GK on TV

Details have yet to be hammered out but seven or eight Champ Car races will be televised next year on CBS and the remaining fourteen or fifteen races will be on Fox/Speedvision.

CART races have been televised by ABC since 1979 and its cable partner ESPN since 1986, but CART's relationship with ABC-ESPN unravelled during the early years of the CART-IRL split and the ratings in recent years for both CART and the IRL have been abysmal. These days NASCAR races regularly draw four and five times as many viewers as either CART or IRL races.

From the earliest days of the split it was obvious that ABC preferred to maintain its longtime partnership with the Indianapolis 500. The network's best production and promotional efforts over the last few years were lavished on the Indy 500 and the IRL series, and it's been clear for some time that CART's current contracts with ABC and ESPN through the end of this year would not be renewed.

There's absolutely no question that CART's television package sorely needs a breath of fresh air. Many longtime fans tell me the current ABC-ESPN coverage is so bad that it's impossible to follow the thread of the race. Most of them admit they regularly curse at their TVs and some say they often switch-off in disgust. Nor is there any additional pre or post-race coverage or promotion and it seems that everyone seethes in disgust when the chequered flag falls and the TV show ends abruptly without trace of the victory celebration or post-race interviews.

One of the biggest reasons new CEO and chairman Joe Heitzler was hired by CART's team owners and other outside directors was because he had spent most of his life in the TV business. The owners wanted Heitzler to negotiate a whole new TV deal and, despite heavy criticism in the American press in recent weeks about his ability to make such a deal happen, Heitzler has come through. The rights fees may be minimal but there will be much more time devoted to CART from the new partners as well as some promotional muscle which was seriously lacking with ABC-ESPN.

There will be a 60 percent increase in the total number of hours of CART coverage. Heitzler says there will be eleven hours of CART television programming each week. A three-hour window will be reserved for all the races on Fox/Speedvision and a four-hour window will be scheduled for 500-mile races. There will also be twenty This Week in CART shows, an important element that's been entirely lacking.

Neither of CART's new domestic TV partners have covered Champ Car racing before although both have plenty of racing experience. CBS televised the Daytona 500 from 1979 through last year but lost the Daytona classic and any other NASCAR races to NBC and Fox in a new deal negotiated last year. NBC has seriously promoted its new NASCAR package and helped drive NASCAR's ratings to record highs, and it's hoped that CART's new deal with CBS and Fox/Speedvision will turn around its fading TV ratings.

Speedvision was bought by Fox earlier this year and there has been much talk that the cable network would become a NASCAR-only channel. That will not be the case however as Speedvision received no fewer than 40,000 letters demanding that they continue to be a broad-based motorsports channel. Speedvision's current schedule embraces all types of motorsports coverage, including aeroplane and boat racing, and the cable network also owns a massive historical archive.

There were no answers on Thursday about who will comprise the Champ Car broadcast team for either CBS or Fox/Speedvision.

"We just completed this deal last Saturday night," said Heitzler, "and there are many details to be discussed over the next week or ten days."

Heitzler said CART will be involved in the production and direction of the shows but most of the responsibility for the productions will be with CBS and Fox/Speedvision.

"We will be responsible for the production and direction of our shows," said Rob Correa, vice-president of programming for CBS. "We will hire our own talent. Our shows will have a CBS imprint on them."

Part of the new TV package includes the international rights, which will revert to CART from ESPN International. Heitzler suggested that CART will probably begin working with Fox's international division to develop a new worldwide system of coverage.

"We're in the process of dealing with several entities," said Heitzler, "and one of those is Fox International."

Heitzler has taken a lot of flak over the past few months but with this new TV agreement he may have turned a corner. As Chip Ganassi said: "This is a great deal. It's exactly what we needed and wanted. Joe's done a great job. Now, he can get on with everything else he has to do."