FOX Sports looking to broadcast Nationwide Series

HoneyBadger

HoneyBadger

I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
90,275
Points
1,033
Location
A short track somewhere
Starting to look like the "new" TV package will look a lot like the old one (2001-2006).

The most interesting part of the article talks about where FOX wants to add more Cup races:
Sources said FOX is looking to perhaps add some of the Cup races broadcast by TNT to its lineup and broadcast the Nationwide Series during the same period on the schedule. The Nationwide races would likely appear on FOX Sports 1, which replaces Speed Channel in August.

In other words, TNT is out. :dance:

http://www.thatsracin.com/2013/06/28/109726/fox-sports-looking-to-expand-nascar.html
 
Also, remember, ESPN had the opportunity to sign with NASCAR before now and secure their rights for Sprint Cup and Nationwide instead of entering a bidding war. Either ESPN doesn't want NASCAR or they thought they would be able to pay less for broadcast rights. Either way, it doesn't appear ESPN wants to pay what they're currently paying for NASCAR - my guess because they don't want the Nationwide Series.

All signs are pointing to FOX and NBC.
 
ESPN said they'd only want to keep the Nationwide Series portion that runs concurrently with their Cup schedule - so everything from Indy to Homestead. It's not worth it to them to travel week-to-week early on for just the second-tier series.
 
FLRacingFan said:
ESPN said they'd only want to keep the Nationwide Series portion that runs concurrently with their Cup schedule - so everything from Indy to Homestead. It's not worth it to them to travel week-to-week early on for just the second-tier series.
Click to expand...


Nationwide Series means nothing to ESPN then. They only want the races that they'd already be at for Cup. In other words, they think they can scale back a little and get NASCAR TV rights for less money. Meanwhile, FOX paid a whole hell of a lot more for broadcast rights than they did last time and NBC, which has no other options for it's 24 hour sports channel, is willing to do whatever it takes to get NASCAR back.

I don't see any scenario playing out where NASCAR returns to ESPN or TNT.
 
Title of article should just be "Fox Sports 1 wants to piss in ESPN's cheerios anywhere they can."
 
Don't quote me on this as I'm not in any way saying something that's a verified fact. I could very well be wrong, but from my understanding, NBC Sports Network paid ARCA for broadcast rights and is already looking to expand on their existing deal.

If that's true and NBC's buying ARCA TV rights, all I can do is ask, what's that tell you about NBC's interest in NASCAR vs. ESPN's interest?
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
FOX paid a whole hell of a lot more for broadcast rights than they did last time and NBC, which has no other options for it's 24 hour sports channel, is willing to do whatever it takes to get NASCAR back.

I don't see any scenario playing out where NASCAR returns to ESPN or TNT.
Click to expand...

I still fear a Fox sports premium is in our future. If that happens, I'll watch Hockey and Football instead.
 
With Turner losing NASCAR.com I doubt TNT comes back any time soon. I did see an article that mentioned the possibility of FOX getting the first 13, NBC getting the next 12-13, and ESPN getting the final 10-11. It seems strange to have three different networks each basically get one-third of the season but I do think NBC wants NASCAR back pretty badly and NASCAR probably also wants to maintain a presence on the "Worldwide Leader".
 
FLRacingFan said:
With Turner losing NASCAR.com I doubt TNT comes back any time soon. I did see an article that mentioned the possibility of FOX getting the first 13, NBC getting the next 12-13, and ESPN getting the final 10-11. It seems strange to have three different networks each basically get one-third of the season but I do think NBC wants NASCAR back pretty badly and NASCAR probably also wants to maintain a presence on the "Worldwide Leader".
Click to expand...

TNT's out. That's something that I feel safe enough to call a fact.

I think NASCAR wants a SportsCenter presence more than ESPN wants NASCAR. I doubt NASCAR wants a presence on the "Worldwide Leader" bad enough that they'd turn down more money from NBC.

IF NBC's paying for ARCA (ARCA pays FOX and ESPN won't even let ARCA pay them for TV coverage), I'd say it's safe to say NBC wants it more.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Also, remember, ESPN had the opportunity to sign with NASCAR before now and secure their rights for Sprint Cup and Nationwide instead of entering a bidding war. Either ESPN doesn't want NASCAR or they thought they would be able to pay less for broadcast rights. Either way, it doesn't appear ESPN wants to pay what they're currently paying for NASCAR - my guess because they don't want the Nationwide Series.

All signs are pointing to FOX and NBC.
Click to expand...



Wasn't there a rumor a while back that ESPN just wanted the chase races?
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
TNT's out. That's something that I feel safe enough to call a fact.

