The Announcers Thread

MRM said:
For those still holding on to cable:
awfulannouncing.com

Cable is a zombie waiting to be put out of its misery

After devastating losses for WBD and Paramount, the cable industry is officially in zombie mode waiting to be put down for good.
awfulannouncing.com awfulannouncing.com
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This is why I keep saying over and over that the TV contract NASCAR signed is the absolute worst TV contract signed by any pro sports league this century and it's not even close.

Every other sport was focused on increasing their exposure on OTA (antenna) TV and having a streaming component for all their events. Major League Baseball is looking at doing away with RSNs and going the streaming route. Hell, NASCAR is going to play second fiddle to IndyCar at Fox next year. And there is still no streaming component for NASCAR races on Fox Sports networks (and Venu looks DOA in every aspect).

It really is not unrealistic to expect a more than 50% drop in viewership in the next few years.

Because of pressure from the RTA to bring home the bacon, NASCAR signed deals focused solely on propping up dying cable channels.
 
Lets break the costs down realistically.

10 races are on USA. At this moment, those are not expected to be on Peacock. Along with nine (could be more now that IndyCar is king at Fox) races on FS1/FS2. So that's $72.99/month right there (for YouTube TV). At least with cable, you get FS1, USA and TNT. So, you still have to get Prime at $8.99/month.

BUT ... IF TNT shuts down (and that seems to be a real possibility now), then you have to get Max + BR Sports ($20/month MINIMUM).

There's Venu Sports too, which will give you FOX, FS1 and TNT at $40/month. But that price is likely to go up pretty shortly after it launches. And it's a bold assumption to think it's for sure going to launch because of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. Truthfully, this service SHOULD be blocked.

Even if Venu launches, you'll STILL need cable for USA. UNLESS NASCAR is also carried on Peacock, which is now like $8/month. But nothing in the vocabulary of the TV deal announcement or from reporting on it suggests NASCAR will be on Peacock.


A scenario where fans have to pay for cable TV, Prime Video, and Max+BR is VERY plausible.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Lets break the costs down realistically.

10 races are on USA. At this moment, those are not expected to be on Peacock. Along with nine (could be more now that IndyCar is king at Fox) races on FS1/FS2. So that's $72.99/month right there (for YouTube TV). At least with cable, you get FS1, USA and TNT. So, you still have to get Prime at $8.99/month.

BUT ... IF TNT shuts down (and that seems to be a real possibility now), then you have to get Max + BR Sports ($20/month MINIMUM).

There's Venu Sports too, which will give you FOX, FS1 and TNT at $40/month. But that price is likely to go up pretty shortly after it launches. And it's a bold assumption to think it's for sure going to launch because of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. Truthfully, this service SHOULD be blocked.

Even if Venu launches, you'll STILL need cable for USA. UNLESS NASCAR is also carried on Peacock, which is now like $8/month. But nothing in the vocabulary of the TV deal announcement or from reporting on it suggests NASCAR will be on Peacock.


A scenario where fans have to pay for cable TV, Prime Video, and Max+BR is VERY plausible.
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This all is just going way over my head...In the late 60s and early 70s it was quite easy to follow when we checked our weekly TV guide and saw that there would be a 20 minute snippet on Saturday at 5:00 pm on ABS's Wide World of Sports that only cost us the price of a coat hanger.
 
DIDIT said:
This all is just going way over my head...In the late 60s and early 70s it was quite easy to follow when we checked our weekly TV guide and saw that there would be a 20 minute snippet on Saturday at 5:00 pm on ABS's Wide World of Sports that only cost us the price of a coat hanger.
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The thing that NASCAR does extremely well with its contracts, IMO, is how they break the season up and the contractually obligated races are shown consecutive.

2001-2006, you knew the races were either on FOX or FX from February-June, and on NBC-TNT from July-November.

2007-2014, you knew the races were on Fox through May, TNT for the next six, and ESPN there on out. (Except for the years of :espnsux: and the races dancing from ABC to ESPN2)

2015-now: You know the races are on Fox/FX through mid-June, and on NBC or USA through November.

The next contract, the first 14 races are on Fox or FS1, then the next five on Prime, then the tournament is on TNT, then the final four races and playoffs are on NBC or USA.

It's actually so much easier to keep up with in comparison to other sports.

Of course, having YouTube TV makes it even better because that service learns your viewing habits and knows that, if I watch TV on a Sunday afternoon before mid-September, it's for NASCAR.
 
The current deal is too much like the pre 2001 deal where everybody has a piece of it. They just have designated slots instead of designated tracks like in the 90's.

