Race Wrap: ESPN in Martinsville

The short-track in Martinsville, VA proved to be the undoing of ESPN this season. There are simply no words to describe how awful this telecast was once the race started. It defied description.

The pre-race show was solid and really worked well to set-up what everyone knew would be a tough day of bumping and banging. Rusty Wallace was absent due to the passing of his father on Saturday. Nicole Briscoe hosted with Dale Jarrett, Marty Smith and Brad Daugherty in the studio.

Marty Smith replayed an interview with Brad Keselowski and contributed to the topics on the pre-race show. His presence was refreshing and worked well with Jarrett. Wallace has been re-signed by ESPN through 2014. No word on Daugherty's future.

It was Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the TV booth. Jamie Little, Dave Burns, Mike Massaro and Jerry Punch were on pit road. Tim Brewer was in the Tech Garage.

Once the racing started it was made very clear that this race was going to be the tightest-framed and most awkward coverage in the five year history of ESPN since returning to NASCAR. The leaders were immediately framed when the green came out and the racing and incidents in the field were never seen.

It was replays that were used to explain to TV viewers time and time again what had actually happened on the track and pit road. The full-screen insertion of commercials for the first half of the race made it even more miserable. ESPN was caught in commercial when caution came out repeatedly.

ESPN has made it clear that this "hyper-tight" coverage is the way they are going to produce NASCAR races. In the body of this telecast, there were entire segments where the cameras never extended beyond showing two cars in the frame. The race recaps were presented with single car camera shots, despite the fact that the racing was under green.

To add insult to injury, the aerial camera was only used as the transition into commercial breaks. The low-angle speed shots were rarely used. Instead, the director zoomed-in on one or two cars at a time. Then, he shifted to one or two other cars as the announcers were instructed to talk about those drivers.

One key to the tension in this telecast between the broadcast booth and the producer and director in the TV truck were the frequent times when what was being discussed did not match what pictures were being shown. Bestwick would be yelling about the beating and banging at the back of the pack while the director zoomed-in on the leader of the race. After a moment of silence, Bestwick would be made to talk about the pictures. It was awful.

The restart with 27 laps to go saw ESPN shoot the leaders only and again miss a spin in the pack, this time involving Ryan Newman. It was a typical restart scenario for ESPN on this day. Zoom into the leader, then replay what happened that TV viewers never saw. Many fans seemed to be as frustrated as some of the drivers.

It's not rocket science to allow the cameras to show the cars racing on this short-track to the TV viewers. It's a track that has been covered on TV for a very long time by lots of different TV networks. Ultimately, it takes effort to make the kind of mess ESPN made Sunday.

The drivers offered a lot of action. The stories were unfolding at a hectic pace. It was a critical race in the Chase. There were multiple caution flags. Tempers were boiling. The TV response was single-car camera shots with forced storylines.

We invite your comments on this telecast. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below.

Live Blogging Sprint Cup Series From Martinsville (ESPN - 1PM ET)

Great fall weather at Martinsville means NASCAR gets an opportunity to put on a good show as the season winds down. The pre-race show on ESPN today is only thirty minutes, but the green flag does not fall until 1:58PM ET.

Russ Wallace, the father of Rusty and Kenny passed away last night after an illness. Kenny was replaced on SPEED's RaceDay by Larry McReynolds. Rusty will not be replaced, but the Infield Pit Studio will host several guests. Nicole Briscoe is hosting with Brad Daugherty alongside.

An interesting Marty Smith interview with driver Brad Kesewloski will air during the Countdown show. Also on the table will be the Chad Knaus pre-race conversation picked up by NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy at Talladega. Jack Roush again this AM denied team orders were in place last week, despite Trevor Bayne saying he was told to leave Jeff Gordon and pick up a Ford late in the race.

Allen Bestwick will call the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. On pit road are Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Dr. Jerry Punch and Jamie Little. Vince Welch informed us he is off this weekend as his daughter has a cross-country track meet. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage.

Martinsville is short-track racing defined. It will be impossible for the "hyper-tight" ESPN coverage because there is always a pack racing or something going on. The ability to pick and choose who to cover is gone.

It's a shame that ESPN did not experiment with Nonstop coverage for this entire race. One commercial of three minutes in length under green flag conditions seems like an hour at this track. Instead, only the final half of the event will have the side-by-side commercial format.

NASCAR.com will continue to offer RaceBuddy. This consists of a collection of in-car cameras with two fixed speed shots of the racetrack. Listening to the team radios should be interesting today.

This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN coverage of the Sprint Cup Series on ESPN. To add your comments, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

FOX And DirecTV Battle Set To Affect NASCAR Fans

It's a scenario cable TV and home satellite dish owners know all too well. A powerful company that provides programming wants more money and the company that must pay to distribute those services says it's a raw deal.

DirecTV has slightly less than 20 million home dish customers in the US. The company is not large, but serves a very distinct market and has been influential in the growth of specialty programming and home satellite services.

The term to remember in this tussle is "bundling." What FOX (and parent company News Corp) wants is a significantly higher fee for providing a group of networks to distribute. DirectTV claims the requested rate hike is almost 40%. FOX called that ridiculous, but will not state a number or percentage.

"We already provide News Corp. nearly a billion dollars a year for their channels and we have no problem continuing to compensate them fairly." DirecTV said in a media release. "The deal being offered is unfair and unwarranted."

The issue is that FOX will not value the company's networks separately. While networks like FX have been on a roll, increasing fees for the likes of SPEED, FUEL and the NatGeo Channel is debatable. There are also Fox Regional Sports Networks in the deal. FOX will not "unbundle" the network package.

New Corp has put in place the keepmynets.com website. The list of all the FOX networks involved in this dispute is featured. The idea is to spin the rate increase as just a fair deal for DirecTV that is in line with the other FOX partners. That is far from the reality.

DirecTV has set November 1 as a date for FOX to get things settled or those network signals will be removed from the home dish service. Needless to say, most consumers are not interested in the broader issues despite the fact that increased costs will be passed along as usual to the end-user. People just want their TV shows.

NASCAR fans have already been emailing with concerns about losing SPEED and that programming at a critical time of the racing season. Featured programming affected would be the Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR shows from the various Sprint Cup Series tracks and the Monday through Thursday RaceHub news and interview program.

One very interesting twist in this equation is the gentleman pictured above. In 2008, at the time of this photo, Chase Carey was the CEO and president of DirecTV. He helped grow the company through strategic partnerships with sports providers. He made his mark and has now moved on.

Today, he is the president of News Corp and leads the bargaining team to the table with detailed knowledge of exactly how DirecTV works and where the company is vulnerable. Imagine having a former CEO as an opponent in a financial dispute.

As usual, it's getting ugly. The keepmynets.com site has lots of anti-DirecTV "news" stories posted and features comments from consumers worried about not seeing different shows or series. DirecTV continues to paint FOX as a money-hungry monster that can't deliver the goods to justify a rate increase of any kind.

All we know is that this weekend things will be fine, but come Tuesday there could be a significant void in the ability of NASCAR to distribute some key programming to a very important segment of the TV marketplace.

We will be updating any news on this topic that happens on the TDP Twitter, Facebook and blog sites. Should this issue press right up to the deadline, we will offer a live blog next Monday of the ongoing negotiations. These things have a history of getting resolved at the last minute, so as they say on TV...stay tuned.

Please feel free to add your comment 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.