POOK and CART Screw Speed Channel

[gttouring]

From Autoweek.com
CART will announce new TV arrangements for the United States at its race in Toronto, and it is almost certain that Speed Channel will not be part of the race programming.
While Speed has increased its subscribers in the last year to 60 million households, it still has a low “household penetration” rate among cable channels. The new deal will increase the number of races broadcast on CBS to at least 10, and add another cable partner for the rest. The leading candidate is the USA Network.
Now I am all for more TV coverage, and this is just fabulous
to go CBS, but to neg SPEED who has done nothing but support them?!
and then to go to USA network?? what thge F@@@@K are they thinking USA NETWORK? I never watch that cable channel why would I I don't even now where it is on the cable list?
why not make an ESPN deal agin the monkey at CART are slowing slipping it to themselves, and they are using no lubricant.
This may precipitate a fall in the stock price so low that it will cost Pollock and Ecclestone pennies to buy CART away from investors...

[Snrub]

Why not let Speed or ESPN pick up the rest of the races? Broadcasting on CBS has not worked out that well because they never show the races live. Half the ones they do show are delayed to wierd times.

I know the USA network does Tennis, but I know nothing else about them.

[macdaddy]

When CART first shifted over to Speed, they gave us CFNight and live Friday quals. We got none of that this year, as Speed becomes more and more the "NASCAR Channel"

[Bizzo5000]

At least USA Network is basic cable and I can watch the damn races now.

[racefanatic]

Wasn't it CBS that did the Miami race last year and cut off the first 20 laps? I'd love to see ESPN broadcast some of their races, even most of their races, but USA!?!? WHAT!? That just seems really random. So... would they show the qualifying too?

[Shaggy_SoCal]

Anyone here notice that, for the most part, all of the races that were shown on CBS, have been at the same time on Sunday? Personally, I like that kind of consistency. Same CART time, same CART channel. Think about how much more accessible CART would be if they can do that for all of their races.

[brightline]

Guys Calm Down!!!! This is a great opportunity for CART. Stop yelling and think about it for a second. USA, struggling since it lost WWF wrestling, is looking for an image mackover, with absolutely nothing to knock the races off the air or shorten races. This is because they have essentially no live broadcasts except for the occasional golf match.

Also, if I am not mistaken USA Network is co-owned by CBS and either NBC or FOX. It's kind of like how TNT shows NASCAR races because they are owned by NBC.

To me, Speed Channel has become THE NASCAR CHANNEL! Currently NASCAR dominates their broadcast day where as I have NOT seen one Champ Car race rebroadcast yet.

If CART is going to pay for air-time lets get a Network that will put 100% of their effort into CART. I'm sure USA is cheaper than the current plan and you don't need satellite or digital cable to view it. Personally CART and F1 on Speed is the only reason I subscribe to digital cable.

So before anyone goes nuts, rationalize it for a second, we are going to get CART on standard cable TV once again.

[brightline]

that should say makeover. oops.

[Tenoch]

You could look at the positive here that the USA network is pretty much everywhere, in th e US and that is where the series needs the most support, but I don't think USA's audience is what CART wants USA is primarly for the older folks, I feal CART should of gone for either MTV or TNN, MTV beacuse of it's massive youth appeal and TNN because it's the men's network and they already have things like WWF which could sway some of the NAscar bunch our way.

[corkholio]

They stopped showing CFN and Friday qualifying this year because CART didn't pay for them.

[Liz]

USA Network is not shown in Canada, where the biggest audience for CART currently resides.

How does this make sense, again?

[Tenoch]

So you get speed in Canada with cable or satelliete? Do you get CBS up there and I've heard some of you Canadiens talking about TSN what's then I think you get plenty coverage, since all I have know is CBS, beacuse Comcast doesn't offer SPEED.

[paul-collins]

...but Speed is blacked out for CART and F1 up here.

[enemy-ace]

I get CART qualifying and full F1 in my neck of the woods.
I don't know anything about this USA network but I do know that I will miss SPEEDS coverage of qualifying.

