Champ Car inks CBS and NBC TV deals

UPDATE #10 This rumor is being upgraded to 'fact' today – see Hot News page for details of announcement. 12/12/04 We hear on Monday Champ Car will announce their 'network' TV deal only – 4 races on CBS and 2 on NBC, one of which will be Long Beach. We hear the cable part of the deal is not quite ready to be announced, though all indications are CNBC will get the nod over SPEED Channel. 12/04/04 A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, If SPEED Channel was an option as rumors suggest, why did they go with CNBC? Joe Rocko, Anaheim, CA. Dear Joe, SPEED Channel most certainly would have been the better choice, but we suspect NBC wanted Champ Car to pick up CNBC as part of their agreement to come on board for two races. It remains to be seen whether NBC makes an effort to get behind Champ Car and do something meaningful with Champ Car. SPEED is so dominated by NASCAR one has to wonder whether Champ Car would have received much attention. The arguments against CNBC is that TV viewers not interested in that channel probably have their TV sets programmed to skip right over that channel, however, CNBC is in 104 million homes, far more than SPEED with 60 million. Sports fans also don't surf to that channel for sport programming. The other argument is that CNBC is usually included in a basic cable TV package whereas SPEED is sometimes in a premium package that not everyone subscribes to, so when SPEED says they are in 60 million homes, we believe that number may be misleading a bit. It remains to be seen whether the TV ratings will improve or get worse on CNBC versus SPIKE. Let's not forget that there is also CNBC Europe (87 million homes plus 340,000 hotel rooms in just about every European country) and CNBC Asia (40 million homes in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Sri Lanka). It will be interesting to see if the races are shown on those overseas networks as well. Whether CNBC will exploit Europe and Asia for Champ Car in some way remains to be seen. Mark C. 12/04/04 AutoRacing1.com has learned that indeed for 2005 there will be four Champ Car races on CBS, two on NBC and the rest on CNBC. CNBC will also have a 1/2 hour qualifying show on Saturdays. Hopefully the deal will include mention of Champ Car during the financial portions of CNBC's broadcasts, which dominate weekday broadcasts. The tie-in between business and Champ Car could indeed be good news for the race series if someone is astute enough to make that happen. Mark C. 11/29/04 According to this SPEEDTV article, Champ Car's 2005 television deal may be announced before 2004 is over but if it's four on CBS, two on NBC and the rest on CNBC instead of SPEED, ugh… [Editor's Note: Let's hope CNBC will broadcast Saturday qualifying and have a weekly Champ Car show (don't hold your breath). The series and its drivers certainly need more air time. One advantage of CNBC is that they are on Sirius Satellite Radio, meaning the races on CNBC will get worldwide radio coverage. SPEED Channel was but was dropped, one of the reasons being the programming was not always the same as what was being shown on TV] 11/22/04 Negotiations are still ongoing but the TV deal is very close now. In the USA, it's looking like 4 on CBS, 4 on NBC and the rest (8 or 50%) on SPEED Channel. NBC still wants CNBC to do the cable portion we hear, but SPEED may get the nod. Yes, we expect the schedule to grow to 16, hence why we state 8 on cable would be 50% of the races. If Champ Car were smart they would announce their TV deal in NY City in early December when NASCAR and all the media are gathered for NASCAR's awards banquet. 11/21/04 This year is a big transition year for Champ Car – several new races and an all-new TV deal for 2005. Perhaps we were a bit too harsh on Champ Car for delaying the release of the schedule and TV deals this year, but under the circumstances (i.e. big changes) they can be excused. The new races and new TV deal will be worth the wait. However, there is no reason the 2006 schedule should be released this late, and July, 2005 should be the goal because most corporations are setting their budgets for the following year in the July-August timeframe so teams can make their pitch for sponsorship before advertising and marketing budgets and planning are locked down. 11/19/04 This week's AutoWeek Magazine reports that Champ Car will put 6 races on CBS and 4 on NBC for a total of 10 races of 16 or 17 on network TV. Long Beach, the season opener would be on NBC live, plus three others before the NBC NASCAR season kicks in around July 4th. The teams could really use the boost this would give them in their sponsorship hunt, but is it coming too late for that? With next year's budgets already set by September for most corporations, contingency money may be all they can hope for. Champ Car can't keep on publishing their schedules and TV deals this late in the year. Next year it needs to be out in August. As for the cable TV partner, look for it to be CNBC if NBC is indeed onboard. Mark C. 10/15/04 CBS Sports has snared the rights to the Champ Car World Series auto-racing circuit next year, according to sources, but it's not going to cost the network a cent. Sources say Champ Car will pay the network $5 million to air seven races on weekend afternoons, and another $5 million to cover production costs. In exchange, Champ Car will get to sell advertising time. Leading Champ Car sponsor Ford Motor Co. will likely shoulder much of the costs, but not without collecting an added perk: discounted advertising time inside CBS' expensive NFL coverage. CBS will take over Champ Car from Spike TV, which saw meager ratings from the circuit. The remainder of the Champ Car races will air on either Speed Channel or Fox Sports Net. Broadcast exposure is a big boost for Champ Car; its popularity has lagged behind the competing open-wheel racing circuit Indy Racing League, which has a deal with ABC/ESPN. CBS declined comment. Hollywood Reporter [Editor's Note: This will remain a rumor until an official announcement is made by CBS or Champ Car. As long as Champ Car can sell all the TV ad slots, this deal will make them money, not cost them money. Look for more races on CBS in coming years. Perhaps even bigger news is the fact that we hear the international TV deal is good news too. Champ Car needs a decent international TV distribution, something it lacked in recent years.] 10/11/04 See update to other rumor on Champ Car's rumored new TV deal. Assuming all goes according to plan, Champ Car will once again have SPEED Channel as its cable partner and, therefore, should see its races back on the radio via Sirius (i.e. on Satellite radio and hence heard around the globe), as described below. 10/07/04 A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, I can understand Champ Car going back to CBS for some of its races in 2005, but I don't understand going back to SPEED Channel for the cable TV portion given their low TV ratings. Joe Stalin, Brooklyn, NY Dear Joe, From what we hear, the deal on the table that might get blown because of Champ Car's procrastination includes CBS and SPEED Channel. CBS likes to partner with SPEED Channel. Apparently they have a good working relationship. While SPEED's TV ratings are not stellar, they do bring Champ Car one key ingredient that everyone misses – radio. Champ Car (nee CART) used to have a radio network. However, it was a money loser and was axed. That was very shortsighted because radio is so important to grassroots America. A lot of people tune into NASCAR races on radio when they can't be at home watching on TV. All SPEED Channel TV broadcasts carry a simultaneous audio feed on SIRIUS radio worldwide. Yes worldwide. And a lot more car manufacturers are offering satellite radios in their cars (you can also buy a home system). So with SPEED Channel Champ Car gets its radio network back, essentially free of charge. People who have satellite radio love it. It works wherever they are….and NASCAR is on XM radio 24 x 7. And let me remind everyone that Howard Stern just signed a $0.5 billion deal to move his show to SIRIUS Radio exclusively. He has a lot of young male listeners who will now scramble to get SIRIUS radio. This was a blockbuster deal announced Wednesday for SIRIUS (although we're sure our female readers cringe when they hear his name mentioned). The next thing we'll hear is that Champ Car will announce their new schedule and TV deal while they are in faraway Australia, totally oblivious to the USA media. Here they are on the verge of one of their most important announcements and you can bet they will choose to do it in Australia and again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Mark C.