Following up on last night's blog about ESPN and Turner Sports, which manages NASCAR.com, coming together to allow fans to watch nine of the 10 Chase races online, here's a few more details:
# The agreement goes through the length of the TV contract, which is 2014. So, this will be not just a one-time thing.
# The agreement is for ALL ESPN Cup races, not just the Chase races, as is the case this year. ESPN is broadcasting 14 of the final 17 Cup races. So, provided that number stays the same, you will get to see a few more Cup races online next year. (Of course, the six TNT races are also on NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy, so that can mean about 20 races online next year).
# The agreement does NOT cover the ABC races. This year, the three ABC races are the Saturday night races: Bristol in August, Richmond in September and Charlotte in October. Those races aren't shown to protect the affiliate stations.
# The agreement covers practice sessions and qualifying sessions that ESPN broadcasts, along with the Nationwide races and "NASCAR Now'' and any other NASCAR content. Thus, you'll be able to view those away from your TV.
# As part of this agreement, you can watch the ESPN broadcast on WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app that allows you to view the race broadcast on your smartphone, computer or tablet. As of now, those with Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV can get the WatchESPN feed.
What about the rest of you? Here's what Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president, programming and acquisitions explained it: "WatchESPN is free. If you are a Time Warner Customer and you've already paid to be a Time Warner customer for your video subscription in your home, your television. All you have to do is go online and authenticate with your cable company like your cable company account number. As long as you authenticate back to that bill … you can then turn around and watch WatchESPN across all of your devices. You can do that by logging into WatchESPN.com on your laptop at work, you can do it on your iPhone or your Android or your tablet. It's not an additional fee. You can download the application on your iPhone for free and then you just need to authenticate yourself back to your video subscription.
# OK, so what if your online provider doesn't provide access to WatchESPN?
Well, first of all, you still can watch the various camera angles on NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy. But as far as the future for WatchESPN and providers, this is what Sobieski said: "We were really first to market with what we think is the future of the industry, which is you buy your subscription once for your video subscription and you can carry that across all your devices. Being first to market means we're cutting deals. We're already in Time Warner, we're already in Bright House and Verizon and we certainly anticipate and expect to be continuing to cut more deals over the term. This is really the future of the industry and we're at the beginning of that. It's great that NASCAR content is in this from the beginning.''
#Why is this is so important? Well, other than being able to more ways to watch the race or racing action, it does another key thing – it reaches out to the young fans that NASCAR is making a hard push to go after with its fan base among the oldest of most major sports in the U.S.
Said Sobieski: "Think of the 18-34 (male) demos that we've all been talking about that seem to be returning to the sport. This is another great opportunity to engage those fans and keep them engaged in their sport.
# Another new thing that the ESPN/ABC races will have in the Chase is that in the second half of each Chase race, they'll show the racing and commercials on the screen together. This is an experiment ESPN is trying as a way to allow fans to see more of the action.
Here's what Sobieski said about how they'll determine if this is the right format moving forward and if advertisers are buying into this: "We've got Sprint really supporting (it). We're thrilled for our sponsors to step up and support what we think is the right way to present NASCAR moving forward. Any opportunity that we can get where we can allow the business model to evolve to a place to where we think the presentation really should be for the sport, we want to get there.
"We're going to look at this in a number of different ways. We've got a lot of research lined up. We're working with NASCAR on some of that research as well, just to make sure we're looking at every way we can. We need to evaluate it for our fans. One of the best ways to do that, obviously, is to look at the ratings. If fans like the NASCAR non-stop format, we certainly want them to be tuning in and voting with their remote … and staying with it on a week in and week out basis because that's key for us to know if it's working. It's also important for the advertisers. But we're also looking at other aspects. How engaged fans are during that part of the telecast? Is it improving? Are they staying with us longer then when they stay with a normal commercial? They'll be discussions about the advertisers and the value they're getting through that portion. Ultimately, we think it's the right thing for fans and the right thing to do for the coverage of the sport, and we very much hope it's successful so that we can continue to do it and expand on it in the future.''
By Dustin LongTwitter: www.twitter.com/yoelmolina_mo
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