I’ve spent a lot of time this week reading up on the various recaps and interpretations of the changes within broadcasting and streaming of live racing content from the American Le Mans Series and IndyCar. While I am not in St. Petersburg this weekend for IndyCar's opener, I was at Sebring last week for the 12-hour endurance classic (fans on the grid in the left picture).Three posts in particular stand out for the ALMS' ESPN3.com premiere at Sebring. First, Jonathan Ingram writes at RacinToday.com that it marks the start of a racing revolution. The often edgy but always astute Peter de Lorenzo of Autoextremist recaps what his inbox took in with a fair piece, but a frustrated fan base. Finally, a most scathing review from the Last Turn Clubhouse, also linked on Murphy the Bear's not exactly glossy-eyed post-Sebring review.
Both series have had their first races of the 2011 season in the last week, and results on being able to view it have been admittedly mixed, at best.
The two series have gone about it with two drastically different methodologies of approach. More than anything, it represents a changing paradigm in the way fans and series insiders view what is still a niche sport in the grand scheme of things, and the way coverage of live sporting events is shifting from purely broadcast to with a greater emphasis on streaming and being more Internet-based.
To recap, ALMS has moved to an online-first attack, rolling out live streaming of its qualifying and races via ESPN3.com, and on the series’ website for international viewers. The realization domestic viewers would not be able to view the coverage on the ALMS website was certainly an unanticipated curveball. Alas, the move to archive races on the site for posterity and also on ESPN3.com for a few weeks after the race is a brilliant one — far more than the time that was allotted in broadcast-only format from SPEED.
The angst and anxiety over being able to see the race at Sebring overshadowed both the quality of the race and what was a decent first time broadcast itself. With limited commercial interruption and a new strategy to implement the brilliance of John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw on the mic — without a line change to a second set of announcers — with the ESPN pit reporters also there worked. I only had the media center feed to work off but things that I heard went mostly swimmingly. I doubt that was the case for everyone, and for that I’m sure the series is working to improve it.
To expect brilliance first time out with a completely new broadcast strategy is a fickle assumption. It’s a work in progress and one hopes that the adding of HDMI cables to watch Internet on your TV is the start of something, not a one-shot deal.
Perhaps the toughest part of the ALMS deal is the delayed race package on TV, with the excitement removed. Sebring could have been better with parts of it televised live, then sent back to ESPN3.com, and vice versa. Apparently some West Coast viewers had the race pre-empted, and that is inexcusable.
But is the series’ decision to focus online first for its broadcasts going to be a detriment or a boon to the series in the long run? Ultimately that’s the question going forward.
From what I’ve read on Twitter in this age of instant analysis, the decision to remove live streaming of practice and qualifying on IndyCar’s website in order to focus on improving its broadcast numbers is far more troubling. As I understand it, this came from the top as a part of the new Comcast/NBC merger to enhance an increased viewing of Versus events.
Versus, though, doesn’t show qualifying for races that air on ABC, leaving fans additionally in the dark this weekend. Could there have been an occasion for ESPN3.com to stream qualifying for ABC events?
The dilemma continues for IndyCar in that it is stuck in its third of a 10-year contract with Versus. With the direction of coverage shifting more to the Internet first (if other series soon jump on the bandwagon, and I note SPEED is increasing its live streaming for Formula One with two practice sessions on SPEED.com, to go along with its telecasts of practice, qualifying and the race), you wonder if IndyCar is now stuck with a reduced online presence in an attempt to increase eyeballs to the TV. I don’t recall a Versus IndyCar race ever drawing more than a 0.5 rating (Long Beach 2009 comes to mind as the highest-rated, but I could be wrong).
The Daly Planet, meanwhile, considered the ramifications of the IndyCar deal.
Even more disconcerting is how the content gets distributed to international viewers. ALMS at least will have content on its website but how IndyCar, a global sport even if its mindset is sometimes inherently Indianapolis-centric, is now caught in the middle without a clear way for fans around the world to access the product.
There’s no question the ALMS is early in the switch to moving online. There’s no doubt about the initial dissatisfaction with the access points to it, but that’s something that can be improved. The move is risky but perhaps a boon in the long run. ALMS has been ahead of the curve when it comes to green technology and manufacturer interest, and keeping both of those committed to the series should ensure a better long-term presence.
Also, with the overall landscape changing to be more mobile — with iPads leading the way for mobile devices — it’s a brave new world for motorsports in the way it distributes its content to its fans. Especially when you consider other major sports are adding streaming besides broadcasts — think the World Cup, the NCAA tournament, NBA and MLB games and the like.
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A note in passing. Earlier this week it was announced that National Speed Sport News was ceasing publication after 77 years. Racing's "bible" as it was, NSSN recapped generations of fans on the drivers, teams, mechanics, series and stories.
I wouldn't have had the opportunities I've had to this point without the newspaper's founder and editor emeritus, Chris Economaki, the "dean of American motorsports journalism." In 2005, I was one of three winners of a national writing contest Economaki judged and signed his name to - the trip to the 2005 United States Grand Prix the reward. Getting the chance to meet and have a dinner with Mr. Economaki remains one of my greatest life experiences, this as a 15-year-old then, mind you.
At dinner, he corrected me when I said I was done with a school year. "You're never done," he said, with a twinkle in his eye. "Done is what a turkey is on Thanksgiving."
I hoped I would never have to write the words that NSSN in its print guise is now 'done.' With that said, there is nothing before, nothing after that will match its stature from a motorsports journalism perspective.
Out for now, cheers.
