Living on a Caribbean island may seem idyllic, but trust me, not everything is heavenly in "America's Paradise". For one thing this island is isolated from motor sport. The logistics and expense of actually attending a race makes media coverage of vital importance to me.
On paper the ALMS media coverage is impressive: Live video streaming, network TV coverage, and on-line video archives of all the races. Live timing and scoring completes the coverage. The execution of those coverage options leaves something to be desired however. The TV coverage is not of the entire race; you get edited highlights of some fraction of the race. The video streaming is split into two parts: one for domestic U.S. viewers that happen to be allowed to access the espn3.com website (your ISP has to be on an approved list); the other part is for International viewers (those outside the U.S.). So, even though I am in the U.S. Virgin Islands and my cable TV subscription includes ESPN, my ISP is not on the approved list. Luckily I am considered "International" and can get that coverage from the ALMS web site. As a plus, the International coverage utilizes the talents of John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw, regulars of the Radio Le Mans (RLM) coverage team.
Highlight coverage is a compromise between coverage of the entire race and the difficulty of scheduling a long sporting event in a busy TV schedule. While many anoraks might well prefer to watch the entire 12 hours of Sebring than spend an entire Sunday watching football, we are in the minority and have to accept that a general purpose sports network will not be able to accommodate us. Prior to the start of this season's ALMS coverage, it was suggested that the highlights package would be edited into story lines resembling the documentary "Truth in 24", about Audi's 2008 Le Mans campaign. I was skeptical that such a thing would be possible with such a short space of time between the race and the next week's (let alone the next day's) TV coverage. I was justified in my skepticism, it turned out to be a not-so-exciting highlights package after all. It may be suitable for the casual TV viewer, but for endurance racing enthusiasts it is disappointing.
The streaming video coverage is of the entire race, which is great. Unfortunately there have been some technical problems with the live delivery of those streams. So far four of this season's races: Lime Rock, Mosport, Mid-Ohio, and Road America had severe problems, at least for the International coverage.
The Lime Rock and Mosport streams had partial live TV coverage of the second half of those 2hr 45min races. The ESPN TV coverage used Brian Till and Johnny O'Connell in the announcer's booth. Those of us following the International video stream were startled and disappointed when halfway through the race the audio went briefly silent, and when it returned we heard, not John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw, but Brian Till and Johnny O'Connell. I don't have anything derogatory to say about Brian and Johnny, but I and many other fans have followed ACO-rules endurance racing for years with Radiolemans.com and other voices are just not the same. I think that the reason for the two announcer teams and with the bifurcated coverage in the first place had to do with broadcast rights. So this faux pas was definitely not intentional. BTW, the archived video stream had the "correct" International audio track for it's entire length. The Mid-Ohio coverage on the International stream was a complete failure. The ALMS web site crashed, and no one could start the coverage thereafter. After that experience, I subscribed to the ESPN Player (www.espnplayer.com): $6.99 for all the ALMS races. This is a great bargain and had none of the problems experienced with the ALMS International stream, according to the participants on the Radiolemans.com forum. I was unable to follow the Road America race due to the fact I was on an airplane much of that day, but according to the RLM forum participants, the International stream was another washout, a badly buffering, stuttering mess.
Through all of the problems with the ALMS stream, the ESPN stream (both espn3.com and espnplayer.com) were rock solid according to reports on the RLM forum. Those of us that listen to Midweek Motorsport on radiolemans.com were assured that the problems were not at the track and that neither the ALMS personnel nor ESPN personnel were responsible for the problems. The archived videos of the race coverage were immaculate. This places the problems "down stream" from the source.
I was dreading another dismal performance for the Baltimore race, but this time I was prepared, I had an ESPN Player subscription. I was most pleasantly surprised when both qualifying and the race were flawless on the ALMS International stream. In fact, it was better than the ESPN Player (higher sustained bit rate, no buffering at all). I noticed that the ALMS had a new Flash player, and further investigation showed that they apparently changed Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers; they were now using Level 3, the same as ESPN. This last week's race at VIR was also rock-solid and this time they were using Akamai as their CDN. I was so relieved. The ALMS should be congratulated for recognizing the problems and fixing them, but why did they have to punt 40% of their live race coverage (for those of us dependent on the Internet anyway)?
Now I come to the heart of my message: What will happen with coverage of ALMS/Grand-Am in 2014? The timing of the merger of the ALMS and Grand-Am was in part determined by current media coverage contracts, so 2013 will probably be the same as this year. The merged series should be in a better position to negotiate coverage with the various media outlets. My personal fear is that coverage will go to the NASCAR owned Speed TV and Speedtv.com. This is not a bad thing for most fans; for many years the ALMS was covered by Speed TV. For me that would be a big problem. My local cable TV monopoly does not carry Speed TV and I am geoblocked from seeing any video on Speedtv.com. My home is situated such that satellite TV is not possible. Because the only live coverage of the Grand-Am series has been on Speed TV, the only way I can watch those races is after the fact, utilizing the archived video on the Grand-Am web site. Those living in Europe and elsewhere will probably have some International coverage, but I am stuck. Living on this island has it's problems.
For years I followed (audio only) the ALMS, ELMS and Le Mans on radiolemans.com with timing and scoring from the race organizers. With the current ESPN/ABC arrangement, radiolemans.com is no longer permitted to cover the ALMS races. At least ESPN and ALMS put the voices from RLM on their International coverage and on the archived videos.
When the 2014 media contracts are signed, here is what I hope is included in the package, no matter who the TV contract/s is/are with:
- A non-geoblocked, live streaming video feed of the entire race.
- Broadcast Network coverage of at least some of the races
- Solid International TV coverage outside the U.S.
- Radiolemans.com coverage.
- Comprehensive Timing and Scoring over the web.
- On-demand streaming video archives of all races and qualifying
The timing and scoring on the ALMS web site used to have more information, including running pit stop elapsed time and time of last stop. I would also like to see sector times as long as I'm dreaming. In the current coverage arrangement there is no "audio-only" option. When you select live audio, you get another video stream. In low bandwidth situations that won't work. It would also allow an alternate sound track for the video feed. A true "audio-only" option with rich timing and scoring is better, in my opinion, than partial, or broken video coverage. Make the audio-only option Radiolemans.com and I would be happy. I would gladly pay a nominal sum for quality live video streaming, like the ESPN Player's $6.99 per season, if I can't get it for free.
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