With the Sprint Cup Series TV pie cut into three pieces, fans see the races on FOX and TNT until ESPN debuts at the Brickyard 400 on July 30. Along the way, TV also has to produce and cater to the hardcore fan who wants to watch coverage of the practice sessions and qualifying.
Most of that "support" coverage is on SPEED. The network, which has no Sprint Cup Series points races, acts as a TV platform for extended coverage of the series. In addition to the practice and qualifying, SPEED also provides shows like Trackside and RaceDay that bring added attention.
Along the way, TV viewers become used to seeing on-air talent move easily back and forth between SPEED, FOX and TNT. There is a big pool of announcers and reporters needed to handle all the on and off-track programming.
There is no better example of this than Lindsay Czarniak, who is pictured above. Working the summer races for TNT, she also reported for SPEED on practice and qualifying sessions. Ironically, Czarniak has now departed both of those roles and headed to ESPN to work full time as a SportsCenter anchor.
Every year since 2007, that spirit of cooperation between NASCAR TV networks ends on this weekend. When ESPN comes to the Sprint Cup Series, an unholy TV alliance begins that lasts for the remainder of the season.
The concept is pretty easy to understand. No ESPN announcer or reporter will ever work on any SPEED coverage. As you might expect, none of the SPEED talent will appear on any of the ESPN practice and qualifying sessions.
ESPN cherishes what is called exclusivity. The upside of this is that the announcers are only seen on ESPN and can easily be identified with just that brand. The downside is that often ESPN folks have plenty of time to kill when SPEED is providing most of the support programming.
By the time the ESPN Sprint Cup Series package rolls around, fans who watch the support programming are much more familiar with names like Wendy Venturini, Matt Yocum and Bob Dillner than the ESPN pit reporters. The SPEED team has been a constant companion for the first five months of the season.
Although ESPN has also been following the NASCAR trail since February, the efforts of that network have been restricted to the Nationwide Series. Despite the fact that ESPN is enamored of the Cup drivers in those Nationwide events, none of the ESPN pit reporters have worked the Sprint Cup Series trail.
It's certainly an interesting on-air dynamic that for the rest of the season there will be two completely different groups of announcers working side-by-side at the track, nose-to-tail in the TV compound and often back-to-back on the air on the exact same NASCAR series.
There is little doubt that this disjointed effort where practice, qualifying and support shows are concerned will be addressed in the upcoming NASCAR TV contract negotiations. It's been suggested that SPEED handle all these telecasts for the sake of continuity.
In the meantime, get used to channel-hopping between ESPN and SPEED as it's that time of the year again. This weekend SPEED focuses on Friday, ESPN on Saturday and both networks are working hard on Sunday. It's going to be another interesting run down the stretch.
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6 comments:
Yay!
I had no idea SPEED was going to be on TV Friday with racing from Indy with Practice & such. Will be great to see these guys & we won't see much of the race on Sunday (as far as camera work & racing shots as is the rule of races anymore except for TNT (minus that one race they screwed up w enhanced audio cam, but I digress) Will see better shots during SPEED's practice, I'll bet.
Going to be VERY HOT & Muggy in this area this weekend. I worry about the drivers,crews, fans & tv people in this stuff..and remember, when dew points are in the 70s, rain/thunderstorms can pop up in w no warning. Heat indexes been over 100 again.
It's going to be too hot to venture out the house Friday so I shall enjoy the SPEED guys on the tv.
Wish they could cover quals but will take what I can get!
Stay cool everybody, hydrate, hydrate & hydrate some more.
Even JPM was tweeting how HOT Indy was today.
That's why there's a 'previous' or 'back' button on the remote control ...at least with SPEED, there is a consistency factor to tell the story of the race/pre-race ...unfortunately ESPN seeks only to tell its 'scripted' story ...will be interesting to see how NASCAR addresses this issue in upcoming negotiations
I have no illusions as to what the rest of the season will be like with dSPN - crap.
I've never understood ESPN's unwillingness to work with anybody - including SPEED. Nascar Nation is a smart group, we know ESPN is not the only network at the track.
The cooperation of FOX/NBC/SPEED in the previous contract period brought the sport to its highest levels. Practice & qualifying were no longer tape delayed or stuck on unheard of channels. Anyone else remember when qualifying was stuck on a second rate CNN channel that ten people in America had?
unholy mess is what it will really be with the practice and qualifying pre-empted half the time or "tape delayed".
I like Allen and Lindsay, that's about the only reason I'm even going to give ESPN a chance again this season.
The quality of coverage between network and cable is not appreciably different. They both have commercials. So I won't pay for an equal product that once was free and won't be tuning in to Speed.
This Sunday, as in most, I'll be stealing the cable signal and watching ESPN. I can get most of my baseball and football for free, how can NASCAR compete when I have to pay for their 4 hour long advertising-fests?
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