Ratings, Hockey, Driver Insurrection and "Favoritism" Gand Mal Froth

Four things to ponder ...

TV ratings -- Seriously, I think it's easier to get Barack Obama's personal cell phone number than the ratings for IndyCar on ComVersBC (the merged Comcast/Versus/NBC). ESPN PR just emails me and others their IndyCar and Nationwide race ratings. No big thang. Good, bad, ugly. I've requested the same for ComVersBC (not recently, though) and ratings are NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

I ended up getting an audience number from a ratings-tracking website. That was all I could find and seeing no official release or no real media story on the ratings, popped it out there. People always have the right to say NO to The Media (if you generously loop bloggers into that). It's not always smart to say NO, but it is their right. In this case, refusing to release ratings only implies they suck. Oddly, when the ratings rock ... out they come!

I think ComVersBC and IndyCar should just release them. Get "out in front of it" as they say. Put out the number, and your comments thereon, and your spin thereof, and get ahead of it. Then you could talk about more esoteric things like audience size during segments of the program. I hear the audience at the end of the race was much larger (maybe 500,000) than the average audience of 323,000. If so -- and nobody is saying if that is true or not, so it could be bullshit -- then that's a positive sign. Maybe those 500,000 saw Mike Conway inhale a few people and win and will come back for Brazil.

But that's all NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

It's Hockey time on ComVersBC! Every since we heard that Comcast, parent of Versus, was buying Universal, parent of NBC, creating ComUniVersBC, the hard-core IndyCar fan (estimated number: 109) have been wondering WHAT that will mean for IndyCar.

Audience, we hope. The big knock on Versus isn't the quality of the broadcast or the quantity (hours), but the lack of penetration (take it easy!). Versus is in about 75 million homes (give or take) while ESPN is in about 100 million homes (give or take). There are about 115 million TV equipped homes (give or take). SO, it right off the bat, the potential audience for IndyCar on ABC is the greatest, then ESPN, then Versus. Most races are on Versus.

So when the best you can do is 75 million (-ish) households, that caps your ratings potential audience right off the bat. Big knock against Versus is the lack of penetration and the difficulty to find it on the dial.

The big hope is that with the mergification, ComVersBC will be on more cable tiers and therefore get more penetration. ESPN is a ficture on the very basic cable/satellite tier. I had to pay for three tiers of programming to get Versus on my Dish Network package. Having the tier that include Versus costs me $120 extra a year. 

Which brings us to Hockey. ComVersBC just bought the rights to exclusively broadcast NHL hockey for the next 10 years for $2 BILLION, American.

That means a few things to IndyCar fans.

• Merry Christmas Canadian fans, first of all. With ALL NHL hockey being on ComVersBC, one would think Canadian TV will be making ComVersBC available to Canadian viewers like never before or face the polite-yet-stern wrath of Canadian viewers. IF IndyCar stay son the same ComVersBC station that carries hockey, bazinga, increased racing availability to IndyCar's 915 Canadian fans. (Update: Never mind. See comments below. ComVersBC bought AMERICAN broadcast rights. Canadian aren't in the deal. Sorry Canuck friends.)

• ComVersBC may be serious as a heart attack about promoting it's sports channels. This article proposes that networks are going to get more into sports to try and stop the erosion of their audience to Internet-based media like Hulu, etc. The theory is that people watch sports live because they want to know the outcome immediately, and that nobody watches sports replayed on internet-based sites because they generally know who won, etc.

It's a REALLY smart move on television's part, I think. And it might help explain why ComVersBC put the kibosh on streaming video on IndyCar.com this year. This is WAR (with the Internet) mister, and ComVersBC is dragging out the tactical nuclear weapons.

Plus, you don't spend $200 million a year on NHL and then leave it on a channel that reaches 65% to 75% (depending on what numbers you go with) percent of households (Versus). You move that to a channel with bigger penetration, OR you get Versus into the bottom tier of cable/sattelite. Maybe IndyCar goes with hockey to that wonderful destination.

If they are serious about beefing up their sports offerings, ComVersBC may pour more cash into building audience for IndyCar. Hurray for us.

