from Mediaweek


Nascar Inks Rights Deals With ABC Sports/ESPN, TNT
John Consoli


Nascar has reached separate, eight-year TV rights deals with ABC
Sports/ESPN, and Turner Broadcasting, under which ABC/ESPN would pay
$270 million per year and Turner's TNT would pay $80 million per year.
The terms of the deal were first reported by SportsBusiness Journal
and confirmed by Mediaweek through its independent sources.


Nascar has not officially announced the deal, apparently wanting to
wait until it finalizes a deal with Fox for the remainder of the race
telecasts. A Fox official said the network is continuing to negotiate
and expects to reach an agreement with Nascar, but said nothing has
been finalized.


Under the new deal, ABC/ESPN will televise 17 Nextel Cup races during
the second half of the season [previously part of the NBC/TNT combined
package] and all of the Busch Series races [which were previously part
of the previous Fox package]. Among those 17 will be 10 "Chase for the
Cup" races, which will all air on ABC. Most of the Busch Series races
will air on ESPN2.


Turner's TNT will air six Nextel Cup races, three from the previous
Fox package and three from the previous NBC/TNT package. Those races
will air between the first half package, expected to be Fox's, and the
new ABC/ESPN package.


Under the previous TV rights packages, which expired after this
just-completed Nascar season, NBC/TNT combined paid $200 million per
year for the second half of the Nascar season, and no Busch races. NBC
and Fox split airing of the Daytona 500 in alternating years under the
previous pact. Under the new agreement with Fox, which is still in
discussion, Fox would air the Daytona 500, which opens the Nascar
season, every year. Fox would also air 13 races to start the season.


ESPN and Turner/TNT officials would not comment on the deals, and
Nascar officials could not be reached for comment.

Nice post. Was there a web link with it?

On 1 Dec 2005 12:26:08 -0800, "Nancy1" <nancy-dooley (AT) uiowa (DOT) edu>
wrote:

Is this for 2006 or 2007?



"Nancy1" <nancy-dooley (AT) uiowa (DOT) edu> wrote

2007

On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 16:52:32 -0500, "Gordon" <theo (AT) bestway (DOT) net>
wrote:

Alan Jones wrote:
I didn't see one, but I see you found it. ;-)

N.

Yup, it hit Google about an hour after you posted. I think it's
interesting that the deal leaves only 13 races for Fox. Ya
snooze, and ya lose I guess. Also, the Mediaweek article
made the news a bit confusing when it said, "Under the
previous TV rights packages, which expired after this just-
completed Nascar season..." I do believe the current deal
runs out at the end of '06.

On 1 Dec 2005 14:03:06 -0800, "Nancy1" <nancy-dooley (AT) uiowa (DOT) edu>
wrote:

<sigh> . Warned ya about letting ESPN get back to covering NASCAR.

Welcome to Soap Opera City....the network that force feeds us Terrell
Owens...now the "big Journalism" story is that the Colts pipe in crowd noise
during their home games.

No good can come of this, but hey......warned ya.



"Alan Jones" <alan (AT) alanjones (DOT) us> wrote

I'm looking forward to seeing what the ABC/ESPN broadcasts
will be like. Fox might be a little nervous right now.

On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 23:28:08 GMT, "Exiled" <riley3 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>
wrote:

"Nancy1" <nancy-dooley (AT) uiowa (DOT) edu> wrote in news:1133468768.073490.234190
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Back when NASCAR took over the TV deal (which was not a popular
idea with the non-ISC tracks), the susposed justification was to
get all the races on one network, so viewers wouldn't be confused
which station to tune to.

I guess it's pretty obvious now, with Fox, FX, TNT, ABC, and ESPN
in the mix, exactly much that idea really played in NASCAR's
mind. Not that anyone really beleived their main motivation
wasn't the money.

John

I think we can add Speed Channel to the list. I guess they
will continue to do the truck races.

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 00:11:10 -0000, John McCoy
<igopogo (AT) ix (DOT) netcom.com> wrote: