ESPN B.S. Coverage

[Alan Harkleroad]

Does anybody think that since ESPN took over for the remainder of the season the coverage has been SH*T. I am tired of practices not being covered for cup, the fact they wont cover them means SPEED should, but they dont either. How the hell is the chase so unimportant that we are not covering all the cup stuff at a minimum. Not to mention bumping races because of baseball or football to other channels because those games arent over, again fine except they put it on channels most people dont have such as ESPN classic.

I am so sick of watching the TV packages get worse and worse. This season has been bad especially now.

I am really frustrated because they didnt broadcast practice last week or at dover and low and behold we missed the hamlin vs harvick issue. Had to wait for a replay or watch the stupid electronic tracker. Seems important since they are both in the chase.

 

[David24]

Does anyone think there should be a Nascar channel? I mean there is the Golf channel, NBA channel, NFL channel, MLB channel and for gods sake a knitting channel. And the Food Network. A Nascar channel would have more than enough to talk about every single day.

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

Agreed I would pay for a NASCAR channel in my cable package. ALL NASCAR ALL THE TIME.

 

[moppenheimer]

Does anyone think there should be a Nascar channel? I mean there is the Golf channel, NBA channel, NFL channel, MLB channel and for gods sake a knitting channel. And the Food Network. A Nascar channel would have more than enough to talk about every single day.

Speed already is basically a NASCAR channel since FOX bought it....

 

[Clutch]

I agree. ESPN is awful. Sadly for me, ESPN shows the entire set of races for the year in South Africa, even though they show the Fox and TNT coverage. In other words, we get the FOX and TNT coverage, but with the good old ESPN problems. Sometimes they don't even bother showing the races, which means that I have to resort to streaming the race online.

Another issue I have with ESPN is the constant amount of mistakes they make during coverage. Mispronouncing names, giving false information etc. I rarely notice that sort of thing during Fox and TNT coverage, but with ESPN it's abundant.

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

Agreed, and sorry you dont have good coverage where you are clutch that sucks. i am going to japan next year for 3 years for work... so i know your pain.

 

[4WideRacing]

ESPN gets worse every year. Hopefully Nascar will get smart and ditch them when the TV rights come up for renewal again.

 

[David24]

Speed already is basically a NASCAR channel since FOX bought it....

Today's TV schedule: SCHEDULE - The Motor Sports Authority - Auto Racing, Formula 1, Moto Racing, NASCAR, News, Photos, Videos, Blogs, & more... - SPEEDtv.com

I see only 4 one hour shows that are Nascar and two of them are re-runs.

When I say a Nascar channel I mean everything Nascar all the time. Talk about races, teams, 2011 changes, chase changes, updates to the COT, Nationwide COT.

 

[Fisha695]

You I'm not even that old compared to some people here, but I remember the days where you got no practice coverage, qualifying was on a tape delay (if shown at all) and the race was only shown once without 50 repeats during the week.

Ratings were up, attendance was up, the sport wasn't over-exposed, etc. Don't get me wrong the fact that both NNS practices are on TV but only 1 Cup one doesn't make sense at all. Now I know you're not talking only about this weekend, but 'll use this weekend as an example.

Cup Practice 2, Saturday 1:30pm
ESPN = College Football
ESPN2 = College Football (Penn State Baby)
ESPNCL = 30 for 30 & Horse Racing
SPEED = ARCA

Ok College Football should be shown instead of Practice, as should the ARCA Championship race. The stuff on ESPN Classic... well yeah they could put practice on there, but then people bitch because they don't get ESPN classic (which I always find funny because I get it on basic cable).

Saturday Cup Practice 2 2:50pm
Well I'd list it but it's the same stuff as above.


Personally I don't think every practice session needs to be on TV, I don't think the races need to be replayed 5 or 6 times during the week, and I don't think we need "Live Non-stop Coverage" from the track each and every weekend. Yes for some of the bigger more prestigious weekends yes they should have all that coverage, but it's not needed every weekend.

Actually NASCAR fans should feel blessed because well even the lack of coverage this weekend is more then ARCA is getting for their Season Finale weekend, or the ALMS, Grand-Am, & IRL got for most of their race weekends. Really when I think about it the only other racing series that gets as much coverage each race weekend as Cup does is well F1.

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

Fair point Mr Fisher. I just am greedy and want more. Especially during championship time.

 

[moppenheimer]

Today's TV schedule: SCHEDULE - The Motor Sports Authority - Auto Racing, Formula 1, Moto Racing, NASCAR, News, Photos, Videos, Blogs, & more... - SPEEDtv.com

I see only 4 one hour shows that are Nascar and two of them are re-runs.

When I say a Nascar channel I mean everything Nascar all the time. Talk about races, teams, 2011 changes, chase changes, updates to the COT, Nationwide COT.

My point was, Since FOX bought it, there are 2 things on the channel. NASCAR and crappy reality shows. F1 on at 4 AM, they dont even re-show those races during the day anymore, We get Grand Am and ALMS, but they cut away from the long races to show Truck Qualifying or ARCA:arghh:, and thats only if we get to see them live...The most consistent and most covered thing on Speed is NASCAR by far.

My point, fans of other series have to jump through hoops to watch just the RACES for their series, let alone the impossibility of getting many great racing series around the world on TV here, and here every week i see people complain (no offense Alan) about subpar coverage of practice, and lack of opinion shows....

 

[Sage]

Not to mention bumping races because of baseball or football to other channels because those games arent over, again fine except they put it on channels most people dont have such as ESPN classic.

I feel your pain Alan. About the only thing I can offer is...Welcome to the my world of watching Drag Racing on ESPN(2). Drag fans have been putting up with just these sorts of things for years now. Except that they'll bump Drag Racing for Girl's Junior-Varsity Slow-Pitch Softball Tryouts (or some other such nonsense). Hopefully NASCAR coverage won't be like Drag Racing where it only gets worse instead of better.

 

[The Captain]

The only coverage I like is FOX. Marty Reid's head is so far up Kyle Busch's rear that it makes ESPN hard to watch anytime. TNT has K-K-K-K-Kyle P-P-Petty and Wally Dallenbach. Two guys who can't remember what a top 10 is. FOX has a three time cup champion, his crew chief, and another Daytona 500 winning crew chief. They also have Mike Joy and Dick Bergerren, who combine for about 900 years of racing coverage.

 

[Clutch]

My point was, Since FOX bought it, there are 2 things on the channel. NASCAR and crappy reality shows. F1 on at 4 AM, they dont even re-show those races during the day anymore, We get Grand Am and ALMS, but they cut away from the long races to show Truck Qualifying or ARCA:arghh:, and thats only if we get to see them live...The most consistent and most covered thing on Speed is NASCAR by far.

My point, fans of other series have to jump through hoops to watch just the RACES for their series, let alone the impossibility of getting many great racing series around the world on TV here, and here every week i see people complain (no offense Alan) about subpar coverage of practice, and lack of opinion shows....

I have to jump through hoops to watch anything other than Formula 1.

 

[JRRacing64]

I don't think a Nascar channel's gonna fly if they want ratings. You imaging that 3 million people watch the race legally (Not watching through streams) on broadcast tv or Cable/Satellite. Now imagine a "pay" channel for Nascar. Out of those 3 million, maybe 500,000 of those will bother to subscribe to that. Not to mention Nascar would be limiting their exposure to the masses by doing that.

Don't forget Nascar also makes Millions off of the TV rights to air their races on TV. If they went to their own channel kiss that revenue goodbye! It may work for practices and qualifying. But I can't see them ever putting a race on a channel you have to pay to see. They are having a hard time getting fans to the track as it is...

 

[celticfang]

Over here NASCAR's pay per view (Sky Sports/NASN) live and shown in a 40 minute higlight package on free to air. You think race rewind is bad?

Try that with a 15 minute ad break in the middle, no tracker and random cuts in the action. Sky, for their faults are the European ESPN of the past.

Sidenote. ESPN Classic showed, up till last year, auto racing. Now it shows boxing/soccer/cricket

Reason? Nobody watched it. Nobody watched the other stuff either

 

[Fisha695]

Now imagine a "pay" channel for Nascar.

Technically every race that is not on ABC or Fox is on a "pay" channel, which brings me to this.

What if it's a "Pay Channel" but on "Regular Cable"? What I mean by that is TNT, ESPN, ESPN2, MTV, Nick, CNN, Weather, FOXNews, etc are all on most basic cable/sat packages (well technically for me it's called 'Basic +' as Basic is just like the over-the-air channels but without needing an antenna)

So that leads me to this. What cable/sat provider do you have and what "pay channels" do you get on it as part of your basic package (mostly interested in the sports channels as that's where NASCAR would be covered).

Blue Ridge Communications (it's also like the first Cable company in the US, or well the company derived from the first cable company)
ESPN
ESPN2
ESPNClassic
ESPNews
SPEED (had since launch)
Versus (had since it was launched as OLN)
Sportsnet New York (had since launch, they took MSG off when they put this on though )
YES Network (also had since launch)
NFL Network (had since launch)
Gameshow Network (had since launch)

We also get a lot of other channels that for a few systems that I know of you have to pay extra for. (lifetime channels, AMC, TMC, A&E, Hallmark, etc)

So there is a chance that a NASCAR channel as a "pay channel" could be part of many basic cable packages, especially with NASCAR corporate leverage.

 

[Cheeze]

They could have a NASCAR Channel without showing all the races on it. Look at the NFL Network. They show, what, 6-10 games a year and still have decent ratings. I'm all up for a Stock Car racing Channel. Then you could show the NASCAR Races on FOX/TNT/ESPN and have the ARCA and other racing series on SCRN (Stock Car Racing Network). During the week they could show Race Hub, Race in 60, etc, during the week and even throw in some vintage NASCAR and ARCA races in there. Maybe even FULL LENGTH! Not with the crappy cuts that NASCAR Classics had.

There's no reason the SCRN wouldn't work if they do it right.

 

[Sage]

So that's where Marty Reid ended up? Cool. Better you NASCAR guys have to deal with him. I had to deal with him doing Drag Racing coverage for years...constantly getting names wrong; assigning nicknames to drivers that no one used but him; yaking on about some stat that had absolutely no relation to anything that was going on on the track; etc., etc., etc. The guy is, as far as I'm concerned, a complete idiot. He must have some H-U-G-E dirt on someone at ESPN to be able to keep his job.

 

[Fisha695]

BTW just a heads up on "NASCAR TV", I had brought this up awhile back and actually had brainfade till just now.

NASCAR has registered the NASCAR TV trademark back in 2003 for "Broadcasting, namely audio, cable television, internet, radio, and video in the nature of automobile stock car auto racing".