Here are some topics in the news this week on the TV and media beat:
Nicole Briscoe deleted her Twitter account and is no longer active on that social media application. This was surprising because she had a large following and was a great example of someone deeply involved in motorsports.
Briscoe is a fulltime co-host of the NASCAR Now program on ESPN2 and the wife of IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe, who races for Team Penske.
We are told that leaving Twitter was a personal decision on her part. Her husband is still very active on Twitter as are many other IndyCar drivers. While Twitter is fun and informative, the demands of real life sometimes curtail the time available for social media interaction.
The good news is that the NASCAR Now program still has a very active Twitter account, as do many other ESPN personalities connected with the NASCAR coverage.
Speaking of NASCAR Now, there are no afternoon (5PM ET) shows this week. Instead, Shannon Spake hosts late night shows Tuesday through Friday.
Little League Baseball coverage left only the 5 to 6PM timeslot open and ESPN chose to put the ridiculous Sports Nation show on and bump NASCAR Now. This decision absolutely defies logic.
ESPN executives recently indicated that ESPNEWS was due for an overhaul. The first round of changes were just released. Instead of re-airing afternoon shows like NASCAR Now in primetime, ESPNEWS is going to host a mind-blowing seven additional hours of SportsCenter daily.
As the blending of online and TV content continues to evolve, ESPN is going to feature the new ESPN.com regional websites on this expanded SportsCenter coverage. Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas now have their own ESPN branded websites for sports news. Once again, NASCAR is nowhere in this picture.
SPEEDtv.com is going to offer live streaming of the press conference from Kentucky Speedway at 2PM ET on Tuesday. Lots of dignitaries on hand as SMI Chairman Bruton Smith is expected to make it official that a Sprint Cup Series race will be coming to the facility in 2011.
ESPN has chosen to take only one team of booth announcers to Michigan. Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will again do double duty on the Nationwide and Cup Series. Qualifying and practice is split this weekend between ESPN and SPEED.
Finally, Tuesday finds Krista Voda hosting Race Hub from Roush Fenway Racing as the SPEED studio for this program undergoes what is being described as a renovation. SPEED has made a major commitment to four hours of Race Hub each week and a new set is a nice way to change the currently disjointed look of the program.
Update 10AM ET: SPEED today confirmed that Steve Byrnes is going to be stepping into the Monday through Thursday fulltime role as the host of Race Hub next week. Byrnes is a veteran who works very well in a studio setting. There is no news of how this might affect Byrnes' current assignments in the field that range from Trackside to hosting practice and qualifying coverage.
Any additional updates will be added to this post during the day on Tuesday. Please feel free to offer your comments on any of the topics mentioned above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below.
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25 comments:
So the great NASCAR twitter controversy continues, why delete your account? I think as many folks think social media is great, the media and sports leagues PR folks are going to start reining in there athletes and such due too ignorance. Urban Meyer is king of the ignorant folks by people on the internet scumbags, life has gone too fast and they don't live in the internet world and will fight back. This is the RIAA vs the world, yeah I know this sounds strange but Urban is in his late 40s and doesn't get twitter and the internet scumbags?? We laugh at Joe Pa and Bobby Bowden about what they say about they internet last year?? We didn't laugh at Urban this year did we?? It is going to get worse.. The mainstream deal will be social media is a paria and costs "Mainstream Media" money. This is my personal opinion but I see momentum building for this..
As for ESPN and the NASCAR NOW situation, they have the rights to NNS and the Chase and treat it like a paria on SC. Poorly writtne scripts devoid of any real content and even mis-pronounced names are the norm. Look at what they did with WC soccer and what they are doing with NASCAR. It is night and day on SC they could do 1/4 as much for this sport on a weekly basis and still do more than they are now. NASCAR is stil a punchline sport for ESPN Sports Center and oh damn here are the NASCAR hilights are there any wrecks??
NASCAR is not helping themselves much with Social Media and restrictive web policies/NASCAR.com stuff.
With that said, I am really enjoying the ESPN portion of the Cup Series this year, they have done a great job. To be honest Directv just gave me the premier package for free if I buy NFL Sunday ticket this year. So after not have Sunday Ticket for 3 years I will be watching a ton of Dolphins games.. My bill went down for 5 months.. This will hurt their ratings too...
I miss Nicole! She was great about chatting with us & keeping us updated on the furbabies!
That's a shame that they couldn't find room to put NA$CAR Now on :(. Why did they want the Chase races again if they're not going to respect the fans by providing them the news/information we want? Heck we're lucky if the guide says to tune in at 3 for the race that it's actually on at 3. And not some Tennis game that's in Lord only knows what round probably tied or some College Football game that's already into the "window" we had between the game and Countdown and is creeping up to either pre-empt or wipe out Countdown all together. And it's a toss up if we'll be moved to Classic or get the tired line "NA$CAR will start whenever we're done here whatever century that'll be." While the announcers I'm sure are chuckling and doing their "redneck" jokes in the background.
Isn't Sports Center on like 18 million hours a day as it is? :( Do they really need 7 more hours :(. I know it's precious as what was it 2 years ago there was like 10 minutes left in the TV window and they left the post-race to start Sports Center early :(. I was really afraid that my clocks had all stopped running because it made no sense at all! It wasn't a live sporting event that they needed to get on the air it was a show that airs half the frickin' day as it is that I'm sure whatever they covered in that 10 minutes was repeated 18 gazillion times.
I think Mike Massaro pretty much
told the story last night on NN.
I believe his comment was he was fixed to the monitor watching the
great racing. Guess the other
pit reporters were also.
If you want further evidence of
ESPN looking down their nose, check
the racing headline news column on
their site. All open wheel.
Really tried to watch the Hub yesterday ... But, felt like I was going to vomit after about 15 minutes into the JGR Lovefest ...
I still don't understand WHY Disney thought they needed NASCAR ... They just kick it to the curb in favor of stick & ball ... Plus, a LOT of us don't have ESPNClassic ...
I don't watch Sports Center ... and I avoid their post-race SC because of Ted Bundy ... err, Cousin Carl ...
Still NOT liking Ms Trotta ... Voice / hair / softball questions ...
I don't follow Twitter like some people do (Gymmie) ... It's a shame that Mrs Briscoe dumped her account ... I wonder if TPTB got to her ... I also don't think that it was solely his Twitter posts that got Dennis fined (as he's said some pretty damaging things on tv) ...
I don't get why you would put on the absurd and useless Sportsnation instead of NNow to promote a sport you carry. Makes no sense. I enjoyed the Hub yesterday too, I like the behind the scenes whether they are teams I follow or dislike; they are still informative which apparently is lost on some people. JD was funnier than I expected. Looking forward to more shop visits. Reminds me a little of the old NBS 24/7 at the shop during the week.
Interesting, since this is what she said using her husbands twitter account:
@tamsul hi...its Nicole. Sammy is a cutie, but I'm biased. Sorry I disappeared from twitterville. Had to for work related reasons :-(
Steve Byrnes just tweeted he will host Hub the rest of the year & said will miss his friends at the track? He won't be at qual or Trackside anymore?
Will they get rid of that girl on RH. not a fan.
Enjoy Steve.
Sounds like Monday’s Race Hub will be a “re-launch” of sorts. Any word on if any content-related changes are coming, JD?
Wonder who does PxP for practice and qualifying for Speed the rest of the year? Mike Joy?
This is a repost of an earlier comment from ESPN:
At ESPN.com, we have an offcial twitter policy.
I can't share it all here but it goes something like this: If ESPN is anywhere in your twitter handle, you're always on the clock with social media, you're always representing the company.
Here's my perspective and what I told my crew about twitter and other social media.
As a writer, you have not had the ability to share your written (and thus truly permanent) views unedited in all of history until recently. Someone has always checked your facts (hopefully), pushed you for better sourcing, held you accountable for mistakes.
With twitter, that is gone. Feel free to tweet. But remmber you are responsible for every tweet you make, every re-tweet you make and the spiraling loss of control over your image and the image of the company that goes with it. So be smart and be careful.
K. Lee Davis
Motorsports Editor
ESPN.com
p.s. Thanks for the forum, JD.
And since JD reposted my above comment on this thread, I should make it clear that I did not know Nicole had quit tweeting until I saw it here.
-- K. Lee
You might want to look into the bashing of Graham Rahal that Nicole did on Twitter when her husband pulled another bone headed move on the IRL race track. I'll bet ESPN decided to "convince" her to pull her account.
I tweeted to Nicole Manske last week about being milquetoast because of her ESPN overlords. She tweeted an amazingly honest reponse I wouldnt be shocked lead directly to ESPN saying "stop it".
Keith, still good comments on an emerging topic. Appreciate it.
JD
I wonder if Nicole's decision to quit twitter had something to do with the comments she made about Graham Rahal after a recent Indy Car race. Ryan Briscoe and Rahal were involved in a racing incident that knocked Briscoe out of contention. After the race there was an embarrassing "twitter fight" between Rahal and the Briscoes, where some disparaging comments were made by all 3 parties.
At the time I wondered how ESPN would feel about Nicole using her twitter account to slam Rahal. Although her duties mostly revolve around Nascar, there have been times where she's interviewed Indy Car drivers and owners for Nascar Now.
Just a thought
I can't believe G Rahal put on Twitter he LIKES the Jerry Springer show. Ugh. Didn't seem like the type to watch that trash.
Wish SPEED or somebody would've covered the announcement at Ky. ALL OVER talk radio here in greater Cincy area. Heard Jerry Carroll on radio and Dw did a short & sweet interview, too.
I loved hearing the updates and the brief Bruton talk but might have liked to have seen it.
re: S Byrnes, I shall miss him greatly at qual and on Trackside. He said he would miss his friends at the track which means he must be staying home all week. good for him and family life. Grinding to travel all the time.
I don't like that chick reading tacky/classless emails on Hub but if Steve TAKES OVER as host, might have to DVR it.
I hope this is a good thing for him. He's a very kind, classy guy.
Anon, SPEED carried the live announcement from Kentucky Speedway online at SPEEDtv.com
Updates tonight on Race Hub at 7PM.
I have not checked yet, but would not surprise me that KY Cup race will get a lot of discussion this afternoone and evening on WLW AM, the Big One, from Cincinnati which can be picked up online - where Bob Trumpy (sp?) and Chris Collingsworth got their start.
Say what you want about Bruton and DW, they are both showmen.
Might someone who tweets be a "tewidist?" (Word Verif)
My apologies to ESPN for the miscue & not find the correct site. Admittedly, I am a technoplegic.
Thanks for the insight and thanks
for monitoring the best blog in
NASCAR.
Congrats to Steve on being named host of RaceHub. It needed a permanent host and I'm sure he will do a fine job.
Twittergate continues - how silly it is tht TPTB think that it will make that much difference to a fan if that person makes a positive or negative comment. I have an account but honestly don't tweet much since I don't think my personal life is that interesting. It was a nice venue to use to follow some of the drivers (or in some case whoever they hired to tweet for them). somehow I just don't think whoever is updating Jeff Gordon's facebook page during a race is actually Jeff. LOL What is ESPN doing? I guess a lot of people watch SportsCenter, but I'm not one of them. I think the only time I've ever seen it is when I'm out with friends and it seems like it is ALWAYS on. Some of the guys even comment on it so I know it's not just a "girl" thing. Well, at least I know I don't need to set the DVR for NN this week.
Let's see its what 3 or 4 races left until the almighty post-season Chase! whoo hoo, whoopee and ESPN is doing more SC and less NASCAR? Not surprised, NASCAR is the red-headed stepchild way behind college football, MLB, NFL and Little League! Awesome. Always good to know where the Nascar fan falls into the priority of the tv world
I will miss Nicole's tweets she always kept us up on the news at the races. But just because you have a twitter account doesn't mean you have to tweet all the time.
Ryan McGee and Marty Smith are my favorite NASCAR writers, but over the past year plus I have come to the conclusion that David Newton has to be at least one of the very best investigative writers about NASCAR. I find that Newton is often one of the few and first writers to consult with experts to help explain an issue - such as drug testing procedures and medical matters. Newton's very recent article about the post-wreck analysis of Elliott Sadler's car is super.
No one is perfect and I don't believe ESPN or NASCAR should be criticized for the extremely limited amount of video of Elliott's wreck. However, I have become so used to video of seemingly everything that occurs in a race that I would love to know how it happened that there is almost no video of the wreck. Also I wonder whether ESPN and/or NASCAR are evaluating how the wreck escaped video and, from NASCAR's perspective, whether some additional or modified camera placement might be called for to try to help ensure that a wreck would be likely to be captured on video for reference to improve safety - but then I'm assuming that more pictures of how the wreck occurred would be informative from a safety improvement perspective.
"and I avoid their post-race SC because of Ted Bundy ... err, Cousin Carl ... "
As the moderator refuses to remove idiotic comments like the above, this blog has gone from a daily look to maybe a monthly look for me.
Ted Bundy? Get serious...
- 7 more hours of SportsCenter...just what we all needed.
- I'm excited for Steve on RaceHub. It brings back great Totally NASCAR memories.
- Mixed feelings on the schedule changes. I was hoping Martinsville's spring date would return to April with better weather. Kansas getting a second date because of a casino is discouraging (anybody remember the racing before the $ anymore?). Chicagoland in the Chase is better than California, but still a snoozer. I have to admit, I was hoping Atlanta would move to mothers day weekend and Darlington would return to Labor Day weekend. Didn't happen.
Interesting, I am a radio announcer and our company pushes VERY HARD for us to BE ON TWITTER, Facebook and other social media. They see it as extremely important to interact with our audience in this way.
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