo Capello and Alexandre Prémat-Mike Rockenfeller (Audi). It’s going to be great!

However don’t rule out the petrol engined Pescarolo, Oreca-Courage (with endurance racing new boy, Olivier Panis) and Lola-Aston Martin. In the GT classes, the list is equally attractive with Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Saleen and Spyker.

Motors TV will have live action from every round.

Barcelona 1000km, 1st round LMS – Sunday 6 April from 13.15

Monza 1000km, 2nd round LMS – Sunday 27 April from 12.45

Must add that they will also show motocross.

Sunday 6 April, MX2 races live at 12.00, then at 15.00
Sunday 27 April, MX2 races delayed at 15.00 (1st round), then live at 16.00 (2nd round)