TV Times – NBC Sports Wants NASCAR TV Rights

That last third of the NASCAR Sprint Cup is currently aired by ESPN and ABC with those rights expiring in 2014. However, NBC Sports could knock TNT out of the NASCAR box instead of ESPN/ABC only because it would be a lot easier for them to get a foothold in NASCAR now during the middle of the NASCAR season. Consider the fact that ESPN and ABC have a lot of depth and opportunities that NASCAR benefits from now with all of their extensive sports programming on the ESPN channels.

 

We think that TNT rather than ABC/ESPN will be the NBC Sports target. Comcast currently owns NBC, and we can expect some further jockeying by that company as time goes on. At the same time, it stands to reason that NBC Sports will be also looking at other programming rights for MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL and PGA, among others.

 

Changes on the Speed Channel have Leigh Diffy departing that Fox-owned TV entity for greener patches as he’ll be calling those races when the NBC Sports Channel takes over USA airings of the Formula 1 circuit. For many years it’s been on Speed and Fox Sports. Prior to that it was on the ESPNs/ABC. The Speed Channel is also expected to be changing over to other sports beyond motorsports. .

 

We’ve noticed that the Speed logo on the screen has quietly changed over to the Fox Sports Channel/Speed. How much of the heavy NASCAR programming will be cut as the transition to an all sports channel is still a mystery. We’ve always felt that there’s been too much NASCAR programming on Speed anyway. Some of which does not make sense, like game shows and the like. Only the movers and shakers in the FSC/Speed know what’s going on. In order to make room for other sports entities, we feel that a lot of the NASCAR programming that doesn’t have good ratings will get the axe. Non-NASCAR programming on Speed could get cut for the same reason. Also Bob Varsha, long Speed’s F1 guy, moves to the Grand Am Series which is still on Speed.

 

According to the IZOD Indy Car 2013 schedule, sanctions for TV airing will be split between NBC Sports and ABC in 2013. The former network, NBC Sports, should consider puffing their motorsports weekends on the morning, noon and prime time programming to get the sports fans to tune in. In addition, the IZOD Indy Car series has to step up their promotion as both F1 and NASCAR continue to marginalize the IZOD Indy Cars during the past few years.

 

NASCAR does it by having the most American drivers while F1 does the same thing to Indy Car by having a large rooster of world class drivers. The other bad situation in Indy Car is its internal problems such as firing their top man Randy Bernard because the race team principals didn’t like him. Consider that, prior to the merger with Indy Car race teams a few years ago, it did little to help get back a lot of former fans. The race teams members of CART and Champ Car also went through two bankruptcies which didn’t help their standing at all.

 

Known for lots of dysfunction, infighting and setbacks, it’s been an uphill battle for the IZOD Indy Car Series for longer than a decade. We’ve also read and heard rumors that IZOD wants out of the Indy Car deal, which is not good if that’s true. It wouldn’t suprise us that it is true given the state of Indy Car. That could be put to bed though if IZOD and Indy Car came out with some clarification. The longer motorsports awaits that announcement the more there’ll be a shadow over the entire Indy Car scene.