The powers that be assure us that NASCAR fans will not get run-over Saturday night by local NFL preseason games. Before the regular season starts, some local stations get to actually produce and cover these semi-meaningless affairs. This Saturday, several areas will be affected.
There are six TV markets in the country that have NFL programming conflicts. All of them have made alternate viewing arrangements for NASCAR fans.
The easiest way to solve the problem is to switch NASCAR fans to the ESPN cable channel in their area. ESPN is not carrying the race nationwide, it's just a local market temporary channel switch. Buffalo (NY), Tulsa (OK), Quincy (IL) and Westlaco (TX) are the areas where fans just switch to their regular ESPN cable channel for the race.
Update: In the four markets where the race will be on ESPN, the race will also be on DirecTV channel 210, and DISH channel 145.
In the major market of Detroit, the ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV will move the NASCAR race to the station's digital tier 2 channel and the main station will join the live race when the Detroit Lions game is over. WXYZ's D2 channel is called “Live Well Detroit” and in the Detroit area is channel 7.2 over the air, 437 on Charter, 297 on Comcast and 127 on Bright House.
Update: More locations for WXYZ-TV tier 2 "Live Well Detroit" viewing:
ACR Cable Beacon Hill: Channel 8
Lamont Digital Systems: Channel 144
WOW: Channel 101
Wyandotte Cable TV: 141
In Rochester, NY the local station WHAM-TV will do the same and carry NASCAR on its digital 2 tier channel. WHAM-TV’s D2 channel is also the CW affiliate. It is Time Warner Cable Channel 16 or Channel 1016 for CW-HD, Digital Over-the-Air: Channel 13.2.
Due to the time zone issues, there are a handful of ABC stations that have news at 7PM ET when the NASCAR Countdown show is on. In Little Rock (AK), Corpus Christi (TX), and Omaha (NE) the news will end and NASCAR will be joined at 7:30PM before the green flag.
Local stations have their own agendas and sometimes that just does not mesh with live national sports. Over the years, ABC stations have preempted NASCAR races for everything from local charity telethons to the Mummer's Parade in Philly. That is why the move of most of the Sprint Cup Series races to ESPN and away from ABC was a good one.
Needless to say, the Watch ESPN service cannot be used as this telecast is on ABC. All those fun features fans get when telecasts are on cable go away in the broadcast network world. Thanks to Andy Hall from ESPN for providing the specific information on Saturday night's issues.
We will be here on Saturday and also on Twitter monitoring the situation. Stop by and drop us a line if there is a problem. Happy to have your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.
well...my friend said 'the NFL trumps everything'; I guess she's right. I am in the Rochester/Syracuse market. It took me a while to figure out that DT2 was CW. 'Cause I knew I had CW on my basic cable but don't watch it much (I have DISH & basic cable). I have WSYR, Syracuse 9, which is carrying the race. So I will actually have it on 2 channels. The only people screwed are on broadcast only, and they would not have had it if it was ESPN anyways. Broadcast only is a joke, no one can pick up the digital stations, my friend tried to get an antenna & they told her, don't even bother. So overall, it's probably not a big effect. Incidentally, I'm a Giants fan, not a Bills fan, so I have no interest in them anyways, I'll be flipping between the race & NFL network. But it took me a while to figure it all out.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if it will be on U-verse in Detroit?
ReplyDeleteI have Dish & I'm in the Detroit area. There is NO alternate station for me to watch, so I'm SOL. I put in a call to the local ABC affliliate-was never called back. Nice...Also posted on their FB page-no response.
ReplyDeleteIt would make more sense for ESPN to regionally prempt the High School Football game or the WNBA game on ESPN 2 during the 7PM time slot than something that has such national appeal, has been promoted more heavily, and is going to have higher ratings than both of those programs combined.
ReplyDeleteWhat does preseason Football get you? NOTHING.
There is still one more ABC race on the schedule after this. I would suggest everyone who is effected to contact the ABC affiliate and voice your displeasure. If they dont contact you back or hear an answer you dont want to hear, I would next contact any local advertisers from that affiliate that advertise during the games and voice your displeasure with them.
ReplyDeleteIn Philly the Mummers march on New Years Day so it's rather unlikely there's ever been a conflict with NASCAR on WPVI -6-ABC. There has been a conflict with the Pueto Rican Pride parade and a year ago this weekend all coverage of the Bristol night race was dumped due to coverage of Hurricane Irene, a bunch of reporters in ponchoes standing around noting it's raining pretty hard and a bit gusty so take shelter...which it notable they were not doing.
ReplyDeleteI don't see this as a big deal. If you cannot get it at home, I am sure there is a sports bar/restaurant of some other sporting type establishment in nearly every town that will show the race and you could watch it with other fans!
ReplyDeleteJohn
John 9:02 Gah,you been to any bars lately?You think you can go in the vicinity of a football area bar and make them change the channel without getting mauled?
ReplyDeleteJoking aside,this really says something bad when an EXHIBITION game of another sports league is considered more important than this race,i'm not in one of those markets,but i feel for those that are.It also sadly shows where our culture is at.
One downside i will be feeling though(then again,maybe not)is no Race Buddy along with going without Hotpass again.Ugh,it's so frustrating when you can't keep up with your driver.You sure can't count on ESPN/ABC,that's for sure.Directv could step up to the plate and fix a lot of problems this week,but they won't,sadly.
John...not sure where you live, but...around here, sports bars are going to be showing the football game and probably the Yankees. Granted, the 'Applebees' of this world probably have one of their many TVs tuned to it if you can find that one, but you won't have sound. We were camping in PA once, and stopped at three places in town to see if the All star race was on...all of them were showing basketball...and we were an hour from Pocono. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteJD, maybe you know about this...of course, the local stations get all of the commercial revenue for these pre-season games. Do they make a ton of money on them like their local news or are they a loss-leader used to promote other shows?
ReplyDeleteoh boy, doesn't that just figure that one of the few races carried on broadcast TV would be impacted by the pre-season games. I don't know about the Philly stations.
ReplyDeleteOf course since I follow the race via twitter & trackpass (although trackpass has been a pain for the last few weeks), I'm not sure if it really matters that I can't "see" the race unless ESPN/ABC is suddenly going to actually cover it. I expect a thousand commercials interrupted by brief race coverage.
Preseason NFL is certainly only entertainment but for the stations that carry them they are important. Actually it doesnt matter if its meaningful or not the stations involved are "contractually obligated" to use a go daddy term to carry them and people actually watch these games especially this third game. Stations likely get more revenue from NFL than NASCAR but I really do not know. The problem is that ESPN scheduled this race for ABC without national clearance as they do every year. Blame ESPN not the NFL
ReplyDeleteI live near Flint, MI, and our local ABC channel 12 has the race listed for Saturday night, the game on the Detroit station. We'll see if it really happens that way.
ReplyDeleteLast weeks #1 rated show on Broadcast: Colts vs Steelers on Sunday Night Football.....
ReplyDeleteGlad (hopefully) everyone will get to see the race this weekend.
ReplyDeleteanon 2:32....I wonder where it would have fallen if it was the Titans and the Jags or something. Most of us are aware that football gets ratings. But the race should have just been left on ESPN if that was going to be the case for so many markets. Someone wasn't thinking.
ReplyDeleteJake & LpMv...lots of people watch preseason, it's not just an 'exhibition' game, it's a chance to see how the new players are working out, amongst other things. You may not be football fans, but many of us watch both racing & football. Things like this are just sometimes hard to work out. The problem was how the channels were chosen in the first place.
I know that my station (KXLY-TV is Spokane) is airing local news instead of NASCAR Countdown. Anybody else affected by it?
ReplyDeleteLast week, the Steelers v. Colts pre season game on Sunday drew over 9.5 million viewers. That far exceeds any NASCAR race this season. Networks would be stupid not to show the NFL and opt for a lesser ratings event like NASCAR. Like it or not, NASCAR will never trump the NFL.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke!!! Glad I wont be affected, are Nascar party will go on as planned going to be a fun one! will be watching on ABC from start to finish
ReplyDeleteGO JR
MPM,
ReplyDeleteThe parade that preempted NASCAR featured the Mummers. Sorry, I did no know there is a parade actually named after them.
Just trying to point out that local stations issues have been a problem with this NASCAR package since ESPN and ABC started it.
JD
A preseason NFL game will still blow away a NASCAR race in most markets across the nation.
ReplyDeleteDoug & anon 12:11...that isn't the point. The point is that people ought to have the *opportunity* to watch the sporting event they had planned on. Lots of sports go on against the NFL, including baseball and tennis. It's just about availability. Thanks to DISH (& Direct) (kudos to them) I will now have it on 3 channels, and that should fix the Detroit DISH customers like PammH too.
ReplyDeleteGood to go in Salt Lake City on KTVX (Channel 4). News goes off at 4:30 MT, and Countdown comes on at 5 as scheduled.
ReplyDeleteVery nice.
The ABC affiliate KATC-TV 3 in Lafayette, Louisiana is airing NASCAR Countdown instead of their local news and WBRZ-2 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is airing local news instead of NASCAR Countdown.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Miami and have directv...no race on channel 210! It says it's blacked out!
ReplyDeleteAt 6:00 pm
ReplyDeleteThe local ABC affiliate KATC-TV3 in Lafayette, Louisiana aired NASCAR Countdown instead of their local news and the other ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana aired local news instead of NASCAR Countdown, at 6:30, WBRZ-2 joined in progress in time for the national anthem
I'm dropping Dish Network, I am a Lions fan, but as well as a Nascar fan and looked forward to watching the Bristol race. Not only did they screw nascar fans, they screwed the little leauge baseball championship game just to put on a Lions tail gating party for a "pre season" game.
ReplyDeleteNascar is 2nd in ratings to NFL, but that's not the case here, more fans would rather of seen the bristol race than a stupid pre season game. Escpecially if it wasn't their NFL team they follow. Get this, ABC WXYZ in Det showed the Lions game again today!