[Omega99]

Yeah, we can see CART qualifying on SPEED, but the race is blacked out. I don't even get SPEED, and I don't really care for it because of the large volume of NASCAR it shows. They should just rename it NASCAR-TV and be done with it.

And yes, we get CBS in Canada with basic cable. We get a ton of American channels, from whatever American center is closest to the Canadian center you live in. For Calgary, it's Spokane. I get CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, TNN, PBS, A&E, CNN, CNN Headline News, CNBC, etc. Truthfully, Canadians only really watch American TV shows. There are very few good Canadian shows out there, mostly the comedies/satirical shows. But if anyone ever says "good Canadian drama", run. Run like you've never run before. And if it was produced by the CBC, run harder... and burn your television. Anne of Green Gables.... need I say more?

[crazytrain]

If CART gets more network coverage and dosen't have to pay for airtime I think the deal makes sense.

[Joe Machado]

If they keep the same production group they can broadcast the races on any channel that is available at every cable system. If TNN hadn't changed its format they would have been the ideal channel. For many years they showed motorsports that ESPN would not touch even before Speedvision became a reality. Anyone that has been to a race will have noticed that production companies supply the hardware, generates the image and upload the broadcast. This type of work is outsourced. Get the right people to do the broadcast, get rid of Calvin Fish and Derek Daily and we will have a winner.

[gttouring]

daly is not my favorit announcer i must say his commentary and his annoying questions seem so forced-just run the racing school man.
I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of Paul Page too bad he went to IRL

[racefanatic]

Paul Page makes me laugh. He says some really random things.
They did a show before one IRL race and Tony Kanaan said he liked to sleep before races. Then during the race broadcast, he came to the pits and Paul Page said, "And Tony Kanaan takes a nap during the day!" It was pretty funny.

The announcers are at least better than the NASCAR announcers!!! We don't hear things like "his self" and "his car was runnin' good" all of the time.

[Tenoch]

don't forget boogie boogie boogitty or something like that, Varsha seams too dry but I don't want USA to go crazy and try to pull a Dennis Miller on monday night football. As for Tommy Kendell he's a weirdo.

[macdaddy]

Kendall and his "Kendallisms" are classic. I hope that he remains on any future broadcast teams. Early in the Toronto 2nd quals he remarked how it was ****ing down rain.

I know the auto-censor will do its job there, but it was great.

[gttouring]

townsend bell shoulf do announcinng, his racecraft is one thing but he is good on the microphone.
Kendall is good but on camera he gets nervous, when he is simply speaking he is good to go, I saw Speed qualifying this AM and it was pretty good, and Dennis Miller or Letterman would be very funny, as that brand of humor may actually make sense to the openwheel race crowd as opposed to the monday night footballers in the states-even his fellow announcers had no idea.

[Tenoch]

I meant Tommy Kendall was a weirdo in a good way, I love the stuff he does its just that he can't be the frontman he's more of the sidekick. I mean there is no forgetting the chicken car he was driving. As for dennis Miller I meant that although it was a good idea to try to appeal to young viewers the choice could of been better I see no problem with Jay Leno or Dave there both quite funny and just love cars.

[xbook]

Seeing as how Speed Channel is really the "NASCAR Network", I would love to see another cable programmer jump into covering any kind of autoracing. The fact that CART still has a pay arrangement for the broadcast of their races tells volumes about how willing Speed Channel is to promote CART.

If USA is going to funnel this into a marketing campaign that will be a "relaunch" for their fledgling cable channel. Then, I think CART may get a good amount of promotion by being their main sports program. Good for everyone. And best of all it is a BASIC cable network. So CART races won't be the domain of the people who specifically pay to have a "Motor Sports" channel. And with the NASCARization (is that a word?) of Speedvision, I don't think any other form of racing can survive on that channel.

[gttouring]

If USA backs CART and makes it a Champcar haevy channel like Speed and NASCAR (although they do good rally coverage and F1...where did legends of Motorsports go? and god I hate the NASCAR Legends thing they are a bunch of dull old guys laughing at inside jokes and cnt tell stories to save their lives..)