Bristol TV Flashback: NASCAR on FOX

In 2010 we started to offer a platform for fans to voice their comments immediately after TV coverage of a Sprint Cup Series race.

Last March, over one hundred fans stopped by after the NASCAR on FOX coverage of the spring race from the Bristol Motor Speedway. The topics they raised were diverse, but several threads ran through the posts.

Presented without comment, here are excerpts from some of the comments as they appeared that day. Click here to read the entire post and fan comments.

On the topic of announcers:

"No one is CALLING the race!! All they do is chit-chat like teenagers at a high school dance. 16 years of watching NASCAR shot to hell!" (from John P.)

"I would love it dearly if Mike Joy would have told Darrell Waltrip about lap 178 to shut up & let him call this race. It never happened. Replay is not the same as seeing it happen live. We saw lots of replays. Even when Fox was "showing the race" reporters Tweeting from the track got word out about cautions & who was involved before TV bothered to tell us." (from JoJaye)

"I have no idea why Fox has 3 guys in the booth and reporters on pit road. It certainly isn't to keep viewers informed about what is happening on the track! Has someone at Fox lost the memo about going 'through the field'? Very few explanations about cars that went forward or back during the race, so I had no clue what happened." (from Sally)

"The disconnect between the camera shots and the TV booth was startling. Cars would be shown on the screen but the announcers were talking about something completely different. At first, I tried to make a connection but soon realized there wasn't any to be made. The TV truck was calling for shots & the booth was talking about something unrelated. One or both sets of individuals was failing the TV viewer each time that happened." (from Red)

On the topic of producing and directing the race coverage:

"I'm a NASCAR viewer from the days of 'Wide World Of Sports'. There is too much dependence on special cameras. I don't see that the ground-cam gives us any additional knowledge. The bumper cams can be useful, but too often we just see that one car is close to another. A medium shot of both cars could have established that. If there's an incident, look at all of the possible replays and pick the best one. ONE in-car, ONE wide-shot. I don't need to see the accident from every in-car camera in the field. Show me the shot that adds information." (from Don)

"Is it against the rules to show fans in the stands in order to get a wider shot of the action? What's the point of HD if you're focusing in on one or two cars at a time? I'd think with HD technology today they could probably show at least 10 cars at a time to allow us to see all the racing - and we'd still be able to read the ads on the cars. Instead they "zoom" us back to 4:3 days by zooming-in on two cars at a time. It just doesn't make sense. During the pre-race show they had this really cool live shot of the entire race track from the top of the stadium - stands, track, and all - that would have been even more cool with the race going on. Show us some racing from the blimp. Allow the "crank it up" cam to see the entire field go by. Mix it up a bit. Watching one car go around the track and talking about the driver in it doesn't equate to going through the field. Going through the field is telling us when a position is being fought for. What's going on with the drivers fighting for 35th in points? We never heard any of that." (from James)

"The coverage has gone from bad to worse. Locking in on the same dozen cars, in-car shots that are uncalled for, roof cam shots that are unnecessary, and managing to miss action on the track because someone is asleep at the wheel in the production truck is unforgivable. But by golly they'll make sure the plugs for the gopher are correct." (from TheMadMan)

Fox showed the winner and the next three cars finish the race on the TV coverage. Here are some comments on that topic:

"I love how those TEN SECONDS it would have taken to show the whole field finish were far too valuable for the Fox director. TEN SECONDS!" (from Anon fan)

"I want to see the cars cross the start finish line at the end of the race, it's why I bothered to watch all day, to see them cross the finish line and what order they did it in. Instead I'm seeing the inside of the 48 car or the crew celebrating. I'm no longer "hooked" on NASCAR TV and if I was a new fan, this would not make me come back next week." (from Gina 24)

"I understand the race ran over, but for crying out loud, would it kill you to show the cars crossing the line. I don't give a rat's behind about the joyful crew of the winner. I want to see where my favorites finished. And why did you post the graphics before the race ended? Did you NOT know what lap it was? I did." (from TexasRaceLady)

"The final 3 laps were poorly produced. The finishing order was posted before the race was completed and only the first five cars were shown finishing before there was a cut to the winner's in-car camera while the top five's faces remained across the top of the screen. I had to go to a website to get the actual finishing order." (from Red)

"I was livid when Fox failed to have the courtesy to show all of the cars finish the race. This is especially maddening at Bristol where a lap only takes about 16 seconds. Why they did not take that small amount of time to show the field coming across the line when that would miss only moments of JJ's celebration is beyond my comprehension." (from KoHoSo)

Those three topics dominated the live chat during the race and the post-race comments. Bristol is a completely different track that requires a completely different type of TV coverage.

Fans wanted more focused commentary and less story-telling from the announcers in the booth. More information from the pit reporters was also a concern. In the race, using wideshots instead of in-car cameras and shots of single race cars that forced FOX to replay most of the important moments was a hot topic. Finally, the lack of showing all the lead lap cars racing to the finish was a very popular issue.

Sunday's race coverage starts on FOX at 12:30PM ET. The same broadcast team, including producer and director, returns for this telecast. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 1:13PM.

This post is simply meant as a reminder of the challenges TV viewers faced last season on this event. Each new year brings a fresh start and it should be very interesting, with the above fan comments in mind, to see how the NASCAR on FOX team handles the race telecast.

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.

Tuesday TV/Media Notes

Some items of interest that came our way this week:

Monday night was the conclusion of The Bachelor on ABC. Emily Maynard, the former fiance of the late Ricky Hendrick and the mother of his daughter was the contestant chosen to marry Brad Womack. Various websites continue to report that the two are not going to get married in real life. Maynard is a TV veteran, having hosted the syndicated 3 Wide Life show several years ago. It should be interesting to see if Maynard winds-up on TV again and if her new role is associated with racing.

Rusty Wallace will move up from the infield and join Marty Reid and Andy Petree for the Nationwide Series race this Saturday afternoon on ESPN. Dale Jarrett has the weekend off.

Nicole Briscoe hosts NASCAR Now this week on ESPN2. Mike Massaro will travel to Bristol, TN as a reporter for the weekend edition of the show.

The most recent double-super top-secret NASCAR Fan Council survey asked if more of the actual pre-race activity, including concerts by musical groups, should be on TV. Fans have been asking to see the Bristol, TN pre-race either on TV or online for years. Wonder what the NFC is thinking about?

The History Channel has announced that it will be sponsoring the Nationwide Series race in May at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Top Gear 300 incorporates the name of a TV series with versions produced in both the US and UK. This sponsorship is from the US budget, so expect to see Rutledge Wood, Tanner Foust and Adam Ferrara front and center.

Apparently things are not working very well for the 2011 version of Inside NASCAR on Showtime. It looks like Randy Pemberton has been pushed aside for the new presence of Kyle Petty, but that has not made a dent. The show was downsized from one hour to thirty minutes and is struggling in this format. Showtime is leaning on uncensored scanner highlights that essentially keep the profanity on the team radio as an attraction for viewers. There is little in the way of conversation and analysis due to the time restrictions. Should be interesting to see if the series hangs in there after this season.

SPEED is front and center on Friday from the Bristol Motor Speedway as the network handles all the on-track activity for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. The network comes on the air at 11:30AM ET and ends with Trackside at 7:30PM. Even on Saturday, SPEED will handle the Nationwide Series qualifying in the morning before ESPN takes over for the 2PM race.

The television voice of the AFLAC duck, Gilbert Gottfried, has been fired. Gottfried is a comedian by trade and he posted several poor attempts at humor using the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami as a topic on Twitter. AFLAC does 75% of its total business in Japan. One in four homes in Japan has residents insured by AFLAC. Gottfried was fired immediately after his social media blunder.

Jeff Gordon continues to be a popular talk show guest. He will appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show on Friday, March 25. Check TV listings for the time of the show in your area.

