BRISTOL: ESPN/ABC's annual middle finger to NASCAR fans

Here's a list of which ABC stations will be airing preseason football instead of NASCAR. If this is you, plan accordingly.

Nashville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Louisville, Kentucky
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Charlotte, North Carolina
Washington, DC
Baltimore, Maryland (WMAR ABC2 will have the race, WJLA ABC7 will not)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
St. Joseph, Missouri
Houston, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Austin, Texas
Casper, Wyoming
 
The race is on Bristol and ABC isn't televising on the tracks main local affiliates?

And also weird that states without teams are blacked out for preseason football..

I don't understandz the televizinz.
 
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Yep, here in Nashville our local ABC affiliate WKRN-2 broadcasts all the Titans preseason games, one of which is Saturday night. So off to ESPN with the race.
 
Oh yeah Titans football. No offense but I forgot about your football team. Lmao.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Here's a list of which ABC stations will be airing preseason football instead of NASCAR. If this is you, plan accordingly.

Nashville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Louisville, Kentucky
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Charlotte, North Carolina
Washington, DC
Baltimore, Maryland (WMAR ABC2 will have the race, WJLA ABC7 will not)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
St. Joseph, Missouri
Houston, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Austin, Texas
Casper, Wyoming
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Whoa.....Charlotte? WTF?
 
Same argument, different year. They're going to go with their ratings. That's how they stay in business. If my market had the Steelers play at the same time as the race, the Steelers would win out every time.
 
Fvcking bull****....

Sorry for the harsh words, but come on now...
 
Jeffrey00 said:
I know. ESPN on ABC. So why doesn't ESPN just put it back on ESPN or ESPN2?
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I'm guessing simply because it's an ABC scheduled race like every other year. Aren't most of these markets simply showing the race on an alternate channel already? That's exactly what they do here in the Pittsburgh market when there's a conflict.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I'm guessing simply because it's an ABC scheduled race like every other year. Aren't most of these markets simply showing the race on an alternate channel already? That's exactly what they do here in the Pittsburgh market when there's a conflict.
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I know... Just saying ESPN knows this happens every year, so would best business be to move it off of ABC?
 
Jeffrey00 said:
I know... Just saying ESPN knows this happens every year, so would best business be to move it off of ABC?
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I'm confused. Doesn't ABC own ESPN? I'm thinking that ABC wants the Bristol night race for the ratings. I'd venture to guess that even though the race is preempted in those select markets it is still reaching a far greater audience on ABC then it would ever see on ESPN.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I'm guessing simply because it's an ABC scheduled race like every other year. Aren't most of these markets simply showing the race on an alternate channel already? That's exactly what they do here in the Pittsburgh market when there's a conflict.
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Maybe cable's changed but I know that, when I had cable, they didn't carry any of those "alternate channels".

In the past, ESPN has put out a list of which markets wouldn't have the race on ABC, which channels the race would be shown on and, in many of those markets, would have the race on ESPN2.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I'm confused. Doesn't ABC own ESPN? I'm thinking that ABC wants the Bristol night race for the ratings. I'd venture to guess that even though the race is preempted in those select markets it is still reaching a far greater audience on ABC then it would ever see on ESPN.
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Correct. Charlotte, which was shown on ABC last year, had higher ratings than the nine other Chase races which were all shown on ESPN. And the ratings for Bristol and Richmond both increased when they were moved from ESPN to ABC.
 
ESPN just released the alternate channel info:

August 21, 2014

Saturday Night NASCAR Race at Bristol on Alternate Channels in Some Markets

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol (TN) Motor Speedway is being broadcast live nationally by ABC on Saturday night, Aug. 23, but viewing will be affected in 15 markets due to NFL preseason games airing on local ABC affiliates.

In all 15 markets where the race telecast is being preempted, NASCAR fans who are satellite TV subscribers will be able to watch the race on ESPN alternate channels (DirecTV – channel 209-1; DISH – channel 145). For cable subscribers, the race will air on alternate channels in 11 of the 15 markets.
The telecast begins with NASCAR Countdown at 7 p.m. ET and the race’s green flag is scheduled for 7:43 p.m. The affected markets:

Austin, Texas – race telecast on digital cable: Time Warner channels 811 and 1240, Suddenlink channel 721, AT&T Channel 3024.

Charlotte, N.C. – race telecast on WAXN TV64. Available on Time Warner channel 1230, Charter channel 703, Compas channel 16, Comporium channel 110. WSOC-TV will join race in progress after football game ends.

Casper, Wyo. – only available to satellite TV subscribers

Cheyenne, Wyo. – only available to satellite TV subscribers

Duluth, Minn. – race telecast on digital cable: Charter channel 398, Mediacom channel 113.

Harrisburg, Pa. – race telecast on digital cable: Comcast channel 246, Verizon channel 461, Blue Ridge Cable channel 152, Kuhn channel 67, Nittany Media 228.

Houston – race telecast on digital cable: Comcast channels 315 and 685.

Louisville, Ky. – race telecast on digital cable: Comcast channel 432, Time Warner channel 207.

Nashville, Tenn. – race telecast on digital cable: Comcast channel 245, Charter channel 136.

St. Joseph, Mo. – only available to satellite TV subscribers

San Antonio, Tex. – only available to satellite TV subscribers

Sioux Falls, S.D. – race telecast on digital cable: Mid-Continent channels 596 and 614. (Also DISH channel 36).

