Talking TV for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series

The free internet broadcast from Tri-City Speedway was due to a weather that caused technical issues for the provider in Colorado

On May 26th, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series ran a LIVE broadcast on network television. The 2018 Show-Me 100 from Lucas Oil Speedway was seen LIVE via the MavTV network.

Was that the first time a LOLMDS race was shown LIVE on network television?

“No. We ran a LIVE race at East Bay Raceway three or four years ago,” LOLMDS director Rick Schwallie explained to RacingNews.co .

On July 13th the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series aired the race LIVE via Lucas Oil Racing TV. In a last minute announcement, the race was moved to a free link that could be viewed by non Lucas Oil Racing TV subscribers. That took the fans for nice surprise.

Are you guys exploring television options? With the LIVE broadcast a few months ago then the free internet broadcast at Tri-City Speedway?

“What happened at Tri-City was with the provider. I think it was a [data center] in Colorado, that provides the service … that they’re uplinking to had an issue.”

“So, they uplinked to another website to appease the viewers that had paid to watch it. They just sent out a link. But, that link, anybody could get.”

“That’s why it was a free one. It wasn’t by design to be a free pay-per-view.”

“That was just the best case scenario of a bad thing. They had weather in Colorado from what we understand. That’s where the provider was and that’s why it went down.”

The free airing at Tri-City Speedway wasn’t planed at all. It’s wasn’t a test run as I originally thought.

It’s just that the people who paid for the stream couldn’t watch it due to technical issues. The solution was to upload the broadcast to a new link. That fix also made the broadcast free for everyone.

Do you have future plans or future goals for the TV coverage of the sport?

“It’s been a steady increase in the amount of TV exposure. Many years ago it was 11 of them. Now, we’re at 20 plus events and they’re televised on multiple networks.”

In 2018, Lucas Oil Racing TV airs 21 dirt late model events. On the network side, MAV TV airs 25. Some of those races are of course shown on both networks.

In 2015, MavTV added 6 new partners in a single year. At that time, the total number of MavTV carriers was 137.

Currently, major providers for MavTV include Spectrum and Google Fiber.

More

Related: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series: TV Schedule – 2018

Links

Lucas Oil Racing TV | MavTV | LOLMDS | Shane Walters

Categories

Tags