Versus move costs IRL race viewers

[TMC1982]

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/63813

The chief criticism from teams in the Indy Racing League this year
centered on the IRL’s TV deal with Versus and it’s easy to see why,
based on the number of viewers the network delivered for the first
year of the league’s 10-year agreement.

Network executives say they have met viewership promises made to the
league by delivering more eyeballs across more hours of coverage, pre-
race and post-race. But actual viewership for Versus’ IRL races
dropped by nearly 60 percent from ESPN/ESPN2’s races last year.
Versus averaged 315,000 viewers for 12 races, down 59.5 percent from
ESPN/ESPN2’s 2008 average of 778,000 viewers over 11 races.

ABC also saw a viewership decline, averaging 2.636 million viewers
over five races, down 3 percent from an average of 2.727 million for
seven races in 2008. Combined, ABC and Versus averaged 1.157 million
viewers for the full 17-race season, down 28 percent from last year’s
1.616 million average over 18 races.

According to Versus, 29.5 million people tuned in for the IndyCar
Series coverage on its network this year compared to 25.9 million on
ESPN/ESPN2 last year.

That’s the kind of blanket coverage IRL officials sought when they
struck the 10-year agreement with Versus, understanding that it would
trade the 99 million homes reached by ESPN/ESPN2 for Versus’ 62
million homes and additional coverage. Versus lost about 14 million
homes when DirecTV dropped the network on Sept. 1.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

This was a an idiotic move by the IRL to move their races to Versus. I'm not saying Versus is a horrible channel, but most viewers don't get it. All of their races are usually on ESPN or a sister network. I think this was a problem for the NHL too If I'm not mistaken. They're not getting the attention and exposure they used to get.

I normally would watch 4-6 IRL races a year. This year, I watched one. The Indianapolis 500 which was televised on ABC.

 

[TMC1982]

This was a an idiotic move by the IRL to move their races to Versus. I'm not saying Versus is a horrible channel, but most viewers don't get it. All of their races are usually on ESPN or a sister network. I think this was a problem for the NHL too If I'm not mistaken. They're not getting the attention and exposure they used to get.

I normally would watch 4-6 IRL races a year. This year, I watched one. The Indianapolis 500 which was televised on ABC.

The thing that I've noticed about ESPN is that when something begins to out live its immediate usefulness, they'll dump it or deemphisize it. For example, when they got the NBA back in 2002, the NHL became the redheaded stepchild on the channel (up until the end of their last deal in 2004). On the opposite side of the spectrum, ESPN also didn't really cover arena football all that much, until they got a financial stake in the league several years back. So I don't really think that it's all that surprising that ESPN would easily let the IRL go when they already have NASCAR (which is much more popular at the moment) in tow.