ABC pulls plug on NASCAR; will only air 3 races

Quote :

Nine of the 10 races in the Chase For The Sprint Cup will move from the ABC broadcast network to cable’s ESPN for 2010.

ABC, which had televised the 11 final races the last couple of years, will now televise only three events – the Saturday night races at Bristol, Richmond and Charlotte.

ESPN, which like ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co., will air the other 14 races during the second half of the season, beginning with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

The move was motivated by a recent ratings shift. Last year, the ESPN races on cable were up from a 4.1 rating to a 4.2 rating. ABC network races dropped from a 3.8 to a 3.5.

“Last year’s performance showed us that ESPN provides the best home for NASCAR,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president for content. “ESPN further strengthens NASCAR’s consistent start times message for the fans, and with the strong support of NASCAR across our multimedia platforms, we hope to build on that momentum in 2010.”

All but one of the NASCAR Sprint Cup races will start at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Eastern time during the year.

“This is exciting news for NASCAR and our fans,” said NASCAR Media Group President Paul Brooks. “The ESPN subscriber base is larger than ever at nearly 100 million, and the network has the proven ability to attract younger viewers. As the premier network during the most competitive time of the year for sports, having more NASCAR races on ESPN will create more exposure.”

~Scene Daily


I don't care how positive they try to make this, this is a bad thing for the sport. Being on network TV is a BIG step up from being on cable. Can't believe that this kind of move is allowed under their contract with NASCAR???

HORRIBLE decision

F------------------------------------------------------- thinking

that sounds about like Johnson made that decision for as stupid of an idea it is- I hope their ratings plummet like a rock

ABC....ESPN ..... It's not a big deal ~IMO.

But some people can't afford Network TV. So there goes a good group of viewers right there. I can assure you the ratings are GOING to drop now that most of the races are on ESPN.

That's not necessarily true. A lot of people get ESPN, it's on most every basic cable or satellite plan. It's just the fact that it's on cable and not a network. Being on network TV is just a bigger deal than being on ESPN. ESPN is for sports, but a network like ABC is for mainstream stuff - NASCAR needs to be part of the mainstream.

I understand your point Andrew. NASCAR already has a hugh following that I really don't think it matters much which network televises it. They will follow. My thoughts personally, is all sports should be televised on a network dedicated to sports. I'm not much of a sports fan but the rest of my family are hugh fans. I say let them have there own channel(s) and leave my channels alone. LOL Sports in general from time to time goes over the scheduled time slot, which depending on the channel will preempt all the shows that follow, making it impossible to view or record schedule shows. (CBS on Sunday is a prime example) That's why I would rather see them on there own channel. That way everyone is happy.