ESPN moving Nationwide races to "ESPNEWS"

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Nationwide at Richmond in April and Nationwide at Kentucky in September moved from ESPN to ESPNews. Nationwide race at Richmond moved to NFL Draft and NBA even though NFL Draft is also on NFL Network. Kentucky moved due to College Football.

ESPNews is only available to 75 million homes and, for many of those homes, it's on a second or third tier package.
 
They used to have Cup races on FX. At least ESPNews is available to pretty much anyone that wants it. And it's available in HD for most satellite and cable providers.
 
Matthew2470 said:
They used to have Cup races on FX. At least ESPNews is available to pretty much anyone that wants it. And it's available in HD for most satellite and cable providers.
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And FX became available nationwide. It's not available to anyone who wants it, it's only AVAILABLE to 75 million homes.

It's a bad sign when you look at the bigger picture. The Cup races are moving from broadcast to cable and now the Nationwide races are moving from broadcast and cable to second and third tier stations. I think NASCAR would be wise to hold back on renewing with ESPN IF ESPN wants to renew and see what NBC will offer.

It's an even worse sign when you consider more and more people are dropping cable television. EPL soccer just worked their way to NBC and NBCSN. F1 just worked their way on to NBC. MLB's worked their way in to getting more games nationally televised and more of those games on FOX. College football conference contracts are opening up now.
 
I think that if the idea is to keep the casual fan hooked to the sport then multiple networks isn't the way to go. Placing races on a channel that further limits viewers doesn't seem very smart either. At the same time though, I like that all of the Truck racing is on what is currently the Speed channel. I sure would like to see the rest of the racing on a dedicated channel such as that. Tune in next week, same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel. Wait, what? o_O

I'm a dedicated fan. I'll be there regardless of what channel it's on. The casual fan, maybe not so much.
 
"Why bother growing the sport when we can parcel out the season to the highest bidder and grow our bank accounts".
~ Brian France, 2002 family Christmas dinner~
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
And FX became available nationwide. It's not available to anyone who wants it, it's only AVAILABLE to 75 million homes.

It's a bad sign when you look at the bigger picture. The Cup races are moving from broadcast to cable and now the Nationwide races are moving from broadcast and cable to second and third tier stations. I think NASCAR would be wise to hold back on renewing with ESPN IF ESPN wants to renew and see what NBC will offer.

It's an even worse sign when you consider more and more people are dropping cable television. EPL soccer just worked their way to NBC and NBCSN. F1 just worked their way on to NBC. MLB's worked their way in to getting more games nationally televised and more of those games on FOX. College football conference contracts are opening up now.
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Can you explain the networks thinking . Why , when you want high ratings to attract advertisers , would you put the race on a second or third tier channel where some fans can't get it or can't find it . I thought ratings meant everything.
 
[EMAIL said:
ted@economy, post: 585332, member: 5037[/EMAIL]] I thought ratings meant everything.
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They do, which is why nascar loses out to other content.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
And FX became available nationwide. It's not available to anyone who wants it, it's only AVAILABLE to 75 million homes.

It's a bad sign when you look at the bigger picture. The Cup races are moving from broadcast to cable and now the Nationwide races are moving from broadcast and cable to second and third tier stations. I think NASCAR would be wise to hold back on renewing with ESPN IF ESPN wants to renew and see what NBC will offer.

It's an even worse sign when you consider more and more people are dropping cable television. EPL soccer just worked their way to NBC and NBCSN. F1 just worked their way on to NBC. MLB's worked their way in to getting more games nationally televised and more of those games on FOX. College football conference contracts are opening up now.
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According to the latest available census data there are 117mil households which means that ESPNNews is available to 65% of them. 100mil have access to ESPN and ESPN2. It's not ideal but it's still very good. If people really want ESPNNews they can go with a provider that includes it in their package.

We need to remember that NNS is just a support series and has low ratings. ESPN/Disney is just trying to maximize their ad rates. Obviously we'd love for all NASCAR events to be broadcast live on major networks but that just isn't the case.

As far as FX is concerned, they used NASCAR to increase their penetration from 58mil to 76mil households (currently FX is available in 90mil households) as a result of NASCAR fans calling their providers. Maybe ESPN is hoping that NNS fans will help to increase it's presence.:)
 
Matthew2470 said:
According to the latest available census data there are 117mil households which means that ESPNNews is available to 65% of them. 100mil have access to ESPN and ESPN2. It's not ideal but it's still very good. If people really want ESPNNews they can go with a provider that includes it in their package.

We need to remember that NNS is just a support series and has low ratings. ESPN/Disney is just trying to maximize their ad rates. Obviously we'd love for all NASCAR events to be broadcast live on major networks but that just isn't the case.

As far as FX is concerned, they used NASCAR to increase their penetration from 58mil to 76mil households (currently FX is available in 90mil households) as a result of NASCAR fans calling their providers. Maybe ESPN is hoping that NNS fans will help to increase it's presence.:)
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Thanks for that very in-depth explaination, Mr. Neilson. Surely, nobody could have said it better.

 
Times are tough for some. I know several families who have cut back to the basic cable service. Moving races to obscure 2nd, 3rd tier programming that costs more and has a limited audience doesn't seem like a plan to grow the sport to me.
 
Bobw said:
Times are tough for some. I know several families who have cut back to the basic cable service. Moving races to obscure 2nd, 3rd tier programming that costs more and has a limited audience doesn't seem like a plan to grow the sport to me.
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I think ESPN's focus is on growing their bottom line. NASCAR needs to focus on growing the sport and they'll get better access.
 
Every business is concerned with growing the bottom line but NASCAR putting races on channels that a good number of fans can't get or puts a strain on resources just doesn't seem a smart way to me.
If the Truck, NNW, and Cup races were broadcast on over the air and basic cable I'd guess viewership would increase greatly
 
At least they'll be on ESPN News. Some college games are kicked all the way to espn3.com which are online only.
 
Bobw said:
Every business is concerned with growing the bottom line but NASCAR putting races on channels that a good number of fans can't get or puts a strain on resources just doesn't seem a smart way to me.
If the Truck, NNW, and Cup races were broadcast on over the air and basic cable I'd guess viewership would increase greatly
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OK, I agree. It's nascar that causes this by taking the biggest check rather than the broadcaster that best fits their fans needs.
 
Bobw said:
Every business is concerned with growing the bottom line but NASCAR putting races on channels that a good number of fans can't get or puts a strain on resources just doesn't seem a smart way to me.
If the Truck, NNW, and Cup races were broadcast on over the air and basic cable I'd guess viewership would increase greatly
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I don't think it's NASCAR that putting it on secondary channels, I think it's ESPN. And NFL is going to win out every time.
 
VaDirt said:
I don't think it's NASCAR that putting it on secondary channels, I think it's ESPN. And NFL is going to win out every time.
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nascar can certainly refuse the contract and take a lower offer from a more accessable channel. Instead, they let ESPN use them to promote and expand their 3rd tier channel.
 
Nascar take a lower offer? You feeling ok? Bump your head or something? Nascar turn down money? I'll never live long enough to see it, don't think anyone will.
 
VaDirt said:
I don't think it's NASCAR that putting it on secondary channels, I think it's ESPN. And NFL is going to win out every time.
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The NFL Draft will outdraw a NNS race every day of the week, probably most Cup races too.
 
ted@economy said:
Uh , maybe Andy can explain it a little more clearly. I always go to Andy with media questions.
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College football and the NFL Draft/NBA Finals will outdraw NASCAR any day of the week. This has happened in the past but, in the past, the races have been simulcast on SPEED. This, ultimately, is a deal where NASCAR isn't growing. Every other sport is trickling down to basic cable and broadcast. UFC is slowly trickling down to broadcast. Hell, even the English Premier League (soccer) has managed to trickle down from PPV and third tier packages to basic cable and broadcast.

As for the college football stuff -- ESPN is contractually obligated to air those games and to air certain conferences on certain networks. The games are supposed to last three hours but they never do. Nationwide races are shuffled around all the time and it sounds like ESPN's acting pre-emptively to prevent that. There used to be a problem when NASCAR races were being moved from ABC to ESPN2 and ESPN to ESPNCL. And then there's the numerous incidents of IndyCar races moving from ESPNCL to ESPN to ESPN2 to ABC back to ESPN2. It sounds like ESPN's trying to prevent that.

