The Indy Racing League Wednesday vowed to continue the Champ Car World Series' innovative strategy to drive TV ratings down as low as possible heading into negotiations for a 2010 TV package.
"Of course we'd like to get that illusive 0.0 rating that Champ Car came one suburban housewife away from achieving, but that requires the perfect storm of a tight, impossible-to-pass motorcycle road course in Europe shown on ESPN 8 at 5 a.m.," said a league insider who asked not to be named. "We're working on that, but for now I think we've got some races that will break new ground in American TV ratings."
With real news that ESPN/ABC may only want to broadcast the Indy 500 and a few other races next year, IndyCar officials plan a "counter-intuitive" plan of trying to depress ratings as much as they can in 2009 order to put themselves in a "more interesting bargaining position."
"Not sure what they are thinking," said Dick Arbitron, media negotiations expert from Lima, Ohio. "Usually you'd want to go into negotiations showing ratings growth. After all, ratings are what drive the world in big-league racing. Major sponsors don't drop $5 million on a team or league because of attendance. They want ratings. So going to more road and street races, which Americans have repeatedly shown they don't watch on TV is, um, innovative, to say the least."
"Americans just do not watch road and street races on TV, period," said another expert. "It just does not happen, no matter how much you think it should. Sorry. So you've got 'the most diverse schedule in racing' that's pocked with eight TV ratings black holes. That's great if you want to become ALMS."
IRL on "the Ocho" for the win!
Posted by: GaryP | July 30, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Preesdog I wish Tony George, Brian Barnhart, and Tery Angstadt read your blog and understood satire !
Posted by: sam | July 31, 2008 at 06:11 AM
I'm sure they're all big fans, especially the IHJ. I have zero skin in this game, so it's easy for me to go off. I just don't think a 50-50 oval/twisty is going to be a TV ratings winner. Hope I'm wrong.
Posted by: pressdog | July 31, 2008 at 06:24 AM
Funny. Sad. TRUE.
Posted by: John S | July 31, 2008 at 08:29 AM
On the other hand, people generally don't show up for oval IRL events unless they're bundled with NASCAR tickets or are the Indy 500. Empty stands don't cut it either.
A nice conundrum, ehh?
Posted by: Shrike58 | July 31, 2008 at 12:26 PM
I submit that when you're asking a company for $1 million in sponsorship, they don't care about attendance. They're all about TV ratings because that's the only way they'll see return on their investment. When you ask them for $100,000, then they care about attendance. Champ Car had great attendance for many of its races and went belly up. If Champ Car was ripping down ratings of 3.0 every race, they'd still be going strong.
Posted by: pressdog | July 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM