NASCAR Regains Digital Rights

The buzz has been around for several months, but Monday it was made official. After many years of the Turner Sports Interactive group running the NASCAR.com website and controlling all the digital (Internet) rights to the sport, big change has arrived.

Here are excerpts from the official news release provided by Turner Sports:

NASCAR and Turner Sports announced today a restructuring and extension of their long-standing digital partnership. The new agreement takes the relationship through 2016, with NASCAR managing business and editorial operations for its digital platforms beginning in 2013 and Turner Sports continuing to oversee advertising sales and sponsorships across NASCAR-branded digital platforms.

"Turner Sports has been and will continue to be a great partner for NASCAR," said Brian France, chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR. "Taking a leadership role as it relates to our digital rights is something we as the sanctioning body know is important for the future of our sport, the development of our drivers and most importantly the experience for both our current fans and future followers."

"Turner Broadcasting and NASCAR have helped make each other successful for more than 28 years through a working relationship that, over time, has evolved with the media and technology landscape," said David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. "The latest extension of our partnership is a strategically and fiscally enhanced business model for our company and ensures that NASCAR.COM remains a core asset of Turner's leading digital ad sales portfolio. Our unrivaled sports assets and scale offer advertisers the means to deliver the most targeted and relevant marketing messages across multiple digital and mobile platforms and properties."

Under the new partnership, NASCAR will assume operational control in 2013 of all of its interactive, digital and social media rights including technical operations and infrastructure of all NASCAR digital platforms. Turner will continue to represent sponsorships and advertising for all NASCAR digital platforms, with the unique users from the NASCAR digital properties continuing to roll up to the Turner digital portfolio.

NASCAR’s comprehensive digital and social media portfolio includes NASCAR.COM, fantasy games, video highlights, social media elements and in-depth editorial content. NASCAR.COM, and the sport’s other digital and social media platforms, have been managed by Turner Sports since 2001.

"This move is about the media, our sponsors and most importantly, our fans," said Marc Jenkins, vice president of digital media for NASCAR. "We will build an innovative portfolio of platforms that strives to be as diverse as it is comprehensive. For our fans our digital platform will become the online destination for all things NASCAR. For everyone else, it will be the vehicle we’ll use to turn them into fans."

The bottom line is that NASCAR has taken back full control of its online content from a third party. Not mentioned in the release is what financial agreement really made this deal happen. Speculation was that NASCAR would be on the hook to pay Turner anywhere from $25 to 50 million to get out of the existing agreement.

Perhaps, the news that the relationship is going to continue in several key revenue areas through 2016 mitigated or negated the payment issue. We should eventually know those details as the story continues to be reported in the media.

This is good news for fans and opens the door to NASCAR scrapping the current NASCAR.com model and creating a viable and modern home website for the sport. This change should be a springboard for portable live video, online streaming of SiriusXM content and much more. Stay tuned for details as this story continues to evolve.

We welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

ESPN's Little Monsters

It was a press conference ten days ago that featured some memorable images like the one above. While NASCAR fans will recognize the Busch brothers, the two men sitting down really tell the tale.

Seven-time Supercross champ Jeremy McGrath and BMX legend Dave Mirra look like the brides in a double shotgun wedding. Their friend and former motorcycle champion, Ricky Carmichael, had just been unceremoniously dumped from his NASCAR sponsorship by Monster. The GOAT was out and the Busch brothers were in.

Here is part of the official Monster release:

A collection of world class Monster Energy action sports athletes welcomed Kyle and Kurt Busch to the Monster Energy team today with the announcement of a multi-year agreement as primary sponsor of the team’s No. 54 Monster Energy Camry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

"It’s great to have the Busch brothers join the Monster team and be wearing the Claw – they have the right attitude for Monster and they’re proven winners, which is what Monster is all about,” said X-Games champ and Monster athlete Jamie Bestwick.

I’m thrilled to a be part of a team of athletes like this,” said Kyle Busch, who will drive the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway and the subsequent four races before splitting the balance of the season with Kurt.

The Nationwide Series has ESPN coverage with races appearing mostly on the ESPN2 TV network. Over the past five years it has primarily consisted of watching Sprint Cup Series stars race each other for wins while thoroughly thumping the Nationwide Series regulars into the asphalt.

All that was supposed to change this season for ESPN. Carl Edwards is gone from the Nationwide Series by choice and is expected to join ESPN in some on-air capacity. Kevin Harvick disbanded his growing KHI team and the focus of Kyle Busch Motorsports was the Camping World Truck Series. Much of the Sprint Cup Series cloud appeared to be lifting.

The reason ESPN wants so desperately for the Sprint Cup Series drivers to get out of the Nationwide Series races this season is easy to understand. Her name is Danica Patrick. It's nice that guys like Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler and Sam Hornish Jr. will be running for the title, but it's a TV ratings gold mine that Patrick will simply be in every race.

With the January 20 announcement that the Monster dollars would be leaving Carmichael, ESPN's world has changed. In the blink of an eye there will now be either Kyle or Kurt Busch running a car in every single one of ESPN's Nationwide Series races with the goal of winning the owner's championship.

It was 2006 when then ESPN president George Bodenheimer called the Nationwide Series NASCAR's diamond in the rough. Two years into the coverage, things were not going well. "Diamond In The Rough Not Shining" was a TDP column from July of 2009. Click here to read it in full.

No part of the NASCAR TV package has been worse than the Nationwide Series on ESPN. The series was a victim of the Jerry Punch and Rusty Wallace failed experiment in the TV booth. It was also a victim of ESPN pushing it to the back burner when the network started Sprint Cup Series coverage in July.

Finally, it has been a totally helpless victim from September to November. Jammed into an ESPN2 schedule totally filled with "College Football Saturday" programming, the Nationwide Series is made to look like the redheaded stepchild and every season since 2007 has gone out with a whimper.

This year ESPN is in an interesting situation. Come July it may well have Carl Edwards on the telecast team, Danica Patrick in the top five in driver points and the Busch brothers in the middle of another ego-driven total meltdown.

Joe Gibbs made a point on the NASCAR Media Tour to say he did not approve of KBM's Nationwide Series plans. As Kyle's Sprint Cup Series employer, Gibbs is clearly not pleased with the prospect of the Busch brothers running door-to-door with the JGR Nationwide Series drivers.

Last year's Kyle meltdown almost cost Gibbs a multi-million dollar sponsor. Many thought it would cost Kyle his JGR job. The Kurt meltdown at Penske resulted in a series of laughable press releases that tried to frame his firing as a mutual decision. The video of the Jerry Punch incident told another tale. The captain had enough.

So, instead of the carefully scripted TV reality series that features golden girl Patrick against a weakened field of contenders, the ESPN pit reporters may regularly be walking to Victory Lane to speak with a grinning Busch brother sporting "The Claw" and trying to say things that fit the extreme action sports athlete mold.

ESPN's new little monsters may also affect the TV coverage when they lose. It would only take an incident with Kyle and a JGR car or Kurt and a Penske entry to shift the TV spotlight from the winner. Let's not forget Richard Childress as someone who has a vested interest in his Nationwide Series team and also a past with the Busch family. "Hold my watch" was a phrase that is forever etched in NASCAR history.

Love them or hate them, expect to see a lot of Kurt and Kyle on the ESPN Nationwide Series telecasts. Monster hired them to win races and they can both come in and do just that. Where they fit into the ESPN script is yet to be seen, but there is little doubt it's not going to be what the network had planned. With the Busch brothers, it just seems to happen that way.

We welcome your thoughts on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Sports Cars Take Daytona Center Stage

This is the weekend of the Rolex 24, a sports car event at the Daytona International Speedway run by the Grand-Am organization.

The race starts at 3PM on Saturday but SPEED will come on the air at 2:30PM and set the scene during a pre-race show. The network will stay live until 11PM ET and then rejoin the race at 9AM and continue until the conclusion.

Click here for the Grand-Am website that has information, updates and live timing and scoring for the race.

Click here for the organization's Facebook page that has more photos, interaction and video links.

Click here for the Daytona Speedway website that updates all the information for fans who are attending and those who might want to come on raceday and buy tickets.

We will return on Monday. Hope you all enjoy the race and have a great weekend!