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More NASCAR Races On ESPN (And Less On ABC) Starting In 2010

Ugh. If I was an ABC affiliate, I'd be livid.

- Trip
 
With only 3 races on ABC, why even bother? Just let ESPN show all the races ...
 
Now NASCAR joins the NHL, a lot of NCAA football, bunches of MLB as a cable-only sport.

OTA viewers get infomercials instead of sports.

And networks wonder why their audience is shrinking.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
With only 3 races on ABC, why even bother? Just let ESPN show all the races ...
Click to expand...

I guess ESPN will be showing college football at the time...
 
I'm not suprised by this move.

In fact they've should've done it sooner.

ESPN is the main brand in the Disney group when it comes to sports.

So there is a reason why there has been a push in the last few years to move all of Disney's main sports programs from ABC to ESPN.

Of course contrat restraints always play a role, especially in college football where ABC still has to honor those of the Big 12 and Pac 10 for another year

after this season.

Besides, NASCAR on ESPN (CABLE) has a storied history throughout most of the 1980's and 1990's; so it makes sense on that point.

Also, there had been some conflicts in the past with some of the late races effecting ABC's Sunday Schedule which is one of the best on TV right now with Extreme Makeover

Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, so they're not going to jeopardize it to show the entire race even if it ends later than normal.

So all in all, it's actually a win-win in my book ;D!
 
oldvnewschool said:
I'm not suprised by this move.

In fact they've should've done it sooner.

ESPN is the main brand in the Disney group when it comes to sports.

So there is a reason why there has been a push in the last few years to move all of Disney's main sports programs from ABC to ESPN.

Also, there had been some conflicts in the past with some of the late races effecting ABC's Sunday Schedule which is one of the best on TV right now with Extreme Makeover

Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, so they're not going to jeopardize it to show the entire race even if it ends later than normal.

So all in all, it's actually a win-win in my book ;D!
Click to expand...

Agreed with oldvnewschool. The thing with NASCAR is that it doesn't have universal geographic appeal in all of the largest markets AND (importantly) some of the races can last 4+ hours. That's an eternity in the world of network television. It truly is more well-suited to a cable network like ESPN - particularly given that ESPN is on literally every cable system. So it's win-win for ABC too because they make the vast majority of NASCAR fans happy with ESPN's fine coverage while preserving their own schedule of entertainment programming.

Besides, they've gradually been outsourcing all of their sports coverage to ESPN anyway. Look at how things went with Monday Night Football when the NFL contract came up for renewal last time. A fine example of where ABC/Disney's future plans are headed.
 
I guess this is just another step in the direction of moving all sports to ESPN. It's kind of a shame because ABC Sports used to have that "important" and "historic" feel to its broadcasts that ESPN just can't seem to match. I still can't believe the BCS National Championship Game will be on ESPN next year instead of a broadcast network. Times are definitely changing in TV land.
 
radioguy555 said:
... ABC Sports used to have that "important" and "historic" feel to its broadcasts that ESPN just can't seem to match... Times are definitely changing in TV land.
Click to expand...

These two statements from your post put together seem to sum things up nicely.
 
radioguy555 said:
I guess this is just another step in the direction of moving all sports to ESPN. It's kind of a shame because ABC Sports used to have that "important" and "historic" feel to its broadcasts that ESPN just can't seem to match. I still can't believe the BCS National Championship Game will be on ESPN next year instead of a broadcast network. Times are definitely changing in TV land.
Click to expand...

You're right on all counts. ABC truly made itself one of the big 3 back in the early 1970's thanks in no small part to it's sports programming (it was an also-ran prior to then). Their presentations of Monday Night Football were the original "Must See TV", not to mention fantastic coverage of Olympic games (including the tragedy in Munich) and their groundbreaking "Wide World of Sports." It's such a shame to watch that heritage be gutted for all to see.

As for the BCS Championship game being on ESPN next year, that's yet another reason to despise the entire BCS process! Honestly, it's a travesty that makes it clear that this is all about the Benjamins and nothing more. If you don't have cable, too bad.
 
BRNout said:
As for the BCS Championship game being on ESPN next year... Honestly, it's a travesty that makes it clear that this is all about the Benjamins and nothing more. If you don't have cable, too bad.
Click to expand...

One could argue that not only are cable subscribers and satellite subscribers "the majority" when compared to broadcast/DTV viewers, but cable is also "where the money is" moreso than broadcast.
 
DToTheJ said:
BRNout said:
As for the BCS Championship game being on ESPN next year... Honestly, it's a travesty that makes it clear that this is all about the Benjamins and nothing more. If you don't have cable, too bad.
Click to expand...

One could argue that not only are cable subscribers and satellite subscribers "the majority" when compared to broadcast/DTV viewers, but cable is also "where the money is" moreso than broadcast.
Click to expand...

Yes, you could argue that. We're not yet at the point where individual cable networks beat Big 4 networks in the ratings (and end up #1 in a given time slot), but that day is coming quickly. And yes, cable subs are most definitely the majority. The difference is that ABC is available to essentially 100% of the TV-owning public, while ESPN is more like 85 or 90%. However, if you want ESPN, you have to pay for it - which is not the case with local ABC affiliates. Yes, more and more it's where the money is.
 
landtuna said:
Now NASCAR joins the NHL, a lot of NCAA football, bunches of MLB as a cable-only sport.

OTA viewers get infomercials instead of sports.

And networks wonder why their audience is shrinking.
Click to expand...

NASCAR still has FOX for the first twelve Sprint Cup races.
And until around 1997, NASCAR was only on ABC Sports once per season, so really this isn't new for them.
 
shackleford said:
landtuna said:
Now NASCAR joins the NHL, a lot of NCAA football, bunches of MLB as a cable-only sport.

OTA viewers get infomercials instead of sports.

And networks wonder why their audience is shrinking.
Click to expand...

NASCAR still has FOX for the first twelve Sprint Cup races.
And until around 1997, NASCAR was only on ABC Sports once per season, so really this isn't new for them.
Click to expand...

I heard some promo on FOX during one of the playoff games today about how NASCAR is "returning to its roots" this year. Not exactly sure what they meant by that. Is FOX going to carry more races?
 
No, the TV contract NASCAR has is locked in until 2015. (A contract for 2016 should be announced in 2013 or so) FOX actually produces 16 Cup Series races per season, one exhibition race on FOX, 2 qualifying races on SPEED, the 12 points paying FOX races, and the All Star Race on SPEED. FOX also airs 2 (I think) Camping World Truck races a year, and ABC airs (last year it was 4) Nationwide series races a year.

I saw the promo too about "returing to their roots." I'm assuming that means that they have listened to the outcry from fans to make TV coverage better, as well as NASCAR improving on track action. The biggest complaint has been NASCAR on FOX's mascot "Digger," that has annoyed fans since his creation. NoF head commentator Mike Joy said in a recent radio interview that Digger would likely vanish this season, and the coverage would get more serious. Not to mention that NASCAR has an announcement coming up this week, during which they should announce the removal of several rules that were conceived for safety, (yellow line rule, no pass zones, etc) as well as removing the contrversial rear decklid wing sometime in March.

As far as the ESPN deal goes, NASCAR let them do that, (after a LONG approval process, I'm sure) obviously due to ABC Sports and ESPN being virtually the same thing. If they were still two different networks, I'm sure there would have to be a lot of $ involved.
 
This is wonderful. At least twice in the past three years I've had "America's Funniest Home Videos" joined in progress or not shown at all. I don't know if I ever got to see the entire episode.
 
vchimpanzee said:
This is wonderful. At least twice in the past three years I've had "America's Funniest Home Videos" joined in progress or not shown at all. I don't know if I ever got to see the entire episode.
Click to expand...

You can't really blame ABC for that one, actually. NASCAR Race Control are the ones who has to okay whether or not they can move a race if it has ran over its scheduled length. Back in '08 when ABC moved the last 20 laps of the Phoenix race to ESPN when NASCAR didn't okay it, Brian France threw a hissy fit, and made sure that didn't happen in 2009.
 
vchimpanzee said:
This is wonderful. At least twice in the past three years I've had "America's Funniest Home Videos" joined in progress or not shown at all. I don't know if I ever got to see the entire episode.
Click to expand...
Last night I recognized two of the three finalists but couldn't remember anything else. My guess is they repeated one of the episodes that got joined in progress. One down, and how many to go?
 
With stuff like this I wonder if Disney even wants sports on ABC.

landtuna said:
Now NASCAR joins the NHL, a lot of NCAA football, bunches of MLB as a cable-only sport.

OTA viewers get infomercials instead of sports.

And networks wonder why their audience is shrinking.
Click to expand...

A bit of a derail, but I wish people would stop lumping in the NHL in this argument, as it never had that much of a presence on US broadcast tv to begin with. Now the NBA on the other hand...
 
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