I am unsure as to whether I'll watch the entire Cup race this weekend.
Strangely, I found myself preoccupied during Martinsville, and really
didn't feel that I missed anything by missing most of the race. I'm
beginning to find them increasingly boring....Kent


Monday, October 22, 2007
Category: TV Times — Author: Lou Modestino @ 7:16 pm

ABC's broadcast of Saturday night's Bank of America 500 NASCAR Nextel
Cup race at Lowe's Motor Speedway earned an overnight Nielsen Media
Research rating of 4.0, Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily reports.
The rating is 2.5 percent lower than the 4.1 NBC earned overnight from
the nation's largest markets for the race in 2006. This report came from
www.motorsportsnews.net and jayski.com webpages.

One reason for our interest in the TV ratings is to determine where
NASCAR is in terms of performance. All these figures play an important
part in the broadcast networks obtaining advertising and being able to
charge as much as they can to advertisers. It also reflects how NASCAR
is doing in terms of performance. Consider that the Daytona Beach, FL
based sanction negotiated a billion TV rights with Fox and ABC/ESPN in
their most recent contract.

The very source connected and knowledgeable Robin Miller on SpeedTV.com
talks about a rumor that Brian France will take over Grand-Am and his
uncle Jim France will move over to NASCAR. There's not too much beyond
that but sometimes rumors do come true. There are lots of problems in
NASCAR at this time. This could all be conjecture, though, due to those
issues. We'll just wait and see if it happens.
Someone we know that watches NASCAR
very closely claims that the COT was supposed to have resulted in parity
among the teams. However, it seems to have had the opposite effect so
far. Consider that the Hendrick Team(Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson) have
mastered the COT by doing a lot of testing because Hendrick could afford
it due to their plethora of sponsors and numerous other assets. In a
related issue, we read a report that now claims that it takes $20
million a year to field a front line Cup team. That's up about $5
million over the previous estimates.

Now let's see what's on TV this weekend for the gear heads as the season
continues to wind down quickly.

It starts on Friday with NASCAR CTS Practice from Atlanta at 2 p.m. on
Speed.

ESPN2 offers NASCAR Cup Qualifying from Atlanta at 7 p.m. Saturday
starts at 9:30 a.m. with NASCAR CTS Qualifying from Atlanta on Speed.

At 3:30 p.m. ESPN2 returns with the NASCAR Busch go from Atlanta
followed by Cup Practice at that same venue at 6 p.m.

The Duce returns at 10 p.m. with NHRA Qualifying from Vegas. Sunday gets
going with a noon Raceday show on Speed.

At 2 p.m. ABC presents the Cup race from Atlanta while Speed comes back
at 5 p.m. with the WoO race from Perris, CA.

It all wraps up with ESPN2 offering the NHRA Finals from Glitter Gulch
at 7 p.m.(end)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES,
PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.
 


©MotorSportsNews.Net(work), 2002-2007, all rights reserved.









Whatever it takes......