Tulsa, Okla. – race telecast on digital cable: Cox channel 131.

Washington, D.C. – race telecast on digital cable: Comcast channel 205, Cox channel 806, Verizon FiOS channel 467.

Weslaco, Tex. – race telecast on digital cable: Time Warner channel 877.

In Milwaukee, Little Rock, Ark., Jonesboro, Ark., Fort Smith, Ark., and Tyler, Texas, the local ABC affiliates will not airNASCAR Countdown due to airing local newscasts but all will join ABC for the race telecast at 7:30 p.m. ET.
 
San Antonio, Texas is the 36th largest media market in the country, serving over two million people. The race is available only on ESPN2A (which is only on DIRECTV and DISH) in that market.
 
July 4, 2015.

nascaronnbc.jpg
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Washington at Baltimore
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Still a bunch of Deadskins fans around here from before the Panthers arrived in town, not to mention Steve Smith playing for the Ravens.

Nascar isn't even on FM radio in Charlotte anymore, that's when I knew there was a problem with the sport. Charlotte is home field for Nascar....
 
I don't see this changing anytime soon. Plenty of NBC affiliates show preseason football and NBCSN will always be in fewer homes.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I don't see this changing anytime soon. Plenty of NBC affiliates show preseason football and NBCSN will always be in fewer homes.
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NBC's also airing seven races on broadcast next year, versus three on ESPN/ABC. And I imagine those seven races will consist of Daytona, the three elimination races, the finale and two other races.

The Bristol races were always on cable until ESPN tried this experiment in 2010 of putting the Saturday night races on broadcast.
 
Normally, I would say that everyone here should send off an email to both ESPN and ABC (and particularly their local ABC stations) saying that we don’t appreciate them pulling this crap. Since this is the last year ESPN/ABC will be carrying NASCAR however, they almost certainly couldn’t give a damn.

On the other hand, I think everyone here should contact NASCAR and let them know that if they are really concerned about the lower TV ratings they have been receiving lately, this is PRECISELY the kind of sh*t by networks that they shouldn’t be putting up with. You never know, someone there might actually read it and do something about it.
 
I can understand this game being put on the local ABC affiliate instead of the race in the Washington, Baltimore, and immediately surrounding markets, but how does this game get on ABC in these other places like Texas, Missouri, Wyoming, etc? This is not a national game being carried by ABC/ESPN, therefore I don't understand how those places are even being offered this game.
 
Tumbleweed said:
Normally, I would say that everyone here should send off an email to both ESPN and ABC (and particularly their local ABC stations) saying that we don’t appreciate them pulling this crap. Since this is the last year ESPN/ABC will be carrying NASCAR however, they almost certainly couldn’t give a damn.

On the other hand, I think everyone here should contact NASCAR and let them know that if they are really concerned about the lower TV ratings they have been receiving lately, this is PRECISELY the kind of sh*t by networks that they shouldn’t be putting up with. You never know, someone there might actually read it and do something about it.
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I think this is exactly why Nascar is allowing NBC and Fox to put these races on their Cable networks opposed to terrestrial networks. ABC/ESPN will say they are handcuffed by their affiliates and can't make them show the races. Since Nascar has a contract with ABC/ESPN they can't have any say what the affiliates do either. However Nascar will have a contract with FS1 and NBCSN and Nascar can force their hand with those networks.
 
carolinabuff said:
I can understand this game being put on the local ABC affiliate instead of the race in the Washington, Baltimore, and immediately surrounding markets, but how does this game get on ABC in these other places like Texas, Missouri, Wyoming, etc? This is not a national game being carried by ABC/ESPN, therefore I don't understand how those places are even being offered this game.
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I'm assuming it is different games in different markets. IE Houston-Denver, Minnesota-Kansas City...
 
Go Panthers said:
Still a bunch of Deadskins fans around here from before the Panthers arrived in town, not to mention Steve Smith playing for the Ravens.

Nascar isn't even on FM radio in Charlotte anymore, that's when I knew there was a problem with the sport. Charlotte is home field for Nascar....
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Yeah, I should have known the answer before I asked the question on that one. No different up here in the Raleigh market, although apparently JUUUUST different enough to keep the race on ABC.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Same argument, different year. They're going to go with their ratings. That's how they stay in business. If my market had the Steelers play at the same time as the race, the Steelers would win out every time.
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And for a very good reason.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
I guess we will find out next year when the schedule is release and find out which races with be on NBCSN and NBC
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What I'm getting at is some number of people will always be SOL. There will be those who can't watch on their local broadcast affiliate because of preseason football and those who can't watch because cable channels don't have the same distribution figures due to their nature. From '01-'06 this was one of the lower-rated races in the second half of the season because it was on TNT. There's a good chance this will be the most-watched race of the year post-Coke 600.
 
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ztevans said:
I'm assuming it is different games in different markets. IE Houston-Denver, Minnesota-Kansas City...
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But for preseason games there are 2 categories - the national games, which there's usually about 2 or 3 of each week. Then there's the games for the local team, but they're broadcast by one of the local stations not one of the national networks. So why is a Redskin game being shown on all these affiliates that clearly aren't Redskin markets?

For example, if you're out of market for Denver then you're not going to get any of the Bronco preseason games unless it's a national broadcast.
 
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