12 Hours of Sebring’s online; nowhere else

When I first heard that the American Le Mans Series – which opens its season on Saturday with the running of the 12 Hours of Sebring – wouldn’t be having its races shown on live television this year, I thought somebody had lost their marbles.

For years and years, auto racing fans had to make do with either no television coverage of races or else tape-delays.

I remember how thrilled I was in 1986 when Sebring was televised live for the first time (I think, believe it or not, it was on The Nashville Network) and Hans Stuck, Jo Gartner and Bob Akin won.

It’s a melancholy memory, of course. Gartner was killed less than three months later at the 24 Hours of Le Mans; Sebring was his last big victory.

In any event, as the years rolled along, we became used to seeing endurance races like the Daytona 24, Sebring, Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans beamed into our homes as they happened – plus all the other car racing that was available, of course.

So it was a shock when I learned earlier this year that the ALMS had decided to forsake TV for digital delivery of live races via the Internet (americanlemans.com here in Canada). A deal with ESPN/ABC will see "package" TV coverage after the fact. In the case of Sebring on Saturday, you can "watch" the race for 90 minutes the next day, Sunday, on ABC at 12:30 p.m. (WKBW-TV, Buffalo).

I still think it’s a mistake (and I’m not alone: when I interviewed Bobby Rahal for a story a few weeks ago, we talked about the ALMS and he said he thought it was a good series "but I’m not crazy about their television package . . .") but I’m not as adamant about it as I once was.

I think the ALMS might be on the cusp of something radical and may eventually get the credit for pioneering the wholesale move of big-league auto racing to digital delivery. And don’t kid yourself; if motorsports goes that route, so will all the other sports leagues and organizations.

Take a look around you. If you’re on the GO Train or the subway these days, just about everybody is "reading" their phones. Whether at the office or home, everybody is working on PCs or laptops and also using them for news/information and entertainment. So we’re living in a digital world right now.

Most TVs you buy these days have Internet compatibility built in, which means more and more people are plugging their computers into their 50-inch plasmas.

Right now, I have a friend who has an "old" TV. He turns on the Formula One races but he also has his laptop beside him so he can watch the race and also keep track of all the streaming technical information that’s available online.

If he had a newer TV, and was watching the 12 Hours of Sebring on americanlemans.com this weekend, it would all be there on that 50-inch screen: the race and all the info, right there in front of him.

I have it on very good authority that several of the ALMS’s major sponsors, when shown the "numbers" (in the U.S., the deal is with ESPN3.com, which has something like 65 million or 70 million subscribers and is growing rapidly; the ALMS’ former partner, SPEED Channel, has something like 70 million subscribers but isn’t growing as quickly), the sponsors opted to support the digital deal.

Those people have to know something.

I still think it’s premature, but I’m an old dog and what do I know?

I mean, when I ride the GO Train, I’m the only guy still reading a newspaper ...

Comments

[Adam]

It would take an enormous amount of gigabites to stream it in HD.
A Rogers or Bell internet plan is capped with low level gigabites for a ridiculously expensive price to prevent Canadian citizens to watch movies and other productions that pose direct competition to the TV channels and movie rental businesses the same companies also own.

If internet broadcasting were so big compared to the tube, the NFL, baseball and the NBA would have embraced it already. Except they get paid for being on tube while the ALMS had to pay for infomercial time to be on TV and they no longer wanted to do that.

[APP]

Soon most programs will be like that. I used to watch college football with my favorite team on most weeks or my favorite pro hockey team (not the Leafs)but not anymore, so I had to buy an online package. A sign of the times, Norris.

[Bucket]

You aren't exactly correct. The race will be live flag to flag on espn2 on US tv cable. If you checked the ALMS website before posting you'd know that. Online is also giving us full event coverage including live qualifying. It's a positive step forward for endurance racing fans.

[Cart99]

Your comments are so true - ask MLB how much they make on MLB.com, which can be fed directly to your tv. It makes it all the more puzzling why Indy has terminated the online presence.

[DevonK]

It appears Norris missed the boat on this one; it took only 10 minutes of research to discover that we Canucks will have NO way of legitimately watching this race live. Americanlemans.com is not streaming the event themselves; they refer readers to the live coverage at espn3.com, which is only available to selected ISPs, NOT including Rogers. Crude "grey-market" streaming may be available elsewhere but the quality is typically terrible for those types of feeds.

[Dwayne from kingston on.]

Well it's a bust I've been trying since 10:15 am and no feed, this sucks!!!!