I agree that going around the huge events is a good idea. But this conflict will always be there. There is almost always soomething else going on that will likely get higher ratings. If it were me I would put the races in the morning on Sunday or no later than noon. No one wants to be inside on a Sunday at 3-5pm in nice weather. Its just a bad time to be watching TV. Pit the races either Friday night or weekend late morning/early afternoon to increase TV ratings.
Well said, I agree!Originally Posted by Grinder-Tank
NBC needs to run promos for Versus on NBC. The casual fan probably only watches the ABC races because they are the only ones they know about.
NBC needs to run a commercial highlighting NHL, Indycar, and PBR. Tart it up as the "contact sport channel" or something. It's a win/win effort for NBC, and a way to try and secure more viewers for Versus as a whole.
Yeah, Ebersol and NBC definitely need something to bolster their sports programming. What's going to help that? Does IICS and the 500 fit? NBC's lost MLB, NBA, NASCAR, college basketball, and college bowl games in the past ten years.
They have NHL and one NFL game on Sunday nights during football season, they share the Superbowl in alternating years with CBS, and they also have the Olympics, the Derby, the Preakness, Wimbledon, French Open, PGA tour, and the sometimes good, usually average Notre Dame football program. Lots of sports and teams stereotyped as old-money (golf, tennis, Notre Dame, thoroughbred racing), and they have lost a lot of sports programming. Ebersol and Co. see the IICS as an investment towards their future as well as possibly more NHL programming.
"Lyrically, I'm Mario Andretti on the mo-mo" - A Tribe Called Quest
Be careful what you wish for
Indy, Cleveland, Mid-Ohio, Pocono, Michigan, Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Kentucky, IRP - 49
Sounds like a good idea!
It better improve at Long Beach - arguably the series 2nd most recognized event. A 0.3 there won't bode well for any other events on Versus.
Sponsors and investors to the sport don't buy excuses. Ratings need to go up. No matter what channel we're on.
Although I agree that better attention needs to be paid to timing of the races. I missed it because I was out and about doing stuff.
"Unfortunately, the business types who now permeate the sport don't share this same gut centered devotion. I can only hope that the truly addicted will prevail, and that the original spirit of open wheel competition will somehow manage to survive and prosper into the future."
-Dr. Stephen Olvey
Good luck with Talladega next week.
There will be at least one track pass for the lead in that race for sure. Long Beach not so much.
I think Long Beach will be more exciting then the "Two Car Tandem" I'm a Nascar fan also and to tell you the truth I watch little of daytona 500 because of that "racing" and I won't be watching much of Dega too.
In the IZOD IndyCar series we're just kids enjoy the thrills in a 200 MPH candy store.
I agree, i am not a fan of the new two car tandem either but it will likely be a better race then Long Beach. Unless it rains
I don't agree... I'm a big Indycar fan, but if they were to put their races up against NHL hockey on Saturday nights, I wouldn't be watching. I suspect this is the same way Americans feel about the NFL and special sporting events like the Masters.
Please add the Belmont Stakes to that list... and they don't have just 'some' golf. I would hope that the re-branding of the "Golf Channel on NBC" would have been a bit more obvious to the casual viewer. NBCU will carry the USGA Championships as well as 10 PGA events and the Ryder Cup... It kinda dominates their Sunday schedule after the NHL playoffs conclude. Then toss in the Dew Tour events (that they own), a few outdoor AMA Motocross events, 3 more PBR events, the Rugby World Cup... and as long as they retain TV rights to the Olympics, they will stay committed to showing Olympic sports such as the US and World Swimming Championships, USA Pro Cycling Challenge, World Track & Field Championships... you get the idea.
Roll that all together and it means a pretty full schedule of Sundays from now through October... The earliest Sunday that NBC might be able to squeeze you in would be on October 30th... but you would need to wrap before 4pm/et. The PBR finals from Vegas have the 2 hour slot leading to local news at 6pm/et.
