Forum: SCRAFAN.COM Forum (go)
Moderators: ljennings

Some people have too BITCH

That being said Thanks Dean, USAC, and the tracks that let them film them.

Bob

First thing you do is estimate how much it is going to cost to tape and edit the shows. This includes paying a decent announcer or two.

Then you go talk to a network to find out how little money they are willing to accept to put on such a show. They also want to know how many fans are actually going to tune in and watch the show, even if it is scheduled for 1:30 in the morning.

Then you have to gather a group of advertisers to pay for all of this.

This is a different arena than most of us are familiar with. It was tried before with Thursday Night Thunder. But apparently those that did it before were not able to draw

enough fans to the show to make it profitable. And the others that are interested in trying it again look at what happened before and see that the fan base is growing smaller and smaller and won't fare any better.

We as dedicated fans are confused and cannot understand why people aren't flocking to watch our favorite form of entertainment. One answer might be that some of the biggest stars on Thursday Night Thunder have become household names with NASCAR. The drivers went for the money and the fans followed them.

Because the nature of television has changed tremendously since the days of Thursday Night thunder. Supply and demand. At that time ESPN had air time and viewers but needed content. A number of people worked on that project for less money then they normally would have received just to get it on the air. Nowadays, networks have to know that any content they put on will bring X amount of ratings. If you are providing content and you can't provide X amount of ratings, you have to pay in order to get your content on TV. It's not cheap. There's this other type of racing that you might of heard of called IndyCars. Other than the Indy 500, they have to buy airtime in order to get their stuff on TV. So if IndyCar has to pay to get on TV (granted, they do get to profit share), what chance do you think sprint/midget/Silver Crown cars have to make it on TV without paying? And if they do pay to put themselves on TV, where exactly does the money come from to pay for it? Purse? Ticket Prices? If you think the content provider gets any of the money from advertisements, dream on bucko. I'm not really sure how the Golden State Series broadcasts from Northern Cal are going to be structured so I really can't comment on how they are going to make it happen. They could come up with some really innovative way of making it happen or they could be yet another TV related financial train wreck.

I think the only currently viable medium for remote viewing of sprint car racing is via the internet. From the one meeting I attended with Kevin Miller, it appears that his intent is NOT to make the webcasts pay-per-view. He wants to build viewship (they can tell exactly how many people view the webcasts vs TV where they have to estimate) and then sell advertisement. The income from that would be put back into racing (purses, point funds, etc). When they started, they had no idea what sort of hurdles they would run into until they actually did it and what you are seeing is the result of some of those hurdles. By no means are you are seeing the final product, this appears to be fairly early in the game. Also remember that the race promotor can put the kibosh on the whole thing if they so choose. So the guy who is upset because he can't sell a reliable webcast to his sponsors, well, you are jumping the gun a bit because if USAC isn't selling it to advertisers yet, than perhaps neither should you. And they guy that thinks USAC needs to provide them with an explanation/apology? My initial thought was that you were just a jackwagon but I'll be polite and offer the best of luck to you on your quest.

I have to wonder how well the Chile Bowl pay per view fared. I for one enjoyed it a lot. But did the show make enough money, probably not. If it had, they would have done it again.

One irony,whenThursdayNight Thunder was on, USAC promoted the show as "The Road to Indy".

For a while a few drivers did transition to Indy. But most of them found themselves in NASCAR.

Bucko? Jackwagon? (whatever that means) What's with all the hostility?

Who thinks USAC owes them an apology? I think they ought to just pack up and get the Hell out of non winged sprint car racing.

I don't want to be considered a bitcher so I just want to thank everyone for everything for all time. I want to thank those who paid my way in the back gate, the ones who paid for the bent axles and broken shocks and wasted frames and center sections and... The ones who kept shelling out $225 for those new right rears. Oh, wait a minute, that was me. Thank you, me.

Everything you know is wrong.

ok, so i may be jumping the gun as you say.I hope your right, but if you don't keep after them and are just thankful you got to watch a little then how hard will they work to correct the problems ? If what you say is correct, it would be better if usac explained their problems and what they are planning to do about them to make it better. Two years have gone by now and they can't sell to sponsors and nether can i or anyone else that wants to go usac racing. mean while car count goes down , tracks go to other forms of racing .

Top5.

In your position I would email or call the USAC media department. You have valid concerns which wont be answered here. To get an answer go to the source.

Like I stated, if and when USAC decide this is a priority rather than just an added bonus then they might put more effort into making it work correctly. It is an under explored marketing tool in my opinion.

There have been many companies and tracks streaming live over the last few years and many of them close up shop after one season. It might be a good idea to ask those people what pushed them away from live streaming, then maybe we can get a clearer picture of just what sort of shenanigans goes on with broadcasting live streams.

The real hope for survival seems to be the ASCS.

Everything you know is wrong.

This subject is not hard to understand (ie) dollars and cents, Emett Hahn did pay per view one year, you do not need to know anymore that that. Live streaming will take awhile to get worked out and it doesn't matter how much you bitch about it, as far as ratings go msnbc has proven you can have the worst ratings on TV and still survive as long as Bill Gates is in your corner.