I think NASCAR wants a SportsCenter presence more than ESPN wants NASCAR. I doubt NASCAR wants a presence on the "Worldwide Leader" bad enough that they'd turn down more money from NBC.

IF NBC's paying for ARCA (ARCA pays FOX and ESPN won't even let ARCA pay them for TV coverage), I'd say it's safe to say NBC wants it more.
Click to expand...



I think ESPN will retain the chase. NASCAR will want the chase races on SportsCenter, and ESPN will get a reduced price. NASCAR will say they get a reduced price because they lowered their race count. Win/Win. I don't mind ESPN all that much, just because there is more NASCAR talk while the races are on ESPN.
 
Just don't put the practice and qualifying on some third tier channel I don't get.

I hate change.
 
PeopleAreStrange said:
I don't remember how NBC was, but I hope FOX doesn't replace any ESPN races.
Click to expand...


FOX used to be better than NBC at first. Better graphics and better overall presentation. Also, fans always thought FOX had fewer commercials though, mainly, it was because FOX's commercials were more spread out while NBC was overloaded with commercials during cautions and had more in the middle of the race while airing the end of the race with far more limited interruption.

I personally enjoyed NBC more. At first, I liked FOX a lot more but Darrell's shtick got old, fast, and became more frequent. FOX was great before it became the Darrell Waltrip Show. And now it's the Darrell and Mikey Show.
 
PeopleAreStrange said:
FOX is a downgrade from ESPN.
Click to expand...


Nothing's worse than TNT but FOX has gotten really bad. They brought a lot of innovations to racing coverage but it seems like they're focused more on inventing new gadgets and new graphics each week instead of just covering the damn race. And any day I have to hear Michael Waltrip yap is a bad day. Darrell's actually pretty tame and insightful during practice and qualifying. I don't know why he's so terrible on race day. Michael Waltrip offers absolutely nothing and is just downright irritating.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Nothing's worse than TNT but FOX has gotten really bad. They brought a lot of innovations to racing coverage but it seems like they're focused more on inventing new gadgets and new graphics each week instead of just covering the damn race. And any day I have to hear Michael Waltrip yap is a bad day. Darrell's actually pretty tame and insightful during practice and qualifying. I don't know why he's so terrible on race day. Michael Waltrip offers absolutely nothing and is just downright irritating.
Click to expand...

I still don't understand the point of Mikey being on the Fox team. Put aside him being annoying, what qualifies him to do the job? His incredible racing career? Negative....
 
No broadcaster will ever satisfy most fans. NASCAR has not and never will translate well to TV. Even commercial free races would miss a ton of action.
 
Matthew2470 said:
No broadcaster will ever satisfy most fans. NASCAR has not and never will translate well to TV. Even commercial free races would miss a ton of action.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but TV adds something you don't get from watching in the stands. The pit reporters talk to the teams and get information on what's going on - Jimmie Johnson's water temp keeps going up, Matt Kenseth has a tire going down, Kyle Busch is loose coming out of the turns but tight going in, etc. etc. Going to races is fun, been doing it all my life, but there is a certain appeal in watching it at home on television, specially if you get live timing-and-scoring on the web too.
 
KevinWI said:
Yeah, but TV adds something you don't get from watching in the stands. The pit reporters talk to the teams and get information on what's going on - Jimmie Johnson's water temp keeps going up, Matt Kenseth has a tire going down, Kyle Busch is loose coming out of the turns but tight going in, etc. etc. Going to races is fun, been doing it all my life, but there is a certain appeal in watching it at home on television, specially if you get live timing-and-scoring on the web too.
Click to expand...
All of that and more is available to the fan in the stands. That is, if you have a scanner or Fan Scan unit. Both the television and MRN/PRN feeds are available over the air. Personally I can't see where choosing to be home watching a race could ever be desired over being there. Maybe that's just me.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
All of that and more is available to the fan in the stands. That is, if you have a scanner or Fan Scan unit. Both the television and MRN/PRN feeds are available over the air. Personally I can't see where choosing to be home watching a race could ever be desired over being there. Maybe that's just me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I always listen to the radio feed with the scanner. But, it's hard to be like Matthew and say TV is awful for NASCAR TV is awful for NASCAR when you're at the race listening to the TV or radio feed.
 
KevinWI said:
Yeah, I know, I always listen to the radio feed with the scanner. But, it's hard to be like Matthew and say TV is awful for NASCAR TV is awful for NASCAR when you're at the race listening to the TV or radio feed.
Click to expand...
I agree with him that television will never do the sport justice. It can't. I doesn't keep up with all of the action that is on the track when the main focus is only on the leader. About the only time you see anyone outside the top 5 or so on television is when they're involved in some incident. I record every race that I attend and watch it at a later date. It's amazing the difference. With the exception of the finishing order it's almost an entirely different race.

