Time warner didn't carry speed unless you bought a upgraded package or paid five bucks a month for it. I suspect VS is the same for most of these.

It is included on both Dish and Direct TV basic plans.
IMHO it's the best sports channel on right now. NHL and Racing
Chuck, thinking Speed is almost all a series soap opera anymore and not much live racing other than Napcar.

I love it when you guys talk television. I can speak way more intelligently about television than racing! I happen to work for FOX which in turn owns Speed. I can 100% tell you airtime costs money. It's how I earn my paycheck and a network is only going to air a program if they can make money off of it by selling commercials a' la Thursday Thunder or selling is as a pay-per-view or block of time a' la Chili Bowl. Either way I can guarantee you the network is making money.

Where there is a small misconception is the Tier 1 reference...in *some* cable markets VS. and Speed are both Tier 1 - most likely major markets that have a cable interconnect like Indy but in your smaller markets (like Evansville) Speed is a Tier 1 but VS is a specialty network you only receive with a purchase of a digital package. This is going to be the case in all medium to smaller markets for VS. What that means is that the price to purchase air time on VS compared to Speed is much cheaper.

Television is a commodity industry sold on supply vs. demand - wish as I might we simply cannot just create more commercial breaks (even though it seems that way) to generate more money. The prices then are determined by the popularity of the program and the strength of the network. VS. is a much, much weaker network in terms of viewing compared to Speed.

With cable you also have to opportunity to broadcast events in a regional area of interest only, for instance, you may see west coast basketball games on ESPNU (a digital tier channel) if you live in that area while I might see a broadcast of my fabulous Salukis.

Some sports generate enough money to warrant the network carrying them - for instance my station is the only station in the country to pre-empt American Idol (which costs about $2500 per :30 commercial for local advertisers) to air UK basketball because it will generate more money for us as a station.

Anyone can buy time on television, I can air my 5 year olds soccer game if I have enough money. That said, I would love to sell some advertising to USAC - just call me! :rolling I'll cut you a great deal!

In all seriousness, airing on network television is not always the best decision an advertiser can make. There is a tremendous amount of risk to it and if you come off badly on live television you can't go back in time and save face but you'll live in infamy on youtube forever.

Sacha

Great post, Sacha. Very informative.:thumb

Thank you very much ~ I love to talk television.

So what USAC needs is about 10-15 sponsors willing to pony up about 5 grand ten times a year.



Sounds simple enough but it would have to be at least hour programs, Stuffing them events in half hours slots with five interviews and ten thirty second comercials, WHY BOTHER WATCHING?

Chili Bowl almost over did it with interviews ect. they had a five hour time frame, Used 3.5 of it and showed about twenty minutes of actual racing.

Chuck, who'd at least like to see the consi and feature of each event shown (IN THEIR ENTIRETY)

P.S. Id much rather be at the track but not all of us can make them 800-2000 mile trips

And this is why you will continue to see more events broadcast via the web because it is a much, much cheaper way to reach your viewers. It is cheaper to produce, you can target your audience more effectively, it can be sold on either a subscription or pay-per-view event. This is also the way that my generation (the echo-boomers or gen y) is going to view television in the future.

But what sux about it is, I and most people don't have 48-80 inch big screen puters.

I do have surround sound and subwoofer on my puter tho

Chuck, who watched the friday preview of the Chili Bowl on the net and thought it was ok but certainly not as good as the big screen.

"But what sux about it is, I and most people don't have 48-80 inch big screen puters."

--------------------------
When we did the Western World races on racenetwork.tv we had subscribers to the broadcast go out from their laptops to 40", 50" and 60" flat screen TVs - so it is possible to get the large screen viewing you desire with an Internet stream.

Ian

On our trips back to speedweek after Thursday Night thunder deal. We heard Tony George paid the bills for the USAC TV on ESPN. Was this true? About 2 million a year. Anyone know?:headbang
Joe