Wednesday TV/Media Notes

Here are some mid-week TV and media topics that are in the news:

ESPN on Tuesday afternoon released a carefully worded update on the TV ratings from Loudon, NH. Sunday's race went up against the NFL for the first time this season, but also featured ESPN's Nonstop commercials for the second half and RaceBuddy at the NASCAR.com website.

Here is ESPN's media release on the ratings:

ESPN's live telecast of the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 25, earned a 3.1 household coverage rating, averaging 4,235,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. The rating was up 19% from last year's New Hampshire race, which also aired on ESPN and earned a 2.6 rating. The telecast also saw double-digit growth in key audience demographics, including a 28% rise in the Male 18-34 demographic and a 20% rise in the Male 18-49 demographic. The audience also saw 33 percent of growth in the Persons 55+ demographic.

Here is the same topic as reported on the Sports Media Watch website:

Ratings and viewership jumped by double-digits for the second race of NASCAR’s Chase For the Cup, but the numbers were still below par.

Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Sylvania 300 from New Hampshire earned a 2.7 U.S. rating and 4.235 million viewers on ESPN, up 17% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.677M), but down 16% in both measures compared to 2009 (3.2, 5.044M, ABC).

Despite the increase, this marks the second-lowest rated, second-least viewed edition of the race over the past ten seasons. As recently as 2008, the race drew a comparably hefty 3.8 rating and 6.098 million viewers on ABC.

While all of this information is technically correct, it certainly is a very good illustration that there are several ways to present the same NASCAR TV information.

As continuing proof of the New World Order inside NASCAR's marketing and media relations arm, the release of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series schedule on Wednesday will be a coordinated online event.

At noon ET the new schedule will be posted at the NASCAR.com website. Then, NASCAR VP Steve O'Donnell will take Twitter comments and questions from fans and the media about the new schedule. For Twitter veterans, there is a #2012schedule hashtag being used for the conversation.

Speaking of Twitter, Ricky Craven signed-on this week and can be found at @RickyCravenESPN. Nice to have him in the social media pipeline.

Many fans this week have been asking about the changes to the NASCAR Now series on ESPN2. The network has a new emphasis on talk shows in the afternoon and has created a multi-hour block. That pushed NASCAR Now forward to the 3PM Eastern timeslot.

The network also has changed the late night schedule and that has eliminated the West Coast airing of the show. Despite ESPN downplaying the situation, this is the only "support series" for NASCAR on the TV network carrying the final seventeen Sprint Cup Series races.

While the Sunday morning preview show and the Sunday night review show remain, it's a cruel blow for NASCAR fans who watched Allen Bestwick, Craven and others work so hard to make these weekday shows well worth watching. Needless to say, these changes do not bode well for NASCAR Now continuing to be on the schedule in 2012.

This week's double top-secret NASCAR Fan Council survey was focused on the new ESPN Nonstop commercial format. Fans were asked if it made a difference in the way they watched the race. Also on the agenda were questions about the use of social media and online applications while watching the live race telecast.

If you are not a viewer of SPEED Center, you may have missed the Sunday debut of Ray Evernham as SPEED's NASCAR studio analyst. This is a similar role to Craven on ESPN2. Evernham can be seen on the Sunday preview show at 10:30AM and the night time review show at 11PM ET.

It's a very strange time for a TV network to add an analyst, but Evernham brings a unique perspective to the sport and helps to establish another NASCAR perspective outside of the NASCAR Media Group produced RaceDay and Victory Lane shows.

ESPN has a doubleheader this weekend with Marty Reid calling the Saturday afternoon Nationwide Series race and Allen Bestwick handling the Sprint Cup Series action on Sunday from Dover. SPEED has the trucks on Saturday night from Kentucky Speedway on a weekend shared with the IndyCar Series.

Please feel free to post your comments on any of the topics mentioned above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.

Flat Tracking In New Hampshire

The truck series race on Saturday showed us that it was going to be another case of a single groove racetrack that made it tough to pass. New Hampshire Motor Speedway lived up to that reputation on Sunday as the Sprint Cup Series raced on ESPN.

Nicole Briscoe led a pre-race show that consisted of a lot of content seen earlier in the week on ESPN. Features from the past were re-used on various topics to fill the hour. Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty now present a familiar infield TV duo.

Allen Bestwick called the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the TV booth. On pit road were Jamie Little, Dave Burns, Vince Welch and Dr. Jerry Punch. Tim Brewer was in the Tech Garage.

This race was a nose to tail affair that made pitstops and track position key to winning. There was little attrition among the top teams and ultimately gas mileage decided the race.

This was a typical ESPN presentation. The core of the live racing is covered by cameras that feature select pairs of cars. Sometimes, there is a single shot while the coverage talks about a designated driver. ESPN had a wonderful aerial shot, but it was used infrequently.

Positives were the nonstop commercial format, the quad-split for caution flag pistops and the effective use of split-screens during the racing. Negatives were conversation among announcers with no one calling the action. This race sounded very different on the radio.

This post is your opportunity to express your opinion about the ESPN coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.

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

The Fords are nowhere in sight at New Hampshire. The Roush guys are scratching their heads as the other manufacturers dominate. The weather is good, the track is slick and tempers are hot. What a perfect recipe for a good NASCAR race.

Nicole Briscoe will open the TV day with Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace alongside from the ESPN Infield Pit Studio. Briscoe has been solid while directing traffic on the air, but Wallace is struggling without a viable partner for conversation in this setting. Daugherty is a NASCAR cheerleader this season and nothing more.

Allen Bestwick will call the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. As fans saw with ESPN's Chicagoland coverage, Bestwick is sometimes limited in his ability to call the race by the pictures selected by ESPN. Perhaps today Bestwick will be able to look out the window instead of only at the TV screen.

On pit road are Jamie Little, Dave Burns, Vince Welch and Dr. Jerry Punch. In this New World Order of NASCAR where few cars experience mechanical troubles and passing is limited, the role of the pit reporter had been diminished significantly. It should be interesting to see if this tough and very flat track changes that for one race.

Tim Brewer is in the Tech Garage and is completely out of things to say. He almost seems resigned to his fate as he repeats the same basic points over and over again. Brewer has a lot more to offer, but the Tech Garage has lost its magic.

ESPN has a signature style of showing races called "hyper-tight." Once the start or a restart is over, the director immediately begins the process of tightening the camera views until they are tight shots of one or two cars. ESPN said this approach works better for HDTV viewers, unfortunately it misses most of the racing.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a pot that boils over about halfway through the race. Contact is going to happen, unless the field simply strings out and uses pit road for track position. In the Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday, only six trucks finished on the lead lap.

This post will serve to host your comments about the NASCAR on ESPN coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from New Hampshire. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.