Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit
Last time we had a USGP, the SPEED guys went to the track, and had a stage set up in the middle of it, and all week long provided live shows from the track. They had all 22 drivers up on the stage for live interviews with some questions from fans in attendance and televised them on Thursday. It was very good promotion, and a lot of good personalities came out...and if there's anything American sports fans want, it's personalities.
I hope they'll have the budget to do this for Austin.
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I'm sure SPEED will do a bang-up job like they did at Indy. I remember seeing the SPEED coverage of free practice and other events on every telly in every pub in Indy.
I really don't know how big an issue it will be broadcast-wise if the whole show is on SPEED versus FOX or another network. 90+% of US households have some form of subscription service for TV whether it is cable or satellite. I have yet to travel to any geography in the US where I was watching cable or satellite where SPEED wasn't available. It is part of most "basic" channel packages. Folks may not watch SPEED regularly but I'd venture to guess it's out there if they go looking for it except of course where the viewer has no control on the available channels such as hotels.
If News Corp who owns SPEED & FOX does proper cross promotion on FOX channels the potential viewership will be duly notified and available to be counted. Where those numbers end up is all about interest not necessarily what channel gets the privilege.
Another consideration is US press coverage. F1 gets about 10 lines annually in print media and almost nothing on mainstream sports broadcasts. I'm sure the Austin newspapers will have front to back coverage during race week like the Indy papers did but what about the rest of the year? If they don't at least post F1 race results in the motorsport section of the sports page or add it to local sports broadcasts beginning right NOW and going forward and PAST next year's USGP....
...they are making a huge blunder.