It’s a MultiScreen Weekend
FIA WEC, IMSA and FIA Formula 1 all take to the track – and all on your TV screens

by Chris Jameson
March 13, 2019

While I was completely aware that the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring was coming up this weekend, it was a prodding text our fearless leader that mentioned, “Hey, the WEC Sebring 1000 is being broadcast live on Friday!” Well a quick scan of the cable guide and there it is – The Sebring 1000 from green to checkers! Imaging that!

Now if we sound a little bit excited about that, it’s because following the broadcast debacle that was Indycar’s Grand Prix of St. Pete’s, the fact that both the WEC and IMSA races will be broadcast live and complete on a cable carrier, is pretty amazing stuff. And with that, we’ll just add Formula 1 from Australia with not just qualifying and the race, but the pre and post session shows as well.

Thank you Bell Media (I know that some of you just spit like you heard me say “Woolerton”)

Bell is the parent company of Discovery Velocity and TSN, the two networks who will be broadcasting these events (WEC & IMSA on Velocity; F1 on TSN) and while TSN has been the network of choice for showing F1 in Canada for a long time, it was encouraging last year when Velocity broadcast the complete 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was nice to see then, that the network was going to pick up additional events in 2019.

Now some will argue that Velocity is a premium channel, it is a darn sight cheaper on a monthly basis that the choice for viewing Indycar races in Canada, and it has plenty of programming than does not involve guys in shorts chasing a ball around a rather large pitch and faking near-death injuries when another player walks within ten feet of them.

For the record, Velocity is approximately $5/month. In my particular cable package I pay $2.50 – and I sure as heck get my money’s worth (although I sometimes want to punch Mike on Wheeler Dealers … he can be really annoying). The only caveat – it is available only using an HD box.

Depending on your cable package, you can either get Velocity as a standalone channel or (in my case) a bonus channel.

Oh yeah … and you can use the PVR!

As for TSN, there is a possibility that the actual channel broadcasting the race (they have five I think) might, or might not be part of your channel package as well. I have been told by some looking forward to a race that the channel is not in their package … “We get TSN1 and TSN2 but the race is on TSN5” … or some similar combination. You should check your channel listings – and then check if the full range of TSN is available to you – although you might want to decide if you want to pay for all those darts matches.

TSN does get one thing right, especially for the “middle of the night races” from the other side of the globe, by replaying the race at a much more reasonable time in the early morning to enjoy with your coffee and bagel. These rebroadcasts do not however, include the pre and post shows. But hey, that’s what PVRs are for.

So this weekend will see something in the range of nearly 25 hours of racing (plus an hour of F1 qualifying) on live television with no bandwidth or data limit issues – and that should keep everyone happy. That said, I do have a preference to watch online on multiple screens for live streams, timing and scoring and social media feeds and to do that, I bit the “unlimited” bullet years ago as a cost of doing business. A necessary evil if you will, in a house that (the last time my son … er technician checked) has about thirteen devices connected to the network (Ground Control to Major Tom). Thing is, with my provider I can also watch TV online – and I believe all have that option, so I can sit in my office surrounded by numerous glowing panels of light emitting diodes while the sounds of racing are fed into the audio system. (Note to Self: always remember to turn off the outdoor speakers when watching F1 at 3 in the morning)

So Gear Up and Game On this weekend. I’m just wondering is anyone over at Sportsnet will be looking at the viewing stats.