October 16, 2007

By Brian Watkins

Brian Watkins

I’m sure ABC has been using this tag-line all season, but I just now noticed it. Since I use a DVR to record the race allowing me to skip past commercials, I generally don’t notice the lead-ins and pre race jibber jabber. Saturday’s race at Lowe’s was an exception I guess, as I actually let many of the commercials play through. I’m not sure why it happened, laziness I guess. I’d left the remote in the kitchen and instead of spending the 20 seconds it would take to get off my behind and go get it, I let the commercials roll. Following one seemingly endless string of advertisements was a flashy ABC graphic featuring a rendering of the Nextel Cup championship trophy.

As the trophy rotated on the screen and the required hard jamming guitar music blared in the background, the words “Miss a Lap, Miss a Lot” were etched on the screen by a “laser” and at the same time spoken by the announcer. After only half paying attention, I actually got up to get the remote from the kitchen so I could rewind it and see if I heard and saw what I think I did. Yep- sure enough, some marketing genius at ABC or ESPN came up with that tag line and some other genius approved it. While on it’s face the line might sound great and descriptive and maybe even coax those who have yet to watch a race to possibly tune in. To those that have actually watched a race on “ABC-ESPN” the tag line is like a cruel joke. While it certainly is a true statement, it’s ironic that a broadcast network that interrupts the race more than hotdog wrappers and cut tires would be so bold as to slap that line on its broadcast bumpers. It makes me wonder if they’re kidding or just rubbing our faces in it.

I don’t keep track of the broadcast stats as far as how many commercials air for how many minutes, and I don’t sit with a notebook to track how many laps of coverage are lost to commercial breaks. However, I do notice when we come back from a commercial and the announcers in the booth do their best (which often isn’t so good) at playing catch up for us and try to fill us in on what happened while we were away and the caution flew. The race in Charlotte this past weekend seemed to have a lot of things going on during commercials and we’d come back after what seemed like an extra long break to find the race under yellow.

All season I’ve been complaining, as have many others, about the poor coverage ESPN and ABC have provided during their share of the season. While they have improved slightly it still baffles me each and every time I watch a race at just how bad things are some times. Cutting into the race for commercials just ads insult to injury.

Now I’m not naïve. I understand that the only reason they cover the race is to sell commercials. But at some point they have to realize that fewer and fewer folks are going to watch commercials just so they can catch a few glimpses of the race. Earlier in the season an attempt was made to provide a happy medium and they (TNT) aired a majority of the commercials in the lower right of the screen with the race volume turned down. As far as I could tell it was a huge success with the viewers. I guess it wasn’t with the sponsors because it hasn’t been repeated. I know there’s a happy medium out there that will satisfy viewers and sponsors, however it is easier to keep the status quo than to experiment it seems. They know that if we want to watch races, we’ll tune in regardless of how bad the coverage or how numerous the commercials.

As much as I’d hate to have to pay for it, I’d spend the money on a season long package similar to the NFL season ticket or NHL season pass. DirecTV has it’s HotPass but I don’t have DirecTV. From what I’ve seen of their NASCAR offering it appears to be a lot of in car audio and cameras mixed with stats and RPM graphics. I won’t swear to it because I don’t know anyone who has it.

What I’d like to see is a straight broadcast of the race, from flag to flag with no pit road reporters, no “in race reporters” no plugging a website and no commercials. Just 2 or 3 experienced professionals in the booth calling the race and nice camera coverage from overhead and in the corners. For that I’d happily fork over a reasonable or even slightly unreasonable fee. NASCAR could oversee the channel and sell the camera feeds to a broadcast network who could then fill it full of commercials for free airing on broadcast, cable and satellite. The folks that paid the fee however would get uninterrupted coverage. I’m sure it’ll never happen, but a race fan can dream can’t he?

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.