Formula One

CART? No It's Women's Tennis - Again!!
Becky Smith
August 24, 2000

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Other's by Becky

The news that CART will come to Britain and Germany next season has been welcomed by thousands of European fans. At last we will be able to witness the hitherto unseen spectacle of oval racing as well as get a chance to see some of motor racing's greats battle wheel to wheel. In the meantime, however, fans have to endure the arduous task of discovering exactly when and where they can watch CART on television. 

When Bobby Rahal, came to Rockingham, England last month to officially announce the decision to race in Europe, he was keen to highlight the problems with CART race coverage in Europe. 

"Our satisfaction with our TV situation is very low currently," said Rahal, "and if there is one commitment that stands above all others, it's to ensure that we have the right relationship from a television standpoint, not just in Europe, but everywhere else in the world." 

For the last three years CART has been shown on Eurosport, a satellite and cable channel that provides coverage on a pan-European scale. Using one visual feed from an American channel, it broadcasts coverage in four languages in countries ranging from Albania to Yugoslavia, and everywhere in between. The package they transmit is actually very good, especially in Britain where race fans can enjoy the entertaining and knowledgeable commentary team of Ben Edwards and Jeremy Shaw. The problem lies in Eurosport's inability to organize their scheduling. 

On a channel that attempts to provide coverage of a wide range of sports, it is obviously difficult to show ChampCar racing live every week. A race that begins at 2pm in Toronto occupies a peak-viewing position in Europe if shown live at 7pm GMT, and Eurosport faces the unenviable task of deciding which sport's coverage is to be broadcast live each week. Unfortunately for motorsport fans, schedulers invariably decide to broadcast a women's tennis championship from some far-flung corner of the planet rather than CART. However, what has really become the bane of European motorsport fans, is trying to find out when CART coverage will eventually be shown. 

On the channel's website for the evening of Sunday 13th August, the day of the CART race at Mid-Ohio, the scheduling ran as follows: 

5pm: Motocross 
6pm: Women's Tennis 
8.30pm: Boxing 
10pm: Sportscentre 
10.15pm: And They Walked Away 
11.15pm: Motocross 

The newspaper television guide gave an entirely different evening line-up and if you tuned into the channel at 8.30pm it was actually showing old footage of the Euro 2000 football championship. A seasoned Eurosport viewer and race fan, could look at the schedule and deduce that the Mid-Ohio race would actually be shown at 10.15pm (which it was and a very good race it was too) but the lack of advance notice for the race coverage means that Eurosport missed out on those casual viewers who may have watched the race had they known it was being shown. 

CART is becoming a more global series under the direction of Bobby Rahal and races outside North America will undoubtedly raise its profile world-wide. Rahal now faces similar problems with promoting and improving television coverage of the CART series as Formula One has experienced in North America. The fact that F1 is less popular than other race series in the US can undoubtedly be attributed, at least in part, to the early morning starts that are the downside to it being shown live. CART faces the problem of vying for primetime slots in European schedules, and live coverage of every race is perhaps a wish that will not come true for race fans. Apart from some questionable editing of race coverage, Eurosport is actually quite a good channel for CART, at least in Britain, as it is generally supplied with basic cable and satellite packages. What Bobby Rahal has to ensure, however, is that Eurosport finally manages to advertise race coverage well in advance and that the channel makes the decision to schedule more live races. Until then, however, you'll find me impatiently waiting every Sunday night for two girls in white to finish bashing a yellow ball about. 

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