When we go to the track we're normally listening to the MRN/PRN feed until pit stops or when there's a caution on the track. Then we switch over to our driver or maybe whatever driver is having issues on the track. I don't really care all that much about timing and scoring when I'm sitting in the stands. I can look at the pylon if needed and it's easy enough to see who's fast or not.

When I'm home I have the television on as well as the scanner feed of my driver from nascar.com.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I agree with him that television will never do the sport justice. It can't. I doesn't keep up with all of the action that is on the track when the main focus is only on the leader. About the only time you see anyone outside the top 5 or so on television is when they're involved in some incident. I record every race that I attend and watch it at a later date. It's amazing the difference. With the exception of the finishing order it's almost an entirely different race.

When we go to the track we're normally listening to the MRN/PRN feed until pit stops or when there's a caution on the track. Then we switch over to our driver or maybe whatever driver is having issues on the track. I don't really care all that much about timing and scoring when I'm sitting in the stands. I can look at the pylon if needed and it's easy enough to see who's fast or not.

When I'm home I have the television on as well as the scanner feed of my driver from nascar.com.
Click to expand...
I agree there is a difference. I was at the IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile a few weeks back and there was a lot of side-by-side passing throughout the field, but then I go to the IndyCar section of the Speed Channel website and commenters are complaining about "follow the leader racing". Huh?

Anyway, my point was, I like going to races, but, I also don't mind sitting in the air conditioning with free beverages and a private bathroom and timing-and-scoring and an internet connection to complain about TNT and Joey Logano with.
 
KevinWI said:
I like going to races, but, I also don't mind sitting in the air conditioning with free beverages and a private bathroom and timing-and-scoring and an internet connection to complain about TNT and Joey Logano with.
Click to expand...
I like the air hitting my face as the car's pass in front of me. Those beverages, they really aren't free at home either. Private bathroom? So you're the guy. Shut the stall door next time. Complaining..... yell as loud as you want..... I can't hear you over the sound of the cars flying past me @ 100+. Sorry, I'll have to agree to disagree about being home vs. being there. Just don't complain about the empty seats at the track. ;)
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Just don't complain about the empty seats at the track. ;)
Click to expand...
Fair enough, but to my credit, I do go to almost all the big national races that come to my area. Milwaukee Mile / Road America / Chicagoland. I don't know if you can blame me for the terrible attendance at say, Dover.
 
I will miss TNT. But I will be glad to see Espn go. The announcers are the most half assed people ever that are only in it for the money.

NBC could be good, but it really depends on which comentators they hire.
 
Stewart Fan said:
I still don't understand the point of Mikey being on the Fox team. Put aside him being annoying, what qualifies him to do the job? His incredible racing career? Negative....
Click to expand...


You don't have to be a HoF driver to be a great color commentator. You just have to be straight with the facts and to the point. Don't make it about yourself and all about the racing. Right now I'd say my favorite NASCAR analyst are:

1. Wally Dallenbach
2. Ricky Craven
3. Phil Parsons
4. Kyle Petty

Petty is so so for me right now. He does tend to make it about himself sometimes, but he race broadcasts haven't been bad and his honesty has been a little refreshing.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
All of that and more is available to the fan in the stands. That is, if you have a scanner or Fan Scan unit. Both the television and MRN/PRN feeds are available over the air. Personally I can't see where choosing to be home watching a race could ever be desired over being there. Maybe that's just me.
Click to expand...


Also if you follow the right people on Twitter you get a lot of that information before they even broadcast it.
 
I just dont understand why ESPN would choose to get rid of the NASCAR schedule that they have. Currently a big chunk of it runs against the NFL Sunday broadcast, something that ESPN does not have. What else would ESPN like to have on their channel on Sunday afternoon which could outdraw NASCAR besides the NFL? The NBA maybe? But that doesnt start until late into the Chase.
 
EI2IC said:
I just dont understand why ESPN would choose to get rid of the NASCAR schedule that they have. Currently a big chunk of it runs against the NFL Sunday broadcast, something that ESPN does not have. What else would ESPN like to have on their channel on Sunday afternoon which could outdraw NASCAR besides the NFL? The NBA maybe? But that doesnt start until late into the Chase.
Click to expand...



Well the question is would ESPN rather pay a great sum of money for a product that will get beat by the NFL, or pay nothing and run sportscenter all day? In all honesty I don't think SportsCenter would be far behind Nascar programing, because people will be watching for highlights and score updates from the NFL. I do think ESPN wants Nascar, but I think they just want it at a cheaper price, and probably just the chase races. Don't blame them, not when you know you are going to be beat twice over by the NFL on Sunday.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Well the question is would ESPN rather pay a great sum of money for a product that will get beat by the NFL, or pay nothing and run sportscenter all day? In all honesty I don't think SportsCenter would be far behind Nascar programing, because people will be watching for highlights and score updates from the NFL. I do think ESPN wants Nascar, but I think they just want it at a cheaper price, and probably just the chase races. Don't blame them, not when you know you are going to be beat twice over by the NFL on Sunday.
Click to expand...

Well said. I love (by that I mean hate) when people say stuff like "I wish Fox had NASCAR all season." Well, they don't. Fox shows football on Sundays in the fall.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Well the question is would ESPN rather pay a great sum of money for a product that will get beat by the NFL, or pay nothing and run sportscenter all day? In all honesty I don't think SportsCenter would be far behind Nascar programing, because people will be watching for highlights and score updates from the NFL. I do think ESPN wants Nascar, but I think they just want it at a cheaper price, and probably just the chase races. Don't blame them, not when you know you are going to be beat twice over by the NFL on Sunday.
Click to expand...
Good points. Just throwing it out there, if NASCAR pulls in a 3.5 rating and sports center a 1.5 anyone have any idea if that extra 2.0 rating can pull in enough money wise to justify the cost of broadcasting NASCAR?
 
EI2IC said:
Good points. Just throwing it out there, if NASCAR pulls in a 3.5 rating and sports center a 1.5 anyone have any idea if that extra 2.0 rating can pull in enough money wise to justify the cost of broadcasting NASCAR?
Click to expand...


It's not about ratings, it's about money. It's not illogical to think ESPN makes more money off SportsCenter than off NASCAR. It doesn't cost them anything extra to air SportsCenter. They've already got the advertisers and probably only gain a handful from NASCAR on ESPN.

You can apply the same logic to broadcast television and why there are so many reality shows. They draw enough viewers to justify the air time, they still get advertisers and it costs the networks pennies on the dollar to produce and air those shows. A show like The Big Bang Theory or CSI might have twice as many viewers and might even draw in twice as much money (those examples and those numbers were pulled out of my ass) as a show like Survivor or The Voice, but it costs the networks over four times as much money to produce a show like The Big Bang Theory and even more for a show like Once Upon A Time or CSI (and those numbers are verifiable facts). So, they're still making more money off the reality TV than they would off traditional programming.

It's not implausible to assume ESPN makes more money off SportsCenter than off NASCAR. Now, NBC Sports Network - they need sports. They need more than just bass fishing and gun shows.
 
Lap3Forever said:
He's not a bad driver, just not a good cup driver.
Click to expand...

I don't mind Mikey doing the TV thing especially for the truck races but he is probably the worse driver to ever get seat time in a cup car.. If Gotta think he owns the record for bringing out the most yellows in racing history plus after 30 years and almost 800 starts dude never won on anything but an RP track.. If he's not a bad driver, I don't know who is
 
Just a brief update, the Chase is all ESPN wants. They don't want Nationwide and you can't split Nationwide without a second buyer.

NASCAR wants SportsCenter exposure, but again, at what cost? A

re they going to turn down more money from NBC to get it? Doubt it.

Are they going to craft a deal that puts the Chase on ESPN? NASCAR was pissed with the Chase was moved from ABC to ESPN. I can't imagine they'd bend over backwards for a TV deal that puts the most critical part of their season on cable when a majority of the season would be on broadcast.

Let's just apply logic to all this.
 
Sidewayz said:
I don't mind Mikey doing the TV thing especially for the truck races but he is probably the worse driver to ever get seat time in a cup car.. If Gotta think he owns the record for bringing out the most yellows in racing history plus after 30 years and almost 800 starts dude never won on anything but an RP track.. If he's not a bad driver, I don't know who is
Click to expand...

He was winning races before he came to cup, he would of been a better fit to stay in the Busch Series back in the day. Can't not judge a driver/racer just by one series. I love the guy but Robby Gordon is not a good cup driver, but does that make him a bad driver? No, he's a hell of an Off Road racer and did fairly good in Indy cars.

But reguardless of his stats as being a bad driver, he still have more Daytona 500 wins then you and I.
 
Lap3Forever said:
He was winning races before he came to cup, he would of been a better fit to stay in the Busch Series back in the day. Can't not judge a driver/racer just by one series. I love the guy but Robby Gordon is not a good cup driver, but does that make him a bad driver? No, he's a hell of an Off Road racer and did fairly good in Indy cars.

But reguardless of his stats as being a bad driver, he still have more Daytona 500 wins then you and I.
Click to expand...
Yeah but so does Ricky Bobby.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom