JCP911S

Pengiun... Everybody who own a Porsche, ever owned a Porsche, ever had a Porsche in the family, or even ever seriously considered buying a Porsche would;t fill half the main grandstand at Daytona.... NASCAR pulls ratings the NFL would like.... TV is a mass marketing channel and NASCAR has the numbers.

Period.

Now, if people were willing to pay $15 a month premium to subscribe to the RoadRacing channel, maybe there would be hope.... not much... but some...

Glen

I love Racing of all kinds. We all dream of being able to race and have it make money or even just pay for itself. Nascar has done this for a long time with almost all their series, even their feeder series. Glad to have the Speed channel here at all, no matter what they choose to show and at what times necessary in orderto maximize profits/ability to keep showing anything car or racing related. Porsche itself parallels Nascar and Speed as far as profit motive so I dont see the issue. Looks like GM and the new Z06 has more appeal to the grassroots bootstrap racer than any other offering in the last decade frankly...hmmm. I race a GT3 SuperCup in PCA and may well run it in GT2 in SCCA now also but I will not take anything away from Nascar of the success and fan base they have built, engendered and supported.
Cya at the track!

mdbickell

Like most of you, I miss the good ol' days of Speed Vision. But unforunately those days are gone so we have to deal w/ our new reality. I believe that in the future (2 - 3 years) we'll be able to get nearly any of the niche programming we're all looking for. It has to do w/ the proliferation of digital cable and broadacast as well as the expansion of high speed Internet connections into the home.

Here's what I believe is occuring... Previously, cable approached progamming as a niche business as an alternative to the broadcast networks. As cable drew a larger audience, the cable channels then had opportunities to capture more of that increasing audience by broadening their appeal. This led to the de-niche-ification of cable. As cable has become the new mass-audience network alternative, there will be new opportunities for niche programming through pay-per-view, video on demand and Internet delivery. So, in the end, I think we'll all be able to get what we want, but it will take some time.

BTW - I work in the television business and have heard of plans for just this type of niche strategy. Its a very hot topic right now. I haven't heard anyone planning on a road-racing or Porsche channel, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

SkipSauls

A while back there was a similar discussion on another board, with one poster making an observation that made sense to me. In a nutshell, the poster said that NASCAR is popular in the USA because it appeals to our "stadium culture," where all of the action can be viewed from the grandstands. As with football, baseball, etc., the viewer never loses sight of the action, and can follow a favorite car/driver easily. IRL is similar in this respect, as are the various forms of dirt-tracks and other oval-track leagues.

With most road-racing, the viewer can see a "slice" of the action, where the favorite car/driver is in view only a few seconds on each lap. The trend towards having large video displays can help a bit, but most of these will show only the leaders or certain corners. A fan who enjoys always being able to see their favorite car/driver simply isn't going to enjoy most road racing, and it's not the sort of thing that will be easy to address.

It would be possible to use the infield-style road courses to address this, but there are still problems with this. The first is that it's often difficult to see all of the action in the infield due to the paddock, tower, etc. blocking the view. Changing this would be difficult, and would mean that the oval events are inconvenienced. The second is that the size of the infield is typically quite small, flat, and relatively low-speed, making it quite boring. I've driven the infield-style courses at Las Vegas and PPIR, and they're by far my least favorite road courses.

I'm not a big fan of NASCAR, but I grew up in the South and can understand and appreciate its success. They are a marketing machine, and it's no surprise that SPEED plays to the huge audience. I'd rather watch road racing, but I do watch some NASCAR as it is an amazing spectacle.

On a different note, I have to wonder if road racing might be more popular in the USA if the emphasis was on cars that look more like "stock" cars instead of on the prototypes. The DPs try to play up the Pontiac/Lexus/etc. connection, but does anyone think that these cars even remotely resemble anything on the road from those companies? Headlight stickers aren't enough, and it doesn't help that most of the DPs are downright dorky looking.

I'm a big fan of SPEED World Challenge because the cars at least look like real cars, even though we all know that some of them are pretty far from anything that can be driven on the street. A road-racing series in the same spirit with a broader range of familiar cars might be someting to consider. Perhaps a "stock" car that weighs ~2500 lbs. and has a ~500 HP 6 or 8 cylinder engine, good brakes, etc. Have the bodyshells conform to the actual street cars and don't allow for monstrous rear wings or overly-modified bodywork. I think that it would be possible to increase the road-racing fan base, but it's going to take some work and perhaps a bit of NASCAR-style marketing genius.

penguinking

well there already is the V8 stock car road racing series, which takes late model stock cars configured to road course specs.

dgz924s

Are you referring to SVRA?

dgz924s

Well it appears we have been heard. I'll just go wiith notion anyway.

www.grand-am.com

Geo

Boy howdy! (oops... too much exposure to NASCAR)

When Speedvision first became available from my cable company it was digital only. I had to pay a premium for the digital AND the sports package that included Speedvision.

So boy howdy, or HELL YES!

Bull

That is a bit like asking thirsty people if they would pay a small amount for some water!

The important question is...would anyone put up the money to launch and perpetuate a roadracing channel for the return they would get from the expected subscribers at an HBO like premium?

Sofar, no takers.....

Greg Fishman

Did you realize the France family owns Grand Am?

Bull

Thankfully for us viewers!

Alan Herod

Interesting thread -- I knew I wasn't alone, I had started watching a lot more HGTV. I don't mind the qualifying and the racing and some of the peripheral stuff, but everyday, a panel discussion and the 30th rerun of the highlights from the last race or maybe it was last years race. Monster arena trucks? I did like what I got to see of the run-offs and the SuperCup series.

I noticed that the FI race will be on during prime time 8:30 Pm EST or 2030 Saturday, at last.

penguinking

you mean H*D*TV, not Home & Garden Television

chris walrod

Shouldn't NASCAR be on PBS?

I, too, used to watch Speed Vision ALL the time. In fact, at one point in time, I didnt even need a remote.

I agree with the notion that NASCAR is what the general auto racing fan wants to see. Good Gosh, they fill granstands all over the place.....typically twice a year!

I feel the open wheel split in 1995, diluted American road racing so much that fans gave-up trying to differentiate the two series. Which, fell into the hands of the tin-tops. The TV market share proves this. Even the hallowed Indy 500 fails to fill its stadium to the brim.

TV programing is what it is, and unfortunately for most of us, its not what we'd prefer to watch.

I spend time on pit lane (Champ car events) with many of the Speed reporters and occasionally bring this topic up. They dont seem to have much feeling either way as they just enjoy (for the most part) pit lane reporting, whatever they are covering.

One thing I have been watching grow, is sports car racing. Grand Am in particular. So maybe there is hope for something that turns right..

Glen

Great points Chris, the infighting between Indy Car/CART/ChampCar and IRL really really destroyed road racings TV coverage as it diluted the ad $ and veiwership numbers for all.....this right as NASCAR was picking up steam, also liked the point about the Arena aspect here in the states, well said. I still enjoy racing of all sorts but admit that the only races i attend in person are the ones where I am driving....lol