American F1 fans

[power&glory]

what do you suppose the chances are for ABC?/ESPN to get full time or almost full time coverage of the world championship next season? after all the ass kissing done by danny sullivan before monaco and montreal, and the predominance of nascar on speed channel, i would think the chances are pretty good.

[Russfeld]

Hopefully it doesnt happen, they'd butcher the coverage. It should stay on SV, or if it does go to ABC, they should show the digital feed all the time, without Marble Mouth Sullivan's Red Bull orgy

"jacques you've had a difficult year at BAR, but what do you think of my red bull driver search?"

[Liz]

Yeah it'd be awful, but since hardly anybody watches it anyway, who would know?

[Maxmil]

Originally posted by Liz
Yeah it'd be awful, but since hardly anybody watches it anyway, who would know?

Ah Liz, such negativism ill becomes a lady of your status! (Even if you are right.) F1 will never be popular down here until: (A) It is broadcast regularly, and, (B) We get some more U.S. drivers competing. It is alot easier for B to follow A than vice versa. I find it sad that I can see as many GP's on CKSH from Montreal as on ABC. Speed Channel is not the answer.

[Sato san]

i wonder how long we are away from Pay Per View live F1 coverage across the internet...live from Bernie vision HQ ?

then it doesnt matter where you live or what coverage you get , we could have the bsck up of watching live on the net...

[slicktoast]

If ABC gets it, I'll tape the first & last half hour. Then play it back muted. Of course I'll miss the exciting passing gas in the pits parts but oh well...

[Lee Janotta]

Hey, if we get it on ESPN, we'll get to see Danny fetching Bernie's triple mocha latte whenever there's any sort of racing on track. That is until they cut the broadcast short to show women's skeet shooting.

Unless he can get some live broadcast coverage, I think Bernie'll keep dealing with Speed Channel. I wouldn't be suprised to see a couple races on FOX next year, though.

We do need an American in a competitive position right away, though, if F1's going to gain some market share here. Montoya's as close as we've got. Villeneuve's still got a following here, but he's far from competitive...

[Russfeld]

CART and the IRL have American drivers, and winning American drivers, and the market share isnt better than F1. F1 will not crack the American market. Ever.

[senna12]

American television coverage at the network level suffers from a lack of knowledge of everyone involved. At least Speed channel were wise enough to employ well schooled foreigners to provide insight and commentary. DeBruhl, or however it's spelled, is like their token home-grown content, and he at least appears to have read about and seen a bit of the sport as well.

I would like to see Bernie's digital coverage over here. Apparently it's the cat's a** when it comes to coverage, despite the cost.

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by Russfeld
CART and the IRL have American drivers, and winning American drivers, and the market share isnt better than F1. F1 will not crack the American market. Ever.

IRL isn't watched because it's not an appealing product (I'll stop shot of calling it ****), while CART has suffered from some _really_ awful marketing and leadership. Cancelled races and plunging stock prices have dominated the CART-related headlines. They still don't have an effective marketing strategy, and they've got a lot of problems on the track and behind the scenes. They still might get it sorted out, while the IRL is as good as it's going to get.

CART _doesn't_ have many Americans. 2 at present, and neither is in a position to win races. Hell, the closest CART has to an American winning races is Canadian Paul Tracey!!! If CART put half as much effort into promoting it's drivers as NASCAR did, they'd be rolling in cash. People here like a storyline they can follow. They love a good rivalry they can sit on one side or another of. And before anyone calls them low-brow, they _can_ appreciate really good racing in whatever form... You've just got to turn up the "wow" factor and keep it on high for them to be happy.

If Bernie really wants F1 to penetrate the US market, he needs to put his own money behind a Pat Long, Phil Giebler or AJ Allmendinger, and make sure he gets a good CART ride for a year, runs up top at the Indy 500, and then put him in an F1 seat that's capable of at least challenging for race wins under normal circumstances. Have him run the Daytona 500 and/or the two Winston Cup road races just for good measure. You _have_ to create a buzz here about the "hot new driver", so people take notice and make a point of tuning in, and so feel like they've got a stake in seeing that driver succeed.

It _can_ be done!