Long Beach hasn't exactly been a ratings machine of late.
Versus is showing a 3:30 start time which I think means a 4:30 green flag. Talladega barring 3 red flags should almost be done by 5 I would think?last year it was done before 4:30
I think Versus rating would improve if they could simply get their satelite channel remotely near the channels people regularily watch. Hiding next to speedtv in the 600+ range puts both those channels in no where land and even on cable, VS is buried up in the 70s. Both channels would be helped simply buy putting them closer to espn or other more highly watched channels.
Probably 4:15. I think VS will have a 45 minute pre-race.
I'm glad I use PIP so I can enjoy two events at once.
It's a Hoosier thing, you wouldn't understand...
So what. Who doesn't set-up their favorites? Mine are all over the place. Locals in the singles and teens. A lot in the 100's. News in the 200's. Movies in the 300's. It depends on your provider. I eliminate the pay-per-view, the shopping, the foreign channels, etc. Who can channel surf through everything anyway?
Yeah, I forgot the Belmont Stakes, and golf does have a lot of traction at NBC (I'm not that informed with golf but I definitely should have put more formal names).
I do wonder where the IICS could fit in at NBC, and what kind of ratings it would get.
Long Beach has been VS's most highly rated race in each of the first two years of its ten-year partnership with IndyCar.
Both years VS's very best IndyCar ratings were . . . wait for it . . . 0.5. That's right, 0.5. The tippy-top. The cream of the crop. 0.5.
The ratings on Versus suck, plain and simple. The invisible channel. Nobody watches it. Nobody even knows they have it.
Yet another somewhat less than brilliant decision by the former management of the IndyCar Series. Ten years they are obligated to televise all but 5 races on Versus. Ten years. Through the 2018 season.
Texas got a 0.36 in 2009 and a 0.3 in 2010. Texas isn't really the big draw that people make it out to be.
Hopefully, Long Beach will do well.
Have been for a couple of years for sure.
"I think of Indianapolis every day of the year, every
hour of the day, and when I sleep, too. Everything I
ever wanted in my life, I found inside the walls of
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
- Eddie Sachs.
A better decision than putting the races on satellite only however.
Perhaps. It's the ten years that seemed ludicrous to me when they announced it, and disasterous now that we see just how dismal the ratings really are.
I expected 25% lower ratings than ESPN2 because VS has 25% less reach, but we got 50-75% lower ratings. If ICS wanted to give VS a try then fine, experiment, but don't lock in for ten years!
Right now, a time buy would have been smarter than VS or satellite only. The 500 could have been sold and the money used to time buy the other races in conjunction with whatever advertising they could sell themselves. 1.0+ ratings, or even consistent 0.5+ ratings on ESPN/ESPN2 would have commanded higher advertising rates than the 0.5- ratings they get on VS. The lower ratings are killing sponsor value and starving the teams for money.
A time buy for a few years would have been much smarter than locking the ICS into VS, the invisible channel, for an entire decade!
Indycar website says 1:30 PDT.
But it is very interesting that even dedicated Indycar fans are so unsure as to the start time of the upcoming race. Wasn't Barber a 45 minute prerace? If so, then why a one hour prerace at LB? Inconsistent race scheduling for years and years has caused this problem. Heck, even Mike Kellner missed recording the Barber race because of the inconsistent airing times Indycar is so fond of.
If your most dedicated fans have trouble viewing the race how in the hail are you expecting to increase the ratings?
Last edited by PenelopePitstop; 04-14-2011 at 05:54 PM.
Most often a "disaster" is not caused by one thing, but rather a combination of elements ....
* The Titanic sinking would not have made history except for a combination of factors ....
- Not enough lifeboats
- A calm sea that may have prevented the lookouts from seeing waves breaking on the iceburg
- the wireless operator on the Californian turning off his set and going to bed
- the officers on the Californian interpreting rockets in the sky as a celebration, rather than a distress call
- .... yada yada yada
The problems for Indycar fall into the same catagory ....