• ComVersBC may pour IndyCar cash into hockey. Flip side of the above coin is that ComVersBC says "damn, we just spent $2 billion for hockey, we better put every bit of A-level talent, time, money into making it generate a return" sucking the air out of the room and leaving IndyCar as the second-fiddle that gets only token attention. I doubt this will be the scenario, but it's possible.

Does this mean ComVersBC wants the Indy 500. ABC's contract to rights to the Indy 500 ends after the 2012 race. If ComVersBC is going after hockey hard, will they go after IndyCar hard to get the Indy 500? Indy fans hope so, because competition is a good thing. And IndyCar may become an all-or-nothing deal, not just a piece on ABC/ESPN and a piece on ComVersBC.

If it's winner take all, first we hope it's a bidding war. Second, if it's all back on ABC/ESPN, a segment of the fandom will be happy. If it's all on the new ComVersBC, a segment of the fan base will be happy. If races start ripping down 2.0 ratings, everyone will be happy.

Speaking of ratings, it's all about ratings. End of the day, net net, long story short, ratings rule on TV because ratings = cash. If ComVersBC wants to have a prayer at getting the 500, and we hope they do, they are motivated to get ratings up now.

Drivers ignored the league and Iron Hand of Justice at Long Beach -- It seemed pretty clear to many of us that IndyCar drivers basically flipped Randy Bernard and Brian Barhart, the Iron Hand of Justice, the bird at Long Beach, re: starts and restarts. The whole two-wide thing, which looked so picturesque at St. Petersburg and Barber, didn't happen at Long Beach. Not even close.

Curt Cavin on Trackside Tuesday said he figured the drivers just said basically you're not the boss of us and started fugly. The first two cars were side-by-side, but the rest were straggling and single file. Al Unser Jr. agreed that the drivers did what they wanted in Curt's Pit Pass today.

It will be interesting to see what IndyCar does about this insurrection. Certainly, the flag guy (who takes his instructions from the IHJ) can wave off any start. He can wave off 19 starts in a row, theoretically, but will he? Stay tuned. Maybe the 0.28 TV ratings (best case!) will get through to the drivers that they gotta do something to attract attention. Seriously. Hard to race single-file, double-file, three-wide when IndyCar is tits up (bankrupt and out of business). Give that some thought.

Finally, grand mal froth over officiating -- We had a bit of a tizzy on the internets this week about this question: Does the league show favoritism in its refereeing? Discuss. At issue, is the calling of penalties in IndyCar is inconsistent? Specifically, did  Helio Castroneves get a pass for infractions at Long Beach while Paul Tracy was penalized for the same thing?

Insert parsing and ranting here (very little of which I have read, honestly). My position: no obvious favoritism. Refereeing is a tough thing and it always comes down to judgement. Once Al Unser Jr. finally got the rationale behind the calls out there, I was fine with it.

IndyCar did screw themselves again by not explaining their decisions right after the race to head off a lot of frothing created by the vacuum of information, specifically what the calls were and why. If you want to dive into the controversy, go here or here.

The method in which penalties are communicated to the IndyCar audience is piss poor as it is now. Often penalties aren't communicated at all. Again, just get out in front of it. Develop a system to let viewers know what is up as soon as possible, and have the IHJ or whoever explain what the calls were and why. Bam. Done.

It's hard for me to see favoritism toward Helio given a referee's call cost him a win at Edmonton last year and at Detroit a few  years earlier. Both of those calls I agreed with, BTW. Most people I heard from thought Helio got screwed at Edmonton. Tracy and his fans think he got SCREWED on a call at the 2002 Indy 500 that meant Helio won the race. It's possible he got screwed. It's also possible some cling to it. It was nine years ago. Tracy for sure clings to it. I can understand why.

End of the day, zillion-time Long Beach winner Al Unser Jr. and Tony Cottman huddled up in race control at Long Beach, took a look at the replays, discussed, and made the penalty calls. Video of the crashes is unavailable (or NONE OF OUR BUSINESS). So, absent that, I'm going to go with with the well-qualified refs decided.

End of the day, net net, long story short: very few care. Of the 323,000 who watched the race at Long Beach, 322.725 (or more) probably are unaware of the penalties, don't even know there's a "race control" or simply don't care.

