TV Networks And Internet Set For "Media Day" Battle

The dynamic of NASCAR and the world of new media technology continues to unfold as the Daytona International Speedway prepares for media day.

This is a tightly controlled progression of drivers trudging through the media gauntlet. Aside from various print and radio interviews, there will be three different media companies presenting video of the event. Two of them are active NASCAR TV partners and the third is an online group.

NASCAR.com is operated by Turner Interactive from Atlanta, GA. Among other things, this group holds all the rights to NASCAR video on the Internet. Yes, they control what video is allowed to be posted anywhere, including YouTube and other sites.

This year, NASCAR.com will be originating a live online webcast beginning at 8AM ET. Click here for the direct link to open that window. Hand-in-hand with NASCAR, the website should be able to supply fans a full day of interesting pictures and sound.

Here is the official information on this coverage:

NASCAR.COM is set to bring fans an unprecedented seven consecutive hours of live coverage from Media Day, beginning at 8 a.m. ET Thursday. Hosts Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Larry McReynolds and Shannon Wiseman will cover the Media Day action.

Fans can participate in Media Day by submitting questions via Twitter for the hosts to ask drivers as they cover the Media Day action. Submit questions for your favorite driver at NASCAR's Twitter account: www.twitter.com/NASCAR

So, the first team out of the blocks and "on the air" with coverage will be the in-house crew from NASCAR itself. This will allow fans away from a TV to gain access to exactly the same content being offered to the mainstream media.

Meanwhile, ESPN is scrambling to get this season started on a good note after the rough end to 2009. ESPNEWS will present three hours of live coverage starting at noon ET with Nicole Briscoe hosting from Daytona.

Mike Massaro will be back in the ESPN studios and Ricky Craven will be along to offer his comments on the topics of the day. Segments with Craven and Massaro in the studio will allow Briscoe in Daytona to get reset with the next guest.

This is a nice big block of time for ESPN to dedicate to the sport. Later, at 6PM there will also be a full thirty-minute version of NASCAR Now on ESPN2 with the same cast of characters. The 6PM start time is to avoid conflict with live Bud Shoot Out practice being televised on SPEED at 5PM for one hour.

Speaking of SPEED, John Roberts and Wendy Venturini will offer a recap of the media day activities airing at 7:30PM ET for ninety minutes. SPEED is skipping the live coverage to basically promote itself. NASCAR Live at 4PM will feature a host of SPEED announcers from Dave Despain and Ken Squier to Steve Byrnes and Jimmy Spencer. Expect everyone to say hello and offer a thought or two on the new season.

Since SPEED is airing both Thursday Shoot Out practice sessions at 5 and 6:30PM, it leaves little room for media day content until later in the evening. The complete TV schedule for the entire weekend is on the right side of the TDP main page.

It should be a very interesting media day with one marathon online webcast, one live cable sports news channel telecast and one edited primetime cable show of exactly the same content. Keep that in mind...exactly the same content.

This post will serve to host your comments about the three sources for media day video on Thursday. Please tell us what you watched, how you enjoyed the content and whatever other observations you have on the presentations.

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.

Showtime Throws NASCAR A Curveball (Repost from 1/26/10)

When it became clear that SPEED was ending the 14 year run of This Week in NASCAR, it was sad. Other than ESPN's Monday afternoon offering, there was no NASCAR weekday talk show that featured conversation and debate about racing topics. Then, Showtime answered the call.

Click here to review the NASCAR.com post announcing that Inside NASCAR would begin on Showtime in February and offer a Wednesday hour talk show. Ultimately announced as the cast was Chris Myers, Brad Daugherty, Randy Pemberton and Michael Waltrip.

Cable TV networks like SPEED, TNT and VERSUS are in well over 70 million homes in the United States. Showtime serves around 17 million. In NASCAR TV terms, they are tiny. Throw in Showtime's mature-themed entertainment programming and suddenly there was a situation brewing.

The question was, will NASCAR fans be able to see Inside NASCAR on what is called an "a la carte" basis. That means being able to break-out a single program or series from a network for viewing. Basically, without subscribing to the Showtime network, could fans access Inside NASCAR? Luckily, that point was quickly addressed.

Here is an excerpt from the Sports Business Journal's Michael Smith addressing those points:

Showtime's new weekly Inside NASCAR show will be available via the Internet and mobile phone, which required clearance from NASCAR's rights holders in that space.

NASCAR Media Group, which manages those multimedia rights, had to clear the broadcast of Inside NASCAR with its TV, web and mobile partners before giving final approval for the new show.

NASCAR's TV broadcast rights are with Fox, Turner Sports and ESPN, while its web rights are with Turner and the mobile rights are with Turner and Sprint. All of those deals run through 2014.

Since that time, we have been communicating directly with Showtime to get updates on just how fans could access the new TV series and what costs might be involved. Tuesday (Jan 26, 2010), we got our answers from the premium network. It was not good news.

First of all, Inside NASCAR will not be available via cell phone. Showtime as a TV network is still not available in that fashion. So, the company is simply not going to break out Inside NASCAR on an "a la carte" basis. The cell phone or hand-held device option is out.

Then came the big news. "We do not offer full episodes of any Showtime programs online," the network told TDP via email. While episode 1 of this series will be posted at SHO.com as a preview, none of the additional episodes will be available online.