Larger picture, NASCAR's declining popularity is going to be a problem. With more and more events trickling down from PPV and third tier cable to broadcast and basic cable, NASCAR's going to be in a situation where this keeps happening. Obviously, FOX will move races to FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 to expand the presence of those networks but there isn't room on the ESPN networks for NASCAR.

The only thing NASCAR can do to keep the Nationwide Series available to most homes is to cut ESPN out in the next TV deal and sign with NBC (who is, from what I've heard, very interested in coming back in).

Matthew, "Available to" doesn't mean "65% of homes HAVE it". I'm guessing most people who don't have it don't have the $30-$50 extra for the tier package.
 
FenderBumper said:
nascar can certainly refuse the contract and take a lower offer from a more accessable channel. Instead, they let ESPN use them to promote and expand their 3rd tier channel.
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Bobw said:
Nascar take a lower offer? You feeling ok? Bump your head or something? Nascar turn down money? I'll never live long enough to see it, don't think anyone will.
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Or, a broadcast network which has wide open Sunday afternoon programming and a cable sports network on basic cable in most homes might outbid ESPN.

NBC just outbid FOX for F1 and the English Premier League. Not to mention, if there is a conflict and a race has to be moved off NBC and NBCSN can't run it, they have MSNBC and CNBC they could toss their programming to.
 
You ever wonder why Bowling is on ESPN during the NFL playoffs? They are trying to offset the points system they use. If they didn't have something, the other channel would score even higher. The NW series is just that. A tool for ESPN in the ratings game.
 
Bobw said:
Times are tough for some. I know several families who have cut back to the basic cable service. Moving races to obscure 2nd, 3rd tier programming that costs more and has a limited audience doesn't seem like a plan to grow the sport to me.
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Okay so waiting for Andy to clear things up wasn't that great a plan . I'm thinkin I'll use ol' Bobw as the voice of reason .
 
Bobw said:
Times are tough for some. I know several families who have cut back to the basic cable service. Moving races to obscure 2nd, 3rd tier programming that costs more and has a limited audience doesn't seem like a plan to grow the sport to me.
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But, again, the problem here is deciding which one is more important. College Football gets higher ratings than Cup races, not to mention Nationwide races.

Bobw said:
Every business is concerned with growing the bottom line but NASCAR putting races on channels that a good number of fans can't get or puts a strain on resources just doesn't seem a smart way to me.
If the Truck, NNW, and Cup races were broadcast on over the air and basic cable I'd guess viewership would increase greatly
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Truck Series contract is locked. Nationwide is up for grabs, as are ESPN and TNT's portions of the Cup schedule. NBC and NBC Sports Network are the only realistic alternatives to ESPN and ABC.
 
Bobw said:
Times are tough for some. I know several families who have cut back to the basic cable service. Moving races to obscure 2nd, 3rd tier programming that costs more and has a limited audience doesn't seem like a plan to grow the sport to me.
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I hope during my lifetime that I will see a la carte cable options. I have over 1000 plus channels but I only watch about 15-20 of them and all for various sports. I'd love to be able to just pay for those and those alone.
 
MOEJOE said:
You ever wonder why Bowling is on ESPN during the NFL playoffs? They are trying to offset the points system they use. If they didn't have something, the other channel would score even higher. The NW series is just that. A tool for ESPN in the ratings game.
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That's exactly what the chase is all about. A playoff to try to compete with baseball's playoffs and the start of the NFL season. I believe this is why Brian copied the NFL's 'buy' weeks to extend the season.
 
FenderBumper said:
That's exactly what the chase is all about. A playoff to try to compete with baseball's playoffs and the start of the NFL season. I believe this is why Brian copied the NFL's 'buy' weeks to extend the season.
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soooooooooooo.... there are TV executives in Brians office writing NASCAR legislation? I like your thinking.
 
MOEJOE said:
soooooooooooo.... there are TV executives in Brians office writing NASCAR legislation? I like your thinking.
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It's more like 'do this, and we'll give you this much more'. Brian sure isn't making these decisions based on a desire to reach as many fans as possible.
 
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