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    Delayed TV broadcast causing heat for V8 Supercars

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    We live in a world that demands real time and when artificial delays are imposed on fans, they bite back. At 1:03PM, the Official V8 Supercars Facebook page posted an image of Tander’s heavily damaged car with the result of qualifying. Fans quickly rushed to abuse V8 Supercars for spoiling the result given qualifying won’t be broadcast until 2:30PM. This means the result of qualifying – Whincup winning provisional pole as well as Tander being out, will actually air closer to 3PM.

    A cynical person would say they are pushing people to subscribe to their live, paid IPTV service, V8 Superview. A less cynical person would say that V8 Supercars aren’t at fault here, rather Channel 7. As fans suggest in the comments, they have 3 channels and could easily broadcast the event live, but elected not to.

    V8 Supercars are always in a difficult position. The event happens at the race track and the fans trackside will be sharing updates socially, so do they sit pretend it hasn’t happened until the TV coverage catches up, or reflect the live events as they’ve done here.

    It is important to identify this isn’t the final result of qualifying, there is still a top 10 shoot out to come before the 10 ten are finalized, but knowing Tander is out, will diminish the appeal of learning it for the first time when you watch the incident on delayed broadcast.

    What do you think the best option is? Keep quiet until the TV broadcast, given most viewers will consume the race events this way, or cover it live and place the blame firmly in the hands of broadcaster Channel 7 for not covering it live.

    Update
    Looks like the popular Aussie motorsport website Speedcafe is also taking some heat for publishing early. I understand that even publishing this post is a risk, but I believe the issue needs to be discussed. One of the biggest things holding back users from ditching TV broadcast all together is not actually the price of Superview.

    The biggest issue is the SD quality of the stream. Motorsports is one of those events you have friends over for, to gather around the biggest screen. Stretching a SD quality stream to a 50”+ display just doesn’t cut it, sure HD requires more bandwidth, but if V8 Supercars are ever going to free themselves from the broadcasting shackles of Channel 7, then that’s what it’s going to take.

    I can’t help but feel this issue is a result of the television rights deal not demanding the live coverage of a high profile sport in Australia. When was the last delayed broadcast of the cricket? Lawyers, you’ve got some splainin’ to do.

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    techau
    techauhttp://techAU.com.au
    This post is authored by techAU staffers. Used rarely and sparingly when the source decided to keep their identity secret, or a guest author who isn't seeking credit.

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