Grady

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it might be easyer to sell the sprint car equipment, put a carborator on the 410 motors and go late model racing. they get exposure on tv and run for bigger purses. But i am an open wheel nut that will just keep on whipping the old horse until it, or i , quit moving.

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as far as ratings go msnbc has proven you can have the worst ratings on TV and still survive as long as Bill Gates is in your corner. ...Grady

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

One thing that I've noticed is that when it's a broadcast that's listed on the USAC site, you can see how many people are watching at the bottom of the screen. The one's of late, I've haven't seen the count of the viewers below the screen. Any ideas about that?

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Olbermann is a complete and total IDIOT!!!!!! and if you listen to him you are too

ROB

Why must it come to this??? Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC do not for the most part report news that is untrue; its what they choose to not report that makes the difference. Their opinion shows that utilize obscure facts and spin them to their favor is what get people all worked up. Conservatives and Libertarians watch Glenn Beck because they are angry; Liberals watch Keith Olbermann because they are angry. People can argue all day over who reports the news most accurately. Even Hillary Clinton back in the 2008 primaries was quoted as saying that Fox reported the news most fairly. No matter what- whatever they are doing, it works, to do almost 3 times their nearest competitor and better ratings than all their cable competitors combined, it would be prudent to understand what they do right, not whine about what they do wrong and call their viewers names...

Now to the true subject- I for one would love to have the opportunity to PPV live races that I cannot see in person. But it would be better at least in the beginning to test the live stream waters as they are now for awhile to assess the audience size and at the same time get the bugs out of their broadcasting ability. As for getting on network television- that may be a subject best left dead.

Look at the NHL- they can barely get onto a third rate cable network for a national TV contract. Yet they can draw 18000 for the Kings (at least while their winning!) with live local broadcasting and expensive ticket prices.

Whats the weekly draw at the PAS? I know Ventura is lucky if there is 800 people in the stands for their weekly show. Ten years ago you had to get there early, or you couldn't get a parking spot. I think PPV internet shows is definitely one way they can boost the front gate to help pay their lease and boost the purses for the drivers. With as bad as the economy is today, the fact that the purses are the same size as, if not smaller than 10 or even 20 years ago, is not helping things either. Costs are way up, the purses do not help the week to week racer as they did in the past.

Bottom line, it may be frustrating to expect a live stream and have it not work out well, but our sport has a lot worse problems to address than whether or not a fan that didn't buy a ticket (for whatever reason) got to see the race for free. If you want to make a small difference right now, buy a video from Raceway Video or Loud Pedal Productions if you missed the race. The more we support these guys now, will not only help their production quality down the road, but will help make the internet broadcasts better in the future!

You're another one of those cry baby's Rob. You still send me political sh*t after all this time, and as you know, one more came today... Do you really think I even open anything that comes from you anymore? I haven't bothered opening any of your political cry baby junk for a long long time. Go ahead and watch Beck, he's your style. He's a big cry baby too. LOL

Now as far as rating go... If they were a sign of intelligence you might have something there, but ratings have never been a indication of intelligence, or good sense, have they?... History show's they don't!

You guy's whine on here all the time, a little here, a little there, and I haven't said a peep until now, but if.... Hey, I'm just your average pinko commie rat fink, so get over it.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

NHL is broadcast on Fox sports which is hardly a third rate cable network.

VS is owned by comcast which I guess you can call third rate but they broadcast a tiny fraction of the hockey that Fox does along with the canadian networks.

So hockey is broadcasting on at least three networks and twenty broadcasts or so a night for 82 games per team per season.

If you want to compare say VS hockey broadcasts vs Speeds Outlaws broadcasts, I think youre comparing apples to apples but the big difference is that the hockey is live and the racing is usually tape delayed. Why not broadcast a tape delayed 'stream' on USAC? that would alleviate a lot of the problems with connectivity.

Also, think about this. Speedway Grand Prix along with local speedway meetings are not only attended by thousands of people but broadcast live in Norway, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Britain, Wales and Scotland. New Zealand speedways bigger meetings are also broadcast live on Sky Sports. I cant even begin to tell you why speedway can be successful as a broadcast medium in other countries while some of the best sprint and midget racing in the world cant even get a live stream on the internet in this country.

you know I still like you Kenny even if you are a left wing Pinko commie rat turd

ROB

O'Reily Factor 3,194,000 Olberman 1,039,000

Hannity 2,428,000 Maddow 868,000

Beck 2,539,000 Mathews 557,000

Bret Baier 2,456,000 Ed Show 653,000

Nielson Weekly Ratings, as soon as Comcast takes over NBC you might see some changes

Now as far as our sport go to the races if you can, and whenever you can and don't bitch when you get to watch it for free.

Grady

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That's fink Rob, as in rat fink, not rat turd! Geeez... Now your buddy is still so pissed he doesn't even send me junk anymore, but I know he want's to.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Grady when I wave at you this year at the Western, it will be with my middle finger up, and with both hands. Why both hands you might ask? Because someone one this board wants me to deliver you a message.

Now as far as rating go... If they were a sign of intelligence you might have something there, but ratings have never been a indication of intelligence, or good sense, have they?... History show's they don't!

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.