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NBC Wins Second-Half NASCAR Season Away From ESPN & TNT

With NASCAR ratings slipping in recent years (This year's Pocono 400 in June was the lowest rated race since a rained out Monday morning race in 2000), I'm sure that, aside from money, a big factor in this was the fact that NASCAR's best numbers to date came during their time with NBC. Maybe there's a hope at recreating that, as NBC did an exceptional job of promoting the series and generating interest during their first contract from 2001-2006. (NASCAR started controlling television rights in 1999. Before that, it was individual race tracks.) I'm sure they see more of an opportunity to grow themselves with NBC as opposed to the crowded ESPN, or with TNT who seemingly have given NASCAR broadcasts a B-level production when compared to their NBA coverage.

It should be interesting to note that, for the first time since the heyday of ESPN's SpeedWorld in the late 80s-mid 90s, NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, and ARCA (A smaller stock car series once relatively prominent, now struggling to field 20 cars each week.) will all be on the same network. It could be beneficial for all series involved if NBC leans toward a route of unity between them.

It's also interesting that 6 Sprint Cup and 17 Nationwide races still remain up for grabs to any network that wants them. FOX is likely to get the 6 Cup races, but it doesn't seem they want the Nationwide Series, as it runs on Saturdays and could interfere in MLB coverage, either on network or FS1.
 
As long as I can watch NASCAR without subscribing to cable I'll be happy. I had a cable subscription sometime around 1984ish for about a month. I spent more time channel surfing looking for something to watch when I was home than actually watching anything so I dropped it.
 
shackleford said:
It should be interesting to note that, for the first time since the heyday of ESPN's SpeedWorld in the late 80s-mid 90s, NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, and ARCA (A smaller stock car series once relatively prominent, now struggling to field 20 cars each week.) will all be on the same network. It could be beneficial for all series involved if NBC leans toward a route of unity between them.
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IndyCar and F1 have had their share of troubles recently. IndyCar has been struggling to fill the field in the 33-car Indianapolis 500 the last few years, and has only about 24 regular drivers on the circuit this year. And Formula 1 almost tried to become irrelevant by not having a race in the USA or Canada for a couple of years in the 2000s. (They now have races in Austin, TX and Montreal and may be on an upswing in popularity)
 
I wonder if ESPN will try to get more golf - it certainly helps during the summer before college football and the NFL start, as NBC can only push so much material down to NBCSN and the Golf Channel.

This probably also isn't a huge loss in light of ESPN landing the US Open in Tennis - that will chew up a good two weeks of programming in August and September. There is plenty of college football inventory for Saturdays, and ESPN can fill Sundays with things ESPNU only has so much room for, like volleyball and soccer. ESPN might even get to show the NHRA live, as they are appear to be the ultimate troopers about being on tape delay.
 
William_Yeager said:
ESPN might even get to show the NHRA live, as they are appear to be the ultimate troopers about being on tape delay.
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And for good reason. Drag racing shows normally cover only the Top Fuel and Funny Car rounds. These begin as a 16-car field and race two-up until the winner is decided. Unfortunately, in between each round the remaining cars are almost completely rebuilt - a process taking more than an hour in which time less exciting classes of vehicles are racing. This whole process usually takes six to eight hours. Not likely that any TV outlet would schedule that much time, or be able to find a sponsor, for that long a show.

Equally important, drag racing is an activity that cannot be totally enjoyed on TV. You have to be there, walking the pits, talking to the drivers and pit crews and watching what goes into each round of racing. The sights, sounds and smells are not capable of being transmitted on TV.
 
It's a great deal; judging from how little ESPN really cared about NASCAR and seemed to treat it solely as an excuse to bilk race sponsors out of money to get their name on the ticker and in SportsCenter and their coverage was bland and boring, it'll be good to see it on a network which will give it the respect it deserves. Plus, no more shoves of shame of Nationwide races to the rolling blather channel that is now ESPNews.

I assume then that the heavy use of NBCSN helped being it back to the network; one of the only reasons it left NBC is because of the Sunday Night Football deal which would've forced CNBC cutaways for most of the Chase if they renewed (or the 'will never happen' "NASCAR by Bravo" series :D) before the Comcast merger. Also it takes much of the bite out of NBC unable to get many more college football packages in the fall; they get guaranteed programming with the Nationwide series on most Saturdays for the SN through the summer and fall.
 
Wow! NBC is serious about developing this.

Bad for viewers though. TNT and ESPN have wide clearance, NBCSN less so. Some people will miss out on races.

Good question about Fox. I do expect they'll have some tie ins with the portion they air on their OTA channel though.
 
When Fox started airing NASCAR, it put some of its races (the night races primarily) on FX.

I lived in a traditionally strong NASCAR town, which had lots of old-school fans (many driven off since, but that's another topic).

The local cable provider didn't have FX. People dealt with missing the Busch races and practice sessions ... but when the date of the first FX Cup race approached, they almost rioted at the local cable company over missing a race.

FX was added two days before the race.

Same will probably happen with NBCSN.

With all the inventory, would it make sense for NBC to start up a motorsports cable channel to replace Speed?
 
Judging from what I've seen posted this is definitely a win-win for both NASCAR and NBC Sports Group.

And I agree 100%.

To me ESPN failed on making NASCAR a part of their family after re-acquiring the rights in 2007, and since then they never got it right.

TNT, on the other hand, had the potential because they were using mainly SPEED personalities for the six races they had, but it feels boring

and inactive for most of the coverage.

Clearly NBC Sports Group sees the potential to take over a major fan base just as they have Hockey, Horse Racing, Soccer, and now Auto Racing.

To me, it's all about content regardless how good or bad it is; If you have very little (CBS Sports Network) then you can't position yourself as a major

competitor.

That's what keeps NBCSN able to compete with ESPN and FOX Sports 1, is that content is king.

Of course they're still those 6 Races and First half of the Nationwide races up in the air, I personally hope NBCSN picks them up,

because I'm not sure if FOX Sports 1 has the room for it with MLB during spring time.
 
Will espn go in panic mode again oh no another fox sports one more competition ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh just kidding!
 
I don't follow NASCAR, but if ESPN could live without them last decade, they certainly can now. Besides, NBCSN could use programming like this during the hockey offseason (if not in general).

William_Yeager said:
I wonder if ESPN will try to get more golf - it certainly helps during the summer before college football and the NFL start, as NBC can only push so much material down to NBCSN and the Golf Channel.
Click to expand...

Not when the Golf Channel has the cable rights to all non-majors. They're in a 15-year deal that started in 2007.

Also, I checked and Fox this year started a new contract for their portion of the NASCAR season that ends in 2022.
 
I think that the seven NASCAR Sprint Cup races on NBC's broadcast network will likely be the Brickyard "400" (which has become the second-biggest race on the schedule) and the final six races of the season, with those being lead-ins to the "Sunday Night Football" pre-game show.

I can even see a scenario where a race that goes past 7 P.M. EDT on a Sunday night during NFL season (because of rain, too many caution flags, or a red flag that stops the race) might continue on NBC's broadcast network until 7:30 EDT (give or take a few minutes) with an abbreviated NFL pre-game show. But I doubt it will happen very much, if at all.

But what I think may occur is that late-season races may be slotted to run until 6:30 P.M. EDT, so affiliates in the East get a half-hour of local news "hammocked" between the race and the football pre-game show. In some markets, a 6:30 P.M. Sunday local newscast could get a big audience given the NASCAR lead-in and NFL lead-out, so much so that the prime anchor team (read: those who do news, sports, and weather weeknights at 6 and 11 P.M. ET) might be called-in to do a few Sundays.
 
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