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ESPN Will Be Good For NASCARby Brett Baldeck ~ January 2nd, 2007. Filed under: Racing Wire. |
The 2007 season is technically just around the corner, no matter how much you want to deny it.
ESPN will broadcast all Busch Series Races in 2007 along with the second half of the Nextel Cup Series Season, which will include The Chase For The Nextel Cup. Also ESPN is planning to air select Busch Series qualifying and practice sessions.
ESPN and ABC’s return to NASCAR without a doubt will be good for the sport. Every time you watch a program on ESPN, they always say they are the “World Wide Leader In Sports”. So how could this not be a good thing for NASCAR? Many longtime NASCAR fans are excited to see the return of ESPN. Many say that ESPN and ABC made NASCAR into what it is today. ESPN is already revving up NASCAR fans with all new programming devoted to NASCAR, including a 30 minute NASCAR news program called “NASCAR Now”.
Competitor SPEED Channel already has similar programming that is devoted to NASCAR. But there is one problem. SPEED Channel is great, don’t get me wrong, but SPEED Channel to my knowledge is only available to satellite customers and digital cable customers. Well believe it or not, some of us still use basic cable, meaning that we don’t see any of the NASCAR programming shown on SPEED Channel. But with a lot of NASCAR programming starting to be shown on ESPN, more fans will be able to watch. It is a fact that ESPN is in more households than SPEED Channel. In turn, ratings for shows on ESPN will most likely be higher, and it may even attract new fans to the sport.
ESPN is definitely not lacking in effort. They have shown that they really do want to broadcast NASCAR. Unlike NBC, ESPN is already doing commercials for their NASCAR coverage. NBC this year didn’t even have commercials for races on their network, which is one reason why ratings were down. I myself, and many other NASCAR fans, are very excited to see ESPN return to NASCAR. ESPN already has put together a great commentating crew with Rusty Wallace, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, and many others. ESPN has also been preparing for the upcoming NASCAR season for about a year now. It may take some getting use to the new faces on ESPN, but I think many NASCAR fans will be pleased to see the return of ESPN and say goodbye to the Nothing But Commercials Network (NBC).
Brett Baldeck
Owner - RacingWire
www.geocities.com/nascar_zone24
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:35 am
Hi Brett:
The Busch Series holds little interest to me because we didn’t get the broadcasts in 2006, and I won’t be getting ESPN in 2007.
I am paying over $600 a year for cable. Even if I wanted ESPN, it is not available to me. I have to depend on the occasional Canadian re-broadcast. This does not make for a committed fan base in Canada, dispite the apparent interest NASCAR is showing in Canada at this time.
I think NASCAR is approaching the limit on how much they can take from the system, and still be successful in the future.
Don.