NASCAR playing second fiddle to IndyCar is a joke.

I would switch to just having a handful of streaming packages as opposed to signing up for YTTV. But you have to have a cable or satellite service to sign in to watch the races on FS1. And even then, you don't get the handful of races that are shown on upconverted 4K.
 
MRM said:
NASCAR playing second fiddle to IndyCar is a joke.
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I can't wait for the first time a NASCAR race is moved to FS2 for IndyCar. Even more ironic is how they'll end up treating the Indy 500 like a special event and continue treating the Daytona 500 like a cartoon. NASCAR NEVER should have extended with Fox Sports.

I'm very worried about the TNT aspect of the deal right now. WB Discovery is in dire straits.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
This is why I keep saying over and over that the TV contract NASCAR signed is the absolute worst TV contract signed by any pro sports league this century and it's not even close.

Every other sport was focused on increasing their exposure on OTA (antenna) TV and having a streaming component for all their events. Major League Baseball is looking at doing away with RSNs and going the streaming route. Hell, NASCAR is going to play second fiddle to IndyCar at Fox next year. And there is still no streaming component for NASCAR races on Fox Sports networks (and Venu looks DOA in every aspect).

It really is not unrealistic to expect a more than 50% drop in viewership in the next few years.

Because of pressure from the RTA to bring home the bacon, NASCAR signed deals focused solely on propping up dying cable channels.
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Just when I thought I was getting a handle on things I read your post and & it brought up things I hadn’t even thought of😃

I have YouTube TV and Prime which for me is the best compromise. I’m not interested in other services at this point so if programming I like (sports or otherwise) moves to other platforms like the NFL has done I won’t be able to see them. I’m not mad about it as it’s just the way things are and I can’t change it.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I can't wait for the first time a NASCAR race is moved to FS2 for IndyCar. Even more ironic is how they'll end up treating the Indy 500 like a special event and continue treating the Daytona 500 like a cartoon. NASCAR NEVER should have extended with Fox Sports.

I'm very worried about the TNT aspect of the deal right now. WB Discovery is in dire straits.
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I had no idea about TNT or WB Discovery were in such bad shape. I don’t watch any shows on those networks and it sounds like I’m not the only one
 
Looks like I need a VPN to fool some companies into allowing me to watch the races
 
FLRacingFan said:
That’s a hell of an event to make his full-time debut. Too bad he isn’t getting a proper send-off on the IndyCar side but I think he’ll be well-received in the NASCAR world.
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Yeah, I wish they had let him finish the season over there. He, Townsend Bell, and James Hinchcliffe are a great team. Very professional and no yelling.
 
AlTerego said:
I had no idea about TNT or WB Discovery were in such bad shape. I don’t watch any shows on those networks and it sounds like I’m not the only one
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The sooner WB Discovery fires David Zaslav, the sooner they can get their ship righted.

This guy took one of the most beloved brands in America and made it one of the most hated. He took an extremely popular streaming service that was known for a plethora of great content and turned it into an unpopular, virtually nameless service. Chaos, turmoil, dysfunction and scandal have rocked just about every property under the WB Discovery banner since Zaslav took over.

In fairness to Discovery, WB has been hemorrhaging money for years - even since before AT&T owned it. Although, I'd actually argue that the best decisions WB has made in the past decade were all made under AT&T management: Launching HBO Max with a focus on movies and originals while migrating decades of movies and TV shows to the platform, greenlighting Oppenheimer, releasing Zack Snyder's Justice League, and so on.
 
MRM said:
They devalued their business by $9 billion a few days ago. Their stocks tanked. They've lost the NBA.
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Losing the NBA was a proverbial nail in a proverbial coffin.

I could go on all day about what David Zaslav has done to this company. Keep in mind, I LOVE Warner Bros. This is an iconic company that has given us some of the greatest movies, music, TV shows, cartoons, and family-oriented programs in history. From Looney Tunes to DC Comics to Harry Potter to HBO.

Zaslav comes from Discovery and he's more focused on reality shows and that type of programming.

When the WB Discovery merger happened, it was instantly downhill.

Zaslav canceled ALL scripted, original programming on TNT (except Snowpiercer) and TBS. Then canceled Snowpiercer after filming and production was completed. Which leads to this...

While the Batgirl movie was probably not going to be very good, David Zaslav canceled its release and did so in the most egregious way possible. He could've just released it on HBO Max. Instead, he had the movie completely purged. Every copy of the movie, every scene, the hard drives any thing was on, poof, gone. The directors even said they couldn't save ANY footage of the movie. All to get a tax write-off.

