Have you been a subscriber for very long? I think anyone who has had it for more than a single season will have lost count of the number of times it's failed,
I was a subscriber for years from the first year they offered the service, but checked out around 2017 until this year, so missed any drama in 2019. The first year was a bit patchy, but subsequent years were fine for me. The app is also available on pretty much every device I've used, so I can easily watch on my phone, tablet, Roku, Smart TV, and direct through my Cogeco Android-based IPTV.
Jules was a Euro sports and BT2 commentator, I don't think he has ever expressed a good word about Dorna from an operational standpoint in any of the interviews I've seen either, which is why I really enjoyed his commentary since he wasn't afraid to speak truth to power when it was required.
For sure, but he and Moody are still the gold standard for a commentating team for me. I was never a big fan of Nick Harris, but the current guys are good.
I've always been a fan of a Crafer, you can go back to my comments from his first testing session coverage, as that is what most racers were like in my experience--they're not journalists, or professional speakers sp expecting them to sound like that makes no sense to anyone not in the Marketing department, however his insight is absolute gold if you know what you're hearing. Moreover, he was a 90s racer when things were only starting to become as corpo as they are now so media was a very small part of what they were doing.
My only beef with Crafar is his soft Kiwi accent is sometimes hard to understand when there's lots of noise in the pits. He does as good a job as anyone combining an understanding of racers' mentalities, riding techniques, and the technical side of the bikes. I understand Sylvain Guintoli is great on BT Sport, too, complete with his wacky French/English hybrid accent (the only weirder accent is when Jack Miller starts talking in his clipped Euro-english)...
DAZN is 10euro/month or 100 euro/year, which is half of Dorna's costs, and it carried over much of the team from Movistar in Spain, which is on par to the BT2 team when Jules was around.
I was talking about DAZN Canada, which is $20 CAD if you go monthly, though significantly cheaper on an annual basis. For me, it's really only about Premier League and Champions League, (I stopped caring about the NFL a few years ago). I've had lots more technical issues with them, particularly at big moments in big events (disconnects and very low bitrate during the CL final, for example).
Cost will always be relative, but more importantly I'm of the belief that it's only through competition in the Market that one can successfully disrupt an ossified business model to enter the 21st century, and I think seeing Rossi finally leave the track and allowing younger talent stepping is a step in the right direction for DORNA.
I suppose, but I'm not sure I'm convinced that Dorna is all that ossified by the standards of pro sports. They offer a streaming package (albeit at a premium price) to markets without a local broadcaster. They also have deals in markets with enough local interest to justify their own coverage. BT Sport in the UK is a good example, and it's hardly free-to-air: It's
£15/mo on a two year contract. Being a Premier League fan in the UK sucks even more, as multiple subscriptions are required to watch all the matches, unlike one in most of the rest of the world, so Dorna clearly has some lessons to learn when it comes to milking fans...
But so many more simple things are left to do, like some thought into the UI/UX of the videopass is the lowest possible hanging fruit--it cannot be a surprise to anyone people would prefer a 'hide spoilers' option in terms of available content.
Dorna does offer a 'no spoilers' option, but the race only appears there once it's complete. What I was talking about is being able to start the race from the beginning
while the race is happening if you join late. You can open the live feed and rewind to the beginning, but you will see the order at whatever point you join unless you cover the screen somehow. This is an issue with every other live streaming sports app I've used, including DAZN.
I have a huge problem with their payment processing, that will lock you into their system and autopay full membership costs unless you deactivate which is not always possible depending on how much they cared that day.
This doesn't bother me nearly as much as it does you. It's really easy to disable the auto-renew (just checked, it's a grand total of three clicks on the website: Subscriptions>Modify Renewal>Cancel Subscription). The alternative is something like the MLB app (which my father-in-law uses), which requires you to re-enter payment info every year. Not a big deal, but I don't have the horror you experience at the thought...
The 1080p source looks like upscaled 720p, and 4k cameras have been tested at the track as one-ffs but never materialized despite costs increasing from Dorna and the ubiquity of 4k on most smartphones and retail consumer items increasing.
Agreed on this one. I don't mind the quality as-is, but 4K would be great. It's still pretty rare, though, with even the Sportsnet 4K feed mostly not being 4K at all. Apparently most so-called 4K streaming isn't anywhere near, though if you're watching on a phone, you wouldn't be able to tell anyway...
I get they have had 2 very hard years with no and now limited spectators, but they have had to look to the future more frequently during the fat years and act accordingly, because as bad as F1 was under Bernie, I'm pretty positive Carmello has overtook him in the 'how to think about a business fixed in the 20th century award' for the longest amount of period of time in pro-sports.
My understanding is the circuits paid the highest price for Covid, as they rely heavily on the gate revenue. It obviously hasn't been good for the sport, but I think Dorna isn't hurting too badly...
But, in the end it doesn't matter because I won:
Took my wife ages to figure out how that was pronounced, and once she did, she couldn't believe how much they plastered that logo all over everything...