Comments

[Mark]

Dog:

One minor correction...ComVersNBC paid $2 billion for the US rights to the NHL. The Canuckistan rights are sold separately to a combination of CTV, CBC, TSN (their version of ESPN), and RDS (the French version of ESPN). Versus won't be shown in Canada legally (though one might be able to pick it up with a semi-bootleg DirecTV dish up north linked to a US address so one can get US channels).

[Dylan]

Robin Miller gave about the same numbers that you did... so I'm guessing they're fairly accurate. Two bad ratings in a row is a major issue. I still want to believe Versus will work out, but each race that goes by (we're in our 3rd year) that see's very little improvement makes it harder. Worse, the sponsorships are so tied to the ratings, I worry if they're not up, we won't see nearly as many cars as we'd like to in 2012, or they'll be packed with talentless ride buyers.

On the penalty thing, that's why I'm against avoidable contact penalties unless it's a Carl Edwards incident. They mess up the race and add needless controversy. Besides, we need drivers to race harder, not take it easy.

[pressdog]

Thanks, Mark. Was not aware, obviously. Updated the post. Sucks to be Canadian IndyCar fans.

[Meeshbeer]

yo, P-dog *poses, gives gang sign, punches knuckles* it's ok, we up here in Canuckistan have become increasingly adept at finding illegal streams thanks to the increasingly super secret coverage of IndyCar over the last few years... hehe. (oh, and no one would ever DARE considering messing with our hockey coverage... just sayin... )

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the calls in LB, perception is everything!

We saw replay after replay of Helio taking out drivers like he was a bowling ball and they the pins, in fact one was in the EXACT spot as Tracy's "alleged" punt of Simona.

I say alleged, as we out here in NONEOFYOURBUSINESSville only saw the aftermath of that, and NEVER the cause, yet that was the incident deemed worth of a penalty, while Helio's rampage of destruction only sent him to the corner of Mr. Penske's office for a stern talking to.

You can understand why then, even if Tracy is not your horse in this race, why you would be a little... perplexed by the officiating.

So I agree with you on all accounts above. GET AHEAD OF THE MESSAGE! Don't wait until everyone is convulsing on the floor, frothing at the mouth over [ insert controversy du jour here ] Full disclosure. Full Transparency.

They (the proverbial they) need to realize that the 109 of us diehards *grin* have been through so much shite over the last decade. We have been lie to, betrayed, tossed under the bus, dragged through the mud, maligned, watched our series implode, split up, grow, die, implode again, get glued together in psuedomergification, gasping for air for each season since while drivers, events & sponsors appear and disappear, and yet, we're still here, ever faithful like an abused spouse in denial.

And while "they" are focused on getting "new fans", they might want to consider that we "seasoned" fans are a smart bunch. We recognize lipstick on a pig when we see it. We are also some of the strongest voices out here. You want new fans? We're the ones that are going to help you get them, but only if we still believe the product is worth fighting for.

We're still here... but there are a lot of shiny objects floating around, that are WAY less exhausting and frustrating to play with.

[Jack The Root]

"I worry if they're not up, we won't see nearly as many cars as we'd like to in 2012, or they'll be packed with talentless ride buyers."

Yes, having a bunch of talentless ride-buyers would be vastly different then what we have now.

These lame-ass owners are whining about a $75,000 aero kit. You think with that mentality that its going to be anything but more rich kids with rich daddy's and mommy's writing checks to play race driver? Nope.

[Meeshbeer]

wow.. sorry about the blog entry up there. Didn't look that long before I hit post... oops!

[Brian McKay]

?? Nothing wrong with that, Meesh. You and Pressdog write lots of sensible ideas.
"We are also some of the strongest voices out here. You want new fans? We're the ones that are going to help you get them, but only if we still believe the product is worth fighting for."
I don't believe that ICS has an "Iron Hand of Justice" because I don't see justice season after season.
I HOPE that an "NBC Sports" channel promoting the heck out of our sports will be available on a lower tier of channel packages and thus in more homes AND that the channel shows ENTIRE seasons so that the 'casual fan' will know that a race will be televised on the weekend and will not wonder which channel. I'd like the channel to center its image on NHL and ICS.