Country star Billy Ray Cyrus will sing the national anthem on Sunday for the Sprint Cup Series race. Family musical group "Carter's Chord" will handle the anthem duties on Saturday for the Nationwide Series race. That country group is currently signed to Toby Keith's record label.

This post will be updated on Tuesday as more news items appear as the sport heads to Bristol. We invite your comments on the topics above. 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.

An Online Motorsports Disaster

There used to be no better example of a professional racing series that offered an outstanding online streaming version of its events than IndyCar. Practice, qualifying and races were all made available worldwide on the sanctioning body's website in 2010.

While major sports like the NFL, MLB and NHL all have sophisticated online streaming packages available to fans, motorsports has lagged behind. The biggest reason is the complicated world of programming contracts that often result in a clash between television and Internet rights.

After being unceremoniously chopped into pieces by ESPN several years ago, the remaining IndyCar television package took refuge at VERSUS. At the time, that obtuse network was a chaotic mix of sports, paid programming and reality TV. Now, things have changed.

The network's owners, Comcast, have essentially bought NBC Universal. Suddenly, IndyCar is in a whole new world. Comcast brought in some heavy hitters as executives for NBC Sports, the Golf Channel and VERSUS.

Back in the original contract, IndyCar gave VERSUS both the TV and online rights to the 12 races that the network carries. 5 other races are on ESPN/ABC. At the time, IndyCar was over a barrel with nowhere else to go. Essentially, IndyCar gave global online video control of the majority of the races to an American cable TV network owned by an American cable TV provider.

Needless to say, VERSUS has lowered the boom. There will be no streaming of any content from the 12 events on VERSUS in 2011. No practice, qualifying or races. Currently, there are no published plans for the other five races to get any online exposure from ESPN.

IndyCar is an international series featuring drivers from all over the world. The fan base is truly global. VERSUS does not even distribute its TV signal across the border into Canada or South America. Reaction has been swift.

"This would be the most significant step backward in the last twenty years of IndyCar," said the Disciple of IndyCar blog.

"The main problem is how it affects international viewers, especially in Canada, the UK, and Australia. That’s a serious issue and I honestly don’t know what the solution is," said the Triple League Racing blog.

"Way to kill the fairly big international audience the series has. I used to watch every session when I had the chance. Now I have to miss practice and qualifying and watch an illegal stream of the race. My passion for IndyCar just dropped by a mile," said Miguel from the Netherlands on TrackForum.com.

While the NBC/Comcast senior management team says this move is designed to drive viewers to VERSUS and raise ratings, that statement flies in the face of reality. It's not the potential erosion of American fans who choose a laptop over VERSUS that is the issue. It's the international fan base and ultimately perhaps the very survival of the series.

Comcast/NBC lawyers may be well within their rights to force this move, but VERSUS does not carry a significant amount of the content that was being streamed live. In fact, VERSUS and NBC have not even suggested that any IndyCar online content might migrate to an NBC-owned website on a subscription basis. Instead, it is simply being ended.

In 2011, this is a tremendous example of the clash between the traditional American television model of sports programming and the reality of online streaming. IndyCar races on ABC or ESPN other than the Indy 500 drew less than one million viewers. The numbers from VERSUS were nothing short of pathetic. Less than 400 thousand viewers per race.

Instead of seeing the online environment as a problem, the only pathway for IndyCar is to use the existing online fan base to spread the IndyCar message on a global scale. VERSUS and NBC have no stake in IndyCar. It's up to the sanctioning body to get across the table from the TV folks and determine what Internet strategy can benefit both parties.

Perhaps, just one more season of online streaming as the new VERSUS executives settle in and get a feel for the racing landscape may be a workable solution. Better to count the legal viewers worldwide on an official live stream than force international fans to resort to illegal Internet sites for the races.

It would be a crying shame to have part of the new VERSUS legacy become the death of IndyCar. Unfortunately, that is a very real possibility if the current distribution plan stays in place. It's time for some crisis management and folks with knowledge of the bigger picture to step-up and save the day.

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.