Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
2/21/24 11:48 a.m.
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Where to watch every race on the FIA World Endurance Championship schedule this year? Try Max.

The WEC announced today that it will extend its broadcast to Max for U.S. subscribers, showing “every round of the 2024 season including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

“The USA is a huge market for the WEC and it is always an aim …

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J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
2/21/24 11:56 a.m.

I guess it's time to break out the credit card. laugh

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
2/21/24 11:56 a.m.

Looks like my Max subscription is really about to earn its keep.

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
2/21/24 12:23 p.m.
J.A. Ackley said:

I guess it's time to break out the credit card. laugh

We get Max as a perk with our AT&T unlimited data cell plan, so maybe it's time to shop phones?

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
2/21/24 12:30 p.m.
JG Pasterjak said:
J.A. Ackley said:

I guess it's time to break out the credit card. laugh

We get Max as a perk with our AT&T unlimited data cell plan, so maybe it's time to shop phones?

I didn't know that. I have AT&T. Will investigate. Thanks for the heads-up!

Jesse Ransom
Jesse Ransom GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
2/21/24 12:33 p.m.

In reply to Colin Wood :

Our Max subscriptions don't get us anything but the opportunity to buy a B/R subscription. You and I, as existing subscribers, get to pay for it from the start. Adding sports bumps the ad-free Max cost 63% monthly. Or 100% over the base subscription.

There are a lot of subscriptions going on. Am I going to get $10/mo worth out of this and the little bit of bike racing I watch?

I am stoked to see WEC coverage; that's really cool. But the cost as an add-on, when it appears mostly to pay for sportsball coverage I have no use for... It feels like the continuing evolution of the streaming era to be all the problems of cable with a bigger whack-a-mole game for keeping track of what we're paying for.

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
2/21/24 1:57 p.m.

Oh god, Max, the one streaming app that has the hardest time performing basic functions like scrolling, searching, and pausing. I'd gladly just pay the $5 to have MT for the month of June. 

That and most of the WEC races are an absolute snooze fest to watch. Even as background noise they aren't worth their weight. 

gschwarzer
gschwarzer New Reader
2/22/24 5:46 p.m.

In reply to J.A. Ackley :

I think so does Xfinity, but it looked like only the first show of a series or something strange like that.  Have to investigate more.

But even more reason to continue my boycott of Amazon Prime Video since they introduced advertising!

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
2/22/24 9:56 p.m.
J.A. Ackley said:
JG Pasterjak said:
J.A. Ackley said:

I guess it's time to break out the credit card. laugh

We get Max as a perk with our AT&T unlimited data cell plan, so maybe it's time to shop phones?

I didn't know that. I have AT&T. Will investigate. Thanks for the heads-up!

AT&T says we do not have Max included in our package. Bummer. Back to the credit card.

Coniglio Rampante
Coniglio Rampante Reader
2/22/24 11:24 p.m.

I don't know if I'm going to follow the series down that road.  I like it but Max is  just one more bill and adds to a financial "death by a thousand paper cuts."  At least to me.

I still haven't bought tickets for the race at COTA because Labor Day weekend around here = hotter than Hades.

And the last time the WEC came to town, all they did was complain...complain about sharing the weekend with IMSA, complained about the IMSA teams packing up and leaving after the IMSA races were over, and even though they had decent crowds by WEC's standards (announced weekend attendances were around 50,000) they complained about the crowd size.

I'd love to see the Hypercars up close though.  Maybe I'll do a cheap single day ticket.  Maybe.

bmw88rider
bmw88rider GRM+ Memberand UberDork
2/23/24 9:08 a.m.

In reply to Coniglio Rampante :

I flagged all of those IMSA/WEC weekends and the 2020 COTA reschedule. Those were TOUGH days for sure. 100+ most days and the crowds were actually really good for the time of year. 

Coniglio Rampante
Coniglio Rampante Reader
2/23/24 6:54 p.m.

In reply to bmw88rider :

Agreed.  Regarding attendance, I looked for an old post I made on another site years ago:

"On the attendance of each IMSA/WEC weekend at COTA, and these are the numbers that were officially reported*:

2013 34,000
2014 just over 50,000
2015 74,000
2016 no attendance numbers provided

2014 and 2015 had attendance numbers second only to Le Mans for a WEC weekend, more than Silverstone, Spa, and the others, which is not too shabby, imo.

*the attendance numbers were publicly reported in a variety of sources such as the COTA website, the Austin American Statesman, and the Austin Business Journal, among others."

 

Sorry for the thread drift.  I hope the contract with Max is profitable for each party and the attendance at all venues is strong.

SkyNoLimits8
SkyNoLimits8 New Reader
2/26/24 9:05 p.m.

Bleh, not good news for me. I'm still a standard cable TV subscriber, and MotorTrend is included/free. I'd rather pay in the WEC app I think for races - access any time, multiple in car views, replays whenever I want.

Jesse Ransom
Jesse Ransom GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
2/26/24 9:54 p.m.

Good news: Lots of replay apparently available on YouTube?

Bad news: They actually pronounce it "weck?"

Coniglio Rampante
Coniglio Rampante Reader
2/28/24 2:04 p.m.

A pair of nice preview videos for the classes:

Hypercar:  https://youtu.be/8fhrGh1Dq2k?si=OoHzJ6c8KGtWFJrZ

LMGT3:  https://youtu.be/januyoOeGEc?si=1dCDIaPoAcvem-0q

And if you haven't heard the Alpine Hypercar, here's some ear candy:  https://youtu.be/sk53_K4ijlI?si=QAogiGj9giqJHyC9

Jesse Ransom
Jesse Ransom GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/7/24 8:46 p.m.

Okay, this is a long shot, but maybe something got sent along with the press materials in terms of detail?

Just found out that along with WEC and the bicycle racing, they're showing TNT coverage of MotoGP.

BUT... While they're advertising "live" streaming of a bunch of bicycle races and MotoGP, that actually appears to mean ONLY live. As in there's no on-demand stream afterward. Is the WEC coverage "live AND on-demand?"

Bicycling.com had news of their picking up the cycling coverage from GCN+, and several confirmations of the live-only in the comments, with one dissenter saying they were in the process of getting stuff up for after-event viewing.

Their site is completely useless for this kind of info, and they are really good at avoiding contact. Even their chatbot is just an interface into a poorly-written FAQ.

Anybody have any insight?

The only other thing I found out is that after any promotional period, the $10 B/R has ads; the B/R add on or ad-free add-on cost just as much as the base Max subscription... But since I'm paying MotoGP for a videopass and would rather have TNT's coverage...

Jesse Ransom
Jesse Ransom GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/8/24 12:02 p.m.

Okay, pardon my rant above. That was way harder to answer than it should have been. But I found a Tom's Guide article on actually contacting Max, and had another go at the chat, and got to a human. Said human was helpful, and told me that anytime 15 minutes after a live event they'll be available for replay. This is not true for everything in their catalog, but it is for MotoGP, "select" bike racing, and yes, WEC!

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
3/8/24 2:00 p.m.

As much as I dislike the Max app, I had no issues with last weeks WEC race other than Eurosport showing very little of the GT cars and the race being a snoozefest at that boring track. 

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