[JPIndyCar]

I don't think IndyCar has to worry about the NBC investment in hockey because to a large degree it runs opposite seasons as IndyCar. IndyCar has to worry about NBC's strategy towards Golf, Horse Racing and Bicycle racing. NBC has broadcast rights for offerings in all three. Bicycle in particular is problematic. Versus owns the TDF, it is the event that built the channel really. In past years IndyCar bounced to ABC in July during the TDF to make way for Versus superserving of it. The NBC Universal Sports channel owned the rights to the other two grand tours of Cycling the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espagna. If the new channel chooses to super serve these two events as well as TDF, then IndyCar will be hard pressed to find a broadcast window before 2pm during May, July or September.

[redcar]

Bernard should use this opportunity to make the ways drivers are penalized more understandable and transparent. Punishment should not be based on subjective critera (as much as humanly possible) and why not have the "referees" available after the race to explain their rulings.

We can speculate on how many times they'd have to keep waving off the start (or restart) in the case of a repeat of the Long Beach fiasco but we won't know until they try. I'd keep the green flag in my pocket until the field was aligned and see how many times it would take. And if it took fifteen or twenty, at least Indycar might make Sportscenter that day.

[The Speedgeek]

I'm pretty much with Meesh on the "perception" of how certain drivers are dealt with. Helio got penalties at Edmonton in 2010 and Detroit in 2008 because those situations were so blatant that there'd likely have been a full-scale paddock revolt after somebody ignored the rules completely and then was allowed to keep a win, so I don't see those as analogs to what we saw on Sunday. At Long Beach, a win was not at stake, so the race control guys may not have felt like penalizing Helio was all that much of a priority (though this doesn't explain why PT got his penalty, which remains perplexing to me; believe me, I haven't been the first person to defend PT on ANYTHING since about 1993, but there's no reason he should have gotten anything on Sunday if Helio didn't, IMO). Whatever the case, we've got a perception gap. Race control percieves that they're fair and balanced, and that nobody escapes their watchful gaze (this goes for Cotman as well, who I really like but am starting to question his race control cred; I haven't liked a few of the things that have happened in Lights races over the last couple of years, either). A huge chunk of the hardcore fanbase (um, that's everybody reading this post and these here comments) percieves that Helio can do anything short of stab somebody with a sharpened upper wishbone and get away with it. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Whatever the case is, and whatever is actually going on, like red says just above, hopefully Randy and The Series can take this opportunity to clean up some of the ambiguousness that we've got on our hands right now. On-screen notifications of when an incident is under review, more rules in the rulebook, clarified current rules, having a rep for the stewards available for media interrogation during all yellow flags, telling the drivers to just "have at it" (note: please do not tell the drivers to have at it), whatever. It's long since time to fix this.

As for the other topics you got up there, 'Dog, I got nothing to add. Well said. Here's hoping you had enough paper towel on hand to take care of the froth that was probably all over your shirt by the time you finished writing.

[The American Mutt]

It may or may not surprise you to find out I'm a hockey fan, (Meesh they might need to put a fork in Luongo...just sayin') and have been watching the playoffs all week long. In that time, I've seen (regretably only two) Indycar commercials at least five or six times a game. I don't particularly recall ABC/ESPN doing so much cross promotion. Could be wrong on that, but don't recall it anyway.

[Titus Pullo]

Meanwhile how are the rating on ESPN with what they replaced IndyCar with and how much did they pay for it?

[SkipinSC]

All that needs to be said about the ESPN coverage of INDYCAR is that they pre-empted the start of as race a couple of years ago for WOMEN's GOLF!

Now I have nothing against the LPGA, but if our series is being relegated to such low stature that an LPGA tounament can "bump" us, then we truly are the TV equivalent of Milka Duno.

[Travis R]

One thing that really bugged me about the post-race "why didn't Helio get the same penalty as PT" questions directed to Little Al, Tony Cotman, and Brian Barnhart is the fact that they always referred to the Helio/Will Power accident, but never addressed the accident that deserved the same penalty as PT's - the Justin Wilson punt.

Don't pretend we can't remember that because of a more spectacular incident later in the race, it's an insult to the fan's intelligence. Don't try that "ooh, look - a shiny object" shit with me.

[best drivers]

Well, they are essentially concentrated in the acquisition of new fans, they might want to consider, our experienced fans are a smart group. We recognize the lipstick on a pig, when we see it. We are some of the strongest voices in here. You want the new fans? We are those who want to help you make them, but only if we continue to believe that the product is worth fighting for.