A Voice For The Fans ~ Where Has All The Racing Gone

10/04/2013

PattyKay Lilley

I bid you welcome gentle readers, and a warm welcome as well for our assigned reader this week, somewhere in the glass palace known as the Fan and Media Espionage Center in Charlotte NC. ("We kid because we care" ~ Chris Myers)

 

Well race fans, this week I'll be giving you just a wee small dose of "I told you so", which is something I really don't like to do... but I did. If you've been reading these Voice For The Fans columns for quite some time, you'll recall that well over a year ago, I began warning that attention needed to be paid to the upcoming TV contracts and that the fans' voices needed to be heard, loudly and clearly on that subject. I didn't predict the end of the SPEED Channel; I guaranteed it and gave you the date when it would happen... time and again. August 17, 2013.

 

No, I was not the only one passing out the warnings that for all intents and purposes it was already too late to stem the bleeding. No lesser personage that John Daly of the Daly Planet, a TV personality and broadcasting guru in his own right, went as far as to close his website to all but reruns of past blogs, recognizing that the battle had been enjoined and the fans had already lost.

 

It was mid-October of 2012 when FOX re-upped with NASCAR, with a contract running through 2022, which has since been amended to run through 2024, with FOX taking on coverage of additional races to provide a split season with the Network we now know will be NBC and affiliates. Lord, spare us from affiliates! In just the past few weeks alone, we have seen races arbitrarily switched from one channel to another with no message left behind for the viewer that might come looking for a race and find some stick and ball thing instead. ESPN actually scheduled a Nationwide race a week or two back on ESPNEWS. Not everyone gets that channel, and that is for certain.

 

Mr. France, wherever you are... Mr. Helton, I can always find you Mike, so if you don't mind, I'll continue to address you, the President of NASCAR, because I know you care. The new contracts are not even in effect as yet; that will happen either next year or in 2015, depending entirely on whether ABC/ESPN and TNT can gain early release from the current contracts. Both Networks have indicated a desire to do so; it's all about the money now, as always. Once that occurs, NBC will be stepping in to take their place, but plans for almost all of the races to be run on their imitation of ESPN, the channel that was once Outdoor Life Network and then became VERSUS. It now bears the branding of NBCSN, and though available in many areas, can only be had in an upscale... and high-priced... viewing package.

 

Your scribe has that channel, but only because it's in the same package with the NFL Channel. Lucky me; others will have to pay more to watch half the races. Mike, they're not going to do it, and that is a promise. You should be a fly on the wall and hear what they're saying out here. You'll be able to read what a lot of them have to say when this column is in print.

 

And what of our good friends at FOX and "affiliates?" Long before the new contracts take effect, they have been busy with new things designed to somehow frighten ESPN away. On the racing scene, SPEED is long dead and buried, but apparently FOX wasn't happy with just that. They seem to be on a campaign to kill what's left of Stock Car racing on TV. Now gentle readers... and you too Mike... that's something I'm having a hard time understanding. I know things involving vast sums of money can take some strange twists and turns, but I just can't get my mind around why a network would pay $Billions "With a B", for the right to carry a full half of the NASCAR season and then proceed to bury it where none but a chosen few can even watch it.

 

What prompted this return to a rather old complaint today? I just finished doing the TV times for the upcoming weekend at Charlotte, and what I found was patently confusing and disgusting. It's a light weekend for racing in general, with F1 the only other series running live, but FOX has pretty much ascertained that most of us will be enjoying the races and nothing but races. On Thursday's and Friday's schedules, FS1 will carry the first Cup practice only. (Thursday) All else, on both days, will be carried on the mystery channel that almost no one can watch, FS2. Programming there is so secretive it is not even shown on FOX' own TV listings page. This fan has problems with that on several levels, as I suspect, do most all of you reading these words today.

 

Oh, and did I mention that there is NO NASCAR RaceDay or NASCAR Victory Lane on schedule that weekend either? Happy racing, gentle readers. At least the ESPN Networks are still in control of the races until the end of the season, though even there, the choice to move them around without notice is in no way fan friendly.

 

Before turning this over to the fans and letting them have their say... and they WILL have things to say... allow me to mount the soap box for a few moments and have my own say.

Mike, I know you're trying, but you must feel like a salmon, always swimming upstream and against the current. I hope you make it; I really sincerely do, but I have my doubts. Mr. France... because it is my policy not to use this platform for name-calling or stone throwing, I'll just do as instructed by my Mom and say nothing at all.

 

To the FOX Network and "affiliates", what on earth is your game? You paid $Billions to get the rights to broadcast NASCAR racing, and now you refuse to show it where most can see it? What exactly did you get that man to sign? Was he of sound mind and body when he did so? As a fan of very long standing, I'll say right up front that your coverage of racing has always been second-class at best, starting with that very first Daytona 500, when the largest icon of the sport was killed and you... you signed off and went to local programming. It was all downhill from there. Does someone in high office at FOX carry a grudge against someone at NASCAR? Is it perhaps your intent to remove racing as any serious deterrent to your Sunday NFL coverage? If so, all you probably needed to do was ask. Mr. France has already proved that unlike his Father, he is scared to death of the NFL... so much so that he moved the Daytona 500, our biggest and most prestigious race, to avoid any possible conflict.

 

Alright race fans, it's your turn to have your say. No, I can't promise that in this instance it will do one bit of good, but say it anyway. Let them know how the fans feel about being locked out of even minimum coverage of stock car racing. Please, keep one thing in mind. We have been voting with our wallets, to the point where stands are half empty at many races and TV ratings are in the toilet. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Look at the pretty picture I've brought for you. It's a chart of U.S. Nielsen ratings for NASCAR races from 1996 to 2013. If it looks as though the years 1996 - 2000 had lower overall ratings, they did... because they had fewer races. Check the fine print.