- A broadcast channel that is unknown (Versus)
- No advertising of upcoming races that is meaningful
- Snoosefest races - who wasn't asleep after the first 10 minutes of the Barber race ??
- Zero technology - running cars many years old in design
- Zero relevance to the average consumer - WOW ... ETHANOL ... what a clever idea ...
- Drivers that most racing fans have never heard of, and the most "famous" has the personality of a shrew ...
There are a large number of challenges for the series ... and all are contributing to poor ratings and the inability of teams to raise money. The few teams that can get decent sponsor money are also involved in other race series, leading to an imbalance in the results ... does anyone believe a red car is not going to win the next dozen races ??
Indycar is a disaster, and until it fixes MANY problems, will continue to sink into oblivion.
Much of your post is as you mentioned about the Titanic...yada, yada, yada. Everyone here is already keenly aware of the difficulties associated with Vs. broadcasting most of the races. And it has been discussed, disected and analyzed more than once believe it or not.
Many have also made mention of the lack of promotion not only of the upcoming races but the drivers as well. That has been a pet-peeve and well documented by myself for over a decade here at TF, and by many others as well. However there has been a noticeable increase in advertising already this season but to expect immediate & significant results would be ludicrous and unrealistic.
The starts and re-starts alone have made the races anything but a snooze-fest. I'd say almost all the members here at TF and certainly everyone is this thread wasn't asleep. Of course if you were asleep after the 10 minutes how could you accurately comment on the race?
Again, nothing that hasn't been discussed, analyzed and debated literally hundreds of times already. And it's not like most of mainstream America really is aware or pays too much attention to those kinds of things really. But new chassis, aero-kits and engines are already on the horizon for next season which most dedicated fans are aware of and I'm sure those manufacturer's will do some kind of promotion of their involvement as that time approaches...but heck that spoils a good rant, huh?!
Carburetors, rear-wheel drive and restrictor-plates have little relevance to the average consumer too but it hasn't affected the stock-car series popularity much. But then turbochargers, pop-off valves and wings had little relevance to the average consumer as well but that didn't seem to hurt open-wheel racing in the 80's & 90's.
So what drivers that fans have heard of are being shunned from IndyCar? I would bet that a great majority of mainstream America never heard of any Indycar drivers past or present until they had become regulars at Indy. And likewise for most stock-car fans not knowing most of those drivers until they saw them racing every week-end in Cup races.
What does the top teams racing in others series have to do with IndyCar? Is it those teams fault for being professional & top-notch week-end and week-out? Or that they assemble the best drivers, engineers and crew members for their teams? Isn't this what top-notch teams of any racing series or any sports for that matter are supposed to do?
IndyCar already was a disaster and sunk. It's been making slow but small steps forward. So sinking into oblivion doesn't seem likely since in reality it should have happened a number of years ago but didn't.
My first Indy 500 was 1973, haven't missed one since 1981. To date I have attended 35 Indy 500's, and probably 100 or so other IndyCar races (CART & IRL).
Maybe. But I've heard some pretty interesting rumors about how 2011 is a real make or break year. And 2012 even more so.
BTW, good overall post, indyracefan.
I completly agree we need American driver to move the needle, you have some names Todd?
Q: The Stanley Cup was recently on tour through my town and I kissed it, is there any chance I mite catch listeria?
A: NO you are safe, the cup hasn't touched any Maple Leaf products in 40 years
PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals
No doubt we need more American or even North American drivers. However short of current stock-car series stars they're still going to be relative no-name drivers to most of the mainstream public. It's also going to take heavy promotion with these guys names in articles every week as well as them being semi-successful. This where Robin Miller, John Oreovicz, Martin Pruett, etc. come into play. And even then none of this is going to happen over-night or even in just a season. It's a long road ahead.
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