And thus began the content purging. Countless movies and TV shows just began disappearing. Countless finished projects scrapped and deleted. Movies and TV shows that once existed, completely purged for tax write-offs. In fact, if you bought WB movies on your PlayStation to watch on there, some of them have disappeared. Movies people ****** paid for, gone, vanished forever. (I've been buying up WB movies at videostores left and right.)

This has since become an alarming trend as Disney has begun to do the same thing. Purging content to avoid paying royalties and getting a tax credit (which needs to be done away with) to do so.

The Batgirl decision was made worse when they released Black Adam and The Flash, movies that were apparently much worse according to insiders. (The Flash is pure crap, I couldn't make it halfway.) And at that time, they also decided to reboot the DC film universe ... ****** again. This is a project that's doomed from the start because AT&T released the infamous "Snyder Cut" which turned out to be an absolutely fantastic movie that redeemed Zack Snyder and has a large segment of DC fans wanting to see Snyder's vision finished.

Zaslav restructured CNN by installing Chris Licht as president, a decision that led to endless turmoil and a complete erosion in public trust (a result of Licht ordering a hard-right shift).

Zaslav ordered the removal of tons of WB Animation properties from Max. Some of these were sold off to Amazon, others were purged.

Because Zaslav hates the WB and HBO brands, he renamed their streaming service "Max," which is considered the single worst rebrand in the history of Corporate America.

Just today, the popular Cartoon Network's website has gone dark, replaced with a link to a hub on Max.

There have been countless rumors over Zaslav's tenure about the future of TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and its hub on Max. We're talking about a channel that distributes some of the greatest movies of all time, such as Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, The Shining, The Exorcist, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Next, and so on.

Oh, and he's ruined HBO. And now, because Max is an ad-supported services, showrunners are pissed off because they now have to tailor their content to make room for commercials. One thing that led to HBO's boom in popularity was the creative liberty showrunners had.

As I said, I could go on all ****** day about this piece of amphibian ****.

Basically, David Zaslav is the most hated person in Hollywood and one of the most hated business executives of all time. If Elon Musk wasn't literally Lex Luthor, David Zaslav would be a household name because of the sheer hatred the general public would have for him.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I can't wait for the first time a NASCAR race is moved to FS2 for IndyCar. Even more ironic is how they'll end up treating the Indy 500 like a special event and continue treating the Daytona 500 like a cartoon. NASCAR NEVER should have extended with Fox Sports.

I'm very worried about the TNT aspect of the deal right now. WB Discovery is in dire straits.
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IndyCar races (the 500 excluded) will only have a 2.5-hour TV window each week. If anything ends up getting moved it’ll be IndyCar; there’s too much money in the NASCAR TV deal.

Though FOX has so few Cup races OTA I don’t think there will be (m)any IndyCar/NASCAR doubleheaders anyways. I just hope they aren’t dumb enough to have them competing on FOX/FS1 at the same time.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Even more ironic is how they'll end up treating the Indy 500 like a special event and continue treating the Daytona 500 like a cartoon.
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Is that so far from reality?
At Indy you feel the magnitude of the event every second.

Daytona is just another pack race waiting for them to crash. Watching it the last few times nothing felt special about it and I don't think that's all down to the broadcast.
 
donthaveanickname said:
Is that so far from reality?
At Indy you feel the magnitude of the event every second.

Daytona is just another pack race waiting for them to crash. Watching it the last few times nothing felt special about it and I don't think that's all down to the broadcast.
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Yeah bull****.

This is what we used to get for the presentation of the Daytona 500.








**** this particular race BTW.

And I would remind everyone that ABC's coverage of the Indy 500 was pretty craptastic from 2005 on out. There's a reason IndyCar fans are sad to see NBC go.
 
donthaveanickname said:
Daytona is just another pack race waiting for them to crash. Watching it the last few times nothing felt special about it and I don't think that's all down to the broadcast.
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I've long thought a huge amount of Daytona 500's appeal is because it's the first race of the season. It can't be JUST the track or the racing; if it was, people would react to the summer race the same way.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I've long thought a huge amount of Daytona 500's appeal is because it's the first race of the season. It can't be JUST the track or the racing; if it was, people would react to the summer race the same way.
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The superspeedway races are typically the most watched races of the year outside of the street race and the Brickyard.

Every 4th of July, fans rage about that race not being in Daytona. I’m fine with the change myself but I get the anger.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Yeah bull****.

This is what we used to get for the presentation of the Daytona 500.