It's understandable that Showtime has a business to run and getting new subscribers is the number one priority. But with no actual races, few other sports and an adult-themed line-up of premium programming, Inside NASCAR may wind up only being seen by that portion of the current 17 million Showtime subscribers who are race fans.

Perhaps, the NASCAR Media Group may yet play a role in getting online distribution for this product. After all, they developed, pitched and sold the TV series to Showtime. Now, NMG is getting ready to produce it at its new Charlotte-based studios.

It may well be in NMG's own best interest to have another round of conversations about getting the only weekday primetime hour of NASCAR conversation on any kind of national TV out to a broader audience. The series debut is February 10.

We welcome 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. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

ESPN's Studio Disaster Now A Shining Star

Note: Leaving this column up for comments on the Monday start of NASCAR Now. The one hour show returns next Monday with host Allen Bestwick. His panelists will be Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace and Ricky Craven.

It was 2007 when ESPN thought it would be a good idea to take Connecticut lawyer Erik Kuselias and Urban Radio host Doug Banks and try to pass them off as NASCAR experts.

Unfortunately, they were going to be co-hosting the only daily NASCAR news and interview show on national TV. The results were disastrous.

Banks had no experience not only with NASCAR, but he had never been involved in a national TV series before. His problems were more with reading the Teleprompter than understanding NASCAR. It had been quite clear from the start that he had no racing knowledge of any kind.

Click here to read the TDP column titled "Where in the NASCAR world is Doug Banks?" Less than four months after his debut, Banks was silently released from his hosting duties. He was never seen at ESPN again.

Ryan Burr became the new co-host of NASCAR Now. Luckily, Burr had come over from ESPNEWS where he had plenty of experience with interviews and reporting on various sports. Burr never pretended to know NASCAR, but his professionalism and calm demeanor on the air kept the ship from sinking.

Meanwhile, Kuselias had by now upset some of the biggest names in the sport with his arrogant interviews and incredible ignorance of NASCAR history. Click here to read "Culture clash explodes on NASCAR Now." Reality and hype were on a collision course and the defining moment of this TV series was about to happen.

That came courtesy of a gentleman being interviewed via satellite from his race shops in Concord, North Carolina. His name is Rick Hendrick. Throughout the live NASCAR Now interview, Kuselias asked forceful and pointed questions as if Hendrick was at a deposition and Kuselias was representing the other side. Hendrick never flinched and then as the interview wrapped he turned the tables.

"Have you ever seen the movie Days of Thunder?" Hendrick asked smiling. Put on the spot, Kuselias did the only thing he could and enthusiastically said yes. Hendrick paused as perhaps only men like Roger Penske and Mike Helton can do. It's the kind of pause that gets your full attention very quickly.

Staring straight into the camera, Hendrick quietly said the now classic line. "You know, I'm the guy in that movie." Just like that, Kuselias was done. Exposed as a NASCAR fraud on national TV by the most powerful owner in the sport.

Fully released from the show after the 2007 season, Kuselias has been embroiled in personal and professional scandals at ESPN since that time that ultimately resulted in his suspension. ESPN should have known better than to put Kuselias and Banks in front of NASCAR fans from the start. A lot of time was wasted.

While Burr kept the show treading water, it was the arrival of Allen Bestwick, Nicole (Manske) Briscoe and Mike Massaro that pulled it back in the boat. 2008 signaled the start of an amazing recovery.

The series began to add regular studio analysts with NASCAR experience and move the Tim Cowlishaws of the world out to pasture. Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis, who had both suffered through year one, were suddenly front and center as key reporters on NASCAR issues and breaking news.

After arriving from SPEED as a TV barbie doll, Briscoe stepped into her new ESPN role and never missed a beat. Moving out of the studio and reporting from the track, ESPN finally had the kind of versatile female anchor the network needed on the NASCAR beat.

By the time Massaro was asked to join the show in 2009, Briscoe and Bestwick had things pretty well sorted out. Bestwick had worked hard to put his personal stamp on Monday afternoons and given the series a firm foundation. He hosted countless panelists and through it all kept the kind of organized demeanor for which he is known.

Briscoe and Massaro settled into alternating studio hosting and traveling to the races. Voices like Ricky Craven, Ray Evernham and Randy LaJoie emerged as stars of the studio and favorites with the fans. Characters like DJ Copp emerged from obscurity to become important parts of the series. NASCAR Now finally had a personality amid the other vapid ESPN studio shows.

This season ESPN has already committed Shannon Spake to helping out with the show. The series still lacks a fulltime news reporter on the ground in the Concord area on the weekdays. Spake can fill that role as well as studio host as she returns from maternity leave.

Finally, the biggest NASCAR resource ESPN has in its possession has just been set free. Dr. Jerry Punch has been freed from the broadcast booth and returns to his correct role as a reporter. Letting Punch contribute to NASCAR Now may go a very long way to settling him into an assignment he should have had from the start.

With the studio line-up set, the reporters ready and the tremendous amount of storylines going into Daytona, this season may finally see NASCAR Now emerge as the kind of major daily television series ESPN envisioned back in 2007. It couldn't come at a better time.

We welcome 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.