[WVGrandma4Kasey]

I have heard it expressed time and time again by the media this weekend, wondering why the ratings for the races are slipping. If someone would bother to take a couple minutes and read some forums I think the mystery would be solved quickly. How long do you think its going to take to understand we are sick of the constant barrage of commercials. A few of us die hards will either watch or record and fast forward thru the commercials. If I wasn't really into racing I know I would turn to another program if I had to watch the constant commercials. I do it now, there are several channels I don't watch because little show, lots of interruptions. Speed Movies being one of them. NASCAR wise up or your programs are not going to be worth much. At the lease give us split screen.

[dhmn]

I'm sure when ABC/ESPN get involved they'll use what they do for the open wheel cars, the 'side by side' where you get to watch the race but still see and hear the commercial...

The funny thing about all the commercials is.. is that in all reality NASCAR itself is one big commercial... why else would the cars (aka motorized billboards to some people) have millions spent in advertising placed on them? Eventually people like Budweiser and Dupont, and Cingular etc will complain because their drivers are near the front in races but aren't on tv as often anymore because of the commercials.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by dhmn

I'm sure when ABC/ESPN get involved they'll use what they do for the open wheel cars, the 'side by side' where you get to watch the race but still see and hear the commercial...

Don't get your hopes up. They are talking like they aren't going to do split/screen. We had a thread on it a while back. Someone from Na$car said they had looked at it and said they didn't see any benefit to the sponors or fans. Meaning they didn't want to pi$$ the sponsors off by not giving them the full screen. After Saturdays race they better use split screen. NBC did their usual pi$$ poor performance of a broadcast. I know of two restarts they missed in the little bit I got to watch.

[LSC9901]

I think we'd all like to see a lot less commercials but in reality that just isn't going to happen. Ads are a large part of the purse money and I'm sure that the winning teams are not going to accept less money without fighting back in some way. I suspect the day will come when you will be able to do pay per view with no commercials .... for a corporate price.

As for announcers ... well we will never all be content with who ever does the announcing. I'll just leave it at that. I hate to get started on DW again !!!!

[dhmn]

I missed a lot of DW talk, not being here during it I think.. but .. he's all Boogity Boogity Boogity and no filler.

[Wisconsin11Fan]

I think I'd rather have DW in the booth than Bill "drama queen" Weber.
What a piece of work.
I think G'ma hit it right on the head as to the ratings decrease. Even being a die-hard fan I have a tought time lately sitting through all the BS just to watch snippets of a race.

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Wisconsin11Fan

Even being a die-hard fan I have a tought time lately sitting through all the BS just to watch snippets of a race.

I hear ya! In fact the past few weeks, I have rarely watchd a full race live. I set the DVR up and go do something else. When I return, I just replay it and fast forward the commercials. Its amazing how fast you can watch a race when you zoom the commercials by at 60 times their normal speed.

[Sorenson41Fan]

DVR is the way to go. if more people start watching on DVR they will HAVE to do the split screen in order to get people to watch the commercials.

plus on DVR you can rewind a million times to see particular things over and over again.

having said that i have seen quite a few good commercials, because they were good enough to "hook" me (most likely many of those were the first ad of the break ... but if i skip thru and land in a commercial that seems good, i sometimes rewind to see it).

the only problem with DVR is you have the risk if you don't finish the race right away, someone will give away the winner. I was at my folks' house over the weekend and didn't get to watch the race saturday nite, and the next morning my dear old dad mentioned who won (he'd read the paper) ...

luckily (?) it's fairly easy to stay away from NASCAR news especially in California, everybody's talking about football mostly.

as it happens i didn't get to finish watching sat nite's race until last night! but usually i do better than that.

as far as messing up the broadcast, is it my imagination or doesn't it seem like crashes or other events happen during commercials. it almost seems like every other commercial break, we return to a caution. but it's probably just because there are so many ads and for so long.

to their credit, i have seen them "break in" to a commercial when something happens a number of times.

oh well, what are you going to do. the commercials are what pay the bills and allow us to see the dang thing in the first place. if anyone out there would prefer pay per view, that would be cool to have it as an option, as long as they keep the free broadcast with commercials too.

[Wisconsin11Fan]

I'm sure there would be a huge demand for a pay-per-view setup on the NASCAR season...but I think all the advertisers would want a cut of the proceeds, seeing as how that would potentially "lose" viewers for their precious commercials.

[WVGrandma4Kasey]

Originally Posted by Wisconsin11Fan

I'm sure there would be a huge demand for a pay-per-view setup on the NASCAR season...but I think all the advertisers would want a cut of the proceeds, seeing as how that would potentially "lose" viewers for their precious commercials.

From how it was explained the cost for PPV would be outrageous. That it would take so many camara's and people . So go figure, I ask how they do it now? Like I would think some kind of deal could be made to use the people and camera they use now. The best for us fans would be split screen. Maybe when sponsers realize that their commericals are not being watched pressure will be put on France to treat the fans right. $$$$$$$$ Sure will if these start to go away.

[nascarfan24]

Ya we'd all like to see split-screen and I honostly think there is a very good chance we'll get it in the near future

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by WVGrandma4Kasey

From how it was explained the cost for PPV would be outrageous. That it would take so many camara's and people . So go figure, I ask how they do it now? Like I would think some kind of deal could be made to use the people and camera they use now. The best for us fans would be split screen. Maybe when sponsers realize that their commericals are not being watched pressure will be put on France to treat the fans right. $$$$$$$$ Sure will if these start to go away.

The reality (from my warped mind) is that the cost of equipment and operators isn't all that bad. Granted they aren't doing it for the love of the sport but I do know that they are not overpaid. The cost of all the electronic equipment isn't minimal but whoever would produce the PPV programing more than likely will not be starting from scratch. Since I do not watch any PPV shows I have no idea what equipment is currently in use by whoever. I'm sure that initially there would be some steadfast fans (myself included) who would resist paying to watch. There is also the extreme possibility that you would buy a season that might include extras such as close up and personal interviews, hopefully better announcers and whatever other interesting ideas they could come up with to get us to watch. I have to believe that the true NA$CAR junkie would eventually convert to watching it.

[Curves24]

Originally Posted by WVGrandma4Kasey

From how it was explained the cost for PPV would be outrageous. That it would take so many camara's and people . So go figure, I ask how they do it now? Like I would think some kind of deal could be made to use the people and camera they use now. The best for us fans would be split screen. Maybe when sponsers realize that their commericals are not being watched pressure will be put on France to treat the fans right. $$$$$$$$ Sure will if these start to go away.

I would be willing to pay dearly, especially if they showed everything! No editing or delays. Without the fans the sponsers have nothing

[Sorenson41Fan]

why wouldn't they just use the same broadcast, minus the commercials?

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by Sorenson41Fan

why wouldn't they just use the same broadcast, minus the commercials?

No $$$$$ for Na$car.