vhsrallies
patreon
Channel update, 10 Feb 2023
🕑 Added 2023-02-10 12:57:56 +0000 UTCHi everyone,
I thought I would give you a little update on the YouTube channel, because it's been quite a significant 24 hours.
I have taken the decision to, for now at least, remove all BHP content from the channel. This includes countless old rally reports from BBC Grandstand and ITV World of Sport - the very footage that prompted VHS Rallies to start in the first place - plus some of the most popular season reviews on the channel.
Why have I done this? A few months ago, a new company bought the BHP archive from Smoke & Rubber, where it had been held in storage for many years. The new owner may well have more ambitious plans for the footage - selling it digitally, either as whole reports or as material that can be used in the documentaries that seem so popular these days.
As a part of that, they may well take a dim view of their material being shared on sites like YouTube. And as a result, I've had to take the decision to remove the BHP material. I have reached out to the new owner but since they may well regard me as being only one step away from being a common bootlegger, there's no guarantee that they'll be willing to engage at all or even reply, let alone see the potential of the channel publicising the footage that they're now able to sell to interested parties.
It's been a difficult move to make - but YouTube doesn't require many copyright strikes before things get really serious, and I've elected to try to preserve the wider project and continue sharing the other footage. Let's see if I hear back from the new BHP archive owner; as Patreon supporters, you'll be the first to receive updates.
Kind regards,
VHSR
Comments
It is terrific news. They're cataloguing (and hopefully digitising) the BHP stuff now, I believe; that's a major step on from it lying in a warehouse, as it has been for many years. But I've never been under any illusions that if someone bought it and wanted to do something with it, the VHSR YouTube channel might be seen as an annoyance rather than a tribute to the footage.
Well, the good news is that someone might be planning to do something with the footage and that'd be great. The bad news is that it rather fucks your hard work. I hope something good does come of it – you never know, they might even see the benefits of investing in your project. Best of luck with it.
