Wednesday TV/Media Links

Let's catch up on some of the NASCAR news and notes from the past few days:

ESPN just loves the fact that Kyle Busch got a speeding ticket on Tuesday. OK, so he got it for going 128mph in a 45mph zone, but it's just a ticket. OK, so he got it driving the little yellow number above, but it's just a ticket. OK, so he had an unidentified female with him at the time, but it's just a ticket.

Pardon The Interruption (PTI) led with that story and it showed up all over the ESPN network news shows. In a flash it was viral, even getting the sleazy star (click here) treatment from Harvey Levin and the TMZ Hollywood crowd.

In true JGR style, a quick apology came from Busch:

"Today I received a traffic citation in Iredell County. I was test driving a new sports car and I got carried away. I went beyond the speed I should have been going on a public road. I apologize to the public, my fans, sponsors, and race teams for my lack of judgment. I take responsibility for my actions and I can assure you that something like this will never happen again. I thank the Iredell County Sheriff's Department and all law enforcement for the hard work they do every day to protect the public and to enforce the laws in a fair and equitable manner."

It should be interesting to see how far this story spreads in the mainstream media. Both NASCAR Now and Race Hub have proven to be very fair when dealing with issues for drivers away from the racetrack.

Speaking of high-profile celebrities, the Charlotte Motor Speedway passed along the fact that Darius Rucker is going to be singing the National Anthem before the Coke 600 on Sunday. He is a University of South Carolina grad and a Charleston, SC native who is no stranger to pro sports and NASCAR. Great choice by the speedway.

Speaking of speedways, the ESPN gang had a conference call this week about the Indy 500. Sr. VP Jed Drake said the production will have 64 cameras, 12 in-car camera set-ups and the infamous "bat-cam" that is on a wire and runs the length of pit road overhead. There will be two super slo-mo cams aimed at the corners and the team will be pushing more team audio into the telecast. Finally, our favorite motorsports host Brent Musburger will again be joining the telecast team.

Speaking of hosts, Marty Reid will be working in Indy so once again Allen Bestwick gets the nod to call the Nationwide Series race on Saturday. He will have Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. Let's hope someone gets the bright idea to sneak Hall of Famer and ESPN veteran Ned Jarrett up to the broadcast booth during the telecast for a little air time.

On a sad note, Ray Evernham's father passed away on Sunday at the age of 80. Ray Sr. was a long-time racer and mechanic. The younger Evernham left his post at ESPN to work for Rick Hendrick this season and has kept a very low media profile. There was a rumor that SPEED was trying to get him into the fold but that apparently has not worked out. When Evernham was teamed with Ricky Craven, ESPN had a strong studio team that the network has never been able to match since Evernham's departure.

Folks have been asking about Michelle Bonner, the ESPN on-air talent who has been hosting NASCAR Now. Both Mike Massaro and Nicole Briscoe have been working out in the field on NASCAR telecasts. Briscoe again hosts the NNS pre-race show this weekend and Massaro is a pit reporter.

Bonner came to ESPN in 2005 after a two-year stint as a sports reporter and anchor for CNN. A Massachusetts native, Bonner is a Northeastern University grad and has been working on ESPNNEWS and SportsCenter during her time at ESPN. She has been filling-in for two years on NASCAR Now and is getting great reviews.

Ratings from the weekend were less than spectacular. Here is the official note from SPEED:

Coverage of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday scored an average household rating of 3.32 according to Nielsen Media Research, up 1% from last year’s 3.30. The race peaked at a 4.08 and averaged 3,993,000 viewers.

On Friday, coverage of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race scored a .98, up 42% from last year’s rain-delayed .69 and that is the highest rating from Charlotte since 2008. Race coverage peaked at 1.30 HH rating and averaged more than one million viewers.

What SPEED is a little miffed about and the trio in the booth chose not to pass along is that the more than thirty-minute delay between races was due to the failure of the giant video board set-up for the introductions. The JHE Production Group eventually fixed the problem, but there was little doubt that some portion of the audience moved on during the delay.

Finally, there was a little breaking news on SportsCenter today. Anchor Linda Cohn reported that ESPN's Terry Blount has confirmed that Danica Patrick is making the switch to NASCAR on a full-time basis in 2012. Blount's information said Patrick will run the Nationwide Series for the championship next year and mix in some selected Sprint Cup Series events. In 2013, she would go Cup racing full-time.

Click here to see the video of the Danica story from ESPN's YouTube page. Blount did not have any details about the teams involved but said Patrick would bring her Go Daddy sponsorship with her to NASCAR.

Happy to have your comments on these topics, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

TV Viewing: Hall Of Fame Induction On SPEED

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is still pretty new in terms of pro sports facilities. The staff is very user-friendly for TV and radio. Tonight on SPEED the network will package the induction ceremony for airing.

The actual function inside the Hall is not a made-for-TV affair. The activity begins at 7PM and will be time-shifted by SPEED. That allows the network to make TV segments out of the speeches and tributes. Basically, SPEED will be taking something not designed to be on TV and crafting a program on the fly.

Bud Moore is a spicy character, Ned Jarrett is a gentlemen, Bobby Allison is a tragic figure, David Pearson defines old school and Lee Petty created a dynasty. It's a tremendously diverse group of individuals going into the Hall of Fame.

Mike Joy is the show host with Krisa Voda handling the reporting duties. The program will feature the inductees, their families and many NASCAR dignitaries.

This show is basically a stage production of the NASCAR Media Group with TV along for the ride. SPEED will air a special edition of Race Hub after the induction at 10:30PM.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on SPEED. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below.

Split-Screen Commercials Come To The Chase

Update 5/24/11: This is a repost of a recent column by request. Comments still open.

Five years of asking why. Five years of missing one-third of the racing action. Five years of angry network executives, PR reps and NASCAR all blaming each other. Five long years of excuses.

The issue is how to solve the sagging ratings for the Sprint Cup Series telecasts. While each of the three TV networks involved produces the races differently, they all share one common problem. A heavy advertising load in a sport that cannot pause for commercials.

The solution seems simple. Use existing TV technology to show the commercial in one video box on the screen and keep the race in another. Fans stay because they can see the racing, but absorb the video and audio from the commercial.

The reality is anything but simple. Stepping into something new that directly affects a multi-million dollar TV revenue stream is like walking across an iced-over pond. It may prove harmless, but most folks would rather someone else go first.

Last week in Dover, FOX ran a single commercial break in the split-screen format. Nothing was mentioned about it in the telecast, it just came and went. Well, the fans noticed and so did the media.

FOX admitted it was an experiment. The following Monday, the NASCAR Fan Council survey came to members with a video of that experiment and lots of questions about what NASCAR fans thought about split-screen commercials. Something big was going on.

Tuesday morning, completely out of the blue, ESPN dropped a little bombshell. The network will use its own version of the split-screen, called ESPN Nonstop, for the second half of all ten Chase for the Championship races.

A picture of that format is above. Click here for a video of just how the transition to commercial happens. Notice that the "header" with all the graphics and the ticker stays consistent while the commercial and live racing action go side-by-side.

There is no word on whether FOX will use any split-screen breaks for that network's remaining two races. A TNT spokesman said that this year five of the six races in that network's package will have full-screen commercials. The July Daytona event will once again have "Wide Open" coverage that features split-screen commercials.

ESPN Nonstop was created in 2005 by the network to solve the very same problem in IndyCar races. Since 2007, when ESPN returned to NASCAR, the network has repeatedly said it would like to use this format but was contractually obligated by NASCAR to show full-screen commercials. Apparently, things have changed.

This finally opens the door to the type of substantive change that has been stalled for years and affecting the sport deeply. Technology is hurtling along at break-neck speed while NASCAR has continued to struggle with innovation inside the telecasts.

There is no going back in sports TV. Once something is tried and works, it becomes part of the landscape immediately. Moving to split-screen commercials for even a part of the Chase races means the pressure is now on for all three Sprint Cup Series TV partners to use this full time in 2012.

We invite your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.