**** this particular race BTW.

And I would remind everyone that ABC's coverage of the Indy 500 was pretty craptastic from 2005 on out. There's a reason IndyCar fans are sad to see NBC go.
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I was always curious to learn more about the alternate theme NBC used in the ‘02 and ‘04 500s, and I remember hearing it in the championship race at Homestead later in ‘04 as well. Never, ever managed to find a full standalone version.

A particular network can make or break the presentation of a blue riband event. It’s not specific to NASCAR; ESPN/ABC has been derided for years for their declining quality in coverage of the NBA Finals in particular. Generally speaking I think it’s something CBS and NBC excel at much better than ESPN/ABC and FOX across multiple properties. Storytelling is a bit of a lost art.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Yeah bull****.

This is what we used to get for the presentation of the Daytona 500.








**** this particular race BTW.

And I would remind everyone that ABC's coverage of the Indy 500 was pretty craptastic from 2005 on out. There's a reason IndyCar fans are sad to see NBC go.
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I've seen a few superspeedway races from the 2000s and earlier and I think these races have changed a lot since.
Until the mid 2000s the way these cars raced on superspeedways was more like IndyCars race at Indianapolis today.
Winning these races, especially the Daytona 500, meant something.
Now that surviving the big wreck is what these races are all about winning them just doesn't mean that much in terms of prestige anymore even though they still pay out the most money.

I agree about IndyCar coverage. NBC was great and I can only hope Fox doesn't cover that championship the same way they cover NASCAR.
At least they managed to move the final race away from NFL week one.
 
Is Kyle Petty out at NBC? Haven't seen on him on there yet, just Dale Jarrett and Brad Daughtery a couple of times.
 
NBC Sports has announced that veteran motorsports commentator Leigh Diffey will serve as the lead play-by-play voice for its NASCAR Cup Series coverage, beginning with this weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 24, in primetime on NBC and Peacock, and continuing through the playoffs and season championship at Phoenix on November 10.

Diffey, who most recently served as NBC Sports’ lead track & field play-by-play commentator at the Paris Olympics, is one of the most prolific voices in motorsports. He has served as NBC Sports’ lead INDYCAR commentator for more than a decade, including all six of NBC Sports’ Indianapolis 500 broadcasts, and has handled play-by-play for nearly every major motorsport series, including NASCAR, Formula One, IMSA, Supercross, and MotoGP.

With Diffey assuming NBC Sports’ NASCAR Cup Series play-by-play duties, long-time INDYCAR commentator Kevin Lee will handle play-by-play for the remainder of NBC Sports’ 2024 NTT INDYCAR Series coverage. Lee, whose play-by-play work extends for more than 30 years, has been a host, pit reporter and play-by-play commentator for NBC Sports’ NTT INDYCAR SERIES coverage since 2009, and has handled play-by-play for a number of INDYCAR races this season.
 
Rick Allen is OK... probably should've stayed in trucks. He does not resonate with the fans, IMO. He's not distinctive. Leigh Diffey has more "authentic" energy and is popular amongst the fans. I enjoy hearing him on Indycar/IMSA broadcasts. He is going to do great in the NASCAR booth.

Rick Allen also has had to go up against Mike Joy his entire career. That's like an "average" MLB player going up against Derek Jeter. When Mike Joy retires there will have to be a serious discussion if he's the greatest racing commentator of all time.
 
Diffey is better than Allen, but not by a lot. His high tenor would be a gerbil nightmare if it were American but the down under zing will help him at least be distinctive from the other two gerbil tenors.
 
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Conover said:
Diffey is better than Allen, but not by a lot. His high tenor would be a gerbil nightmare if it were American but the down under zing will help him at least be distinctive from the other two gerbil tenors.
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It looks to me like NBC doubled down on the gerbils. A total contest to see which one can get a word in edgewise. They should have given Jeff the boot and kept Boomer. Boomer doesn't know enough to create a stir, he has one job and that's to shout on the last lap.
 
Am I the only one who would rather listen to fingernails screeching down a chalkboard rather than listen to Leigh Diffey call a race? I'm certainly no fan of Rick Allen, but Diffey is way more gerbil-ized than Allen.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Am I the only one who would rather listen to fingernails screeching down a chalkboard rather than listen to Leigh Diffey call a race? I'm certainly no fan of Rick Allen, but Diffey is way more gerbil-ized than Allen.
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Honestly they both yell too much for my taste. But we wont have to deal with Rick Allen butchering his own catch phrases during a broadcast anymore as well as the awkward attempts at making everything a storyline ( Chase Briscoe/Marissa Briscoe fertility issues), especially coming to green ( He GOT HIS START ON A COMPUTER!!!). Good riddance, the absolute worst announcer to call races in my fandom. He made Bill Weber sound like Barney Hall.
 
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