Champ Car / IRL UK TV Coverage post merger

[philipbain]

As a british fan of all types of motorsport I have enjoyed immensely watching Champ Car and IRL over the years on Motors TV / Eurosport and Sky Sports respectively. With a merger all but confirmed does anyone have any idea what is likely to happen as far as TV coverage is concerned? Will Indycar (as I will now call it, I never felt comfortable about calling IRL by the Indycar name!) be carried exclusively on Sky? Will eurosport carry any coverage at all?

Will Indycar be carried exclusively on Sky? Will eurosport carry any coverage at all?

Judging by the levels of commitment shown by the two broadcasters in recent years, Sky would more than likely take on board any 'extra' broadcasts and show them in there entirety while even if Eurosport did stay with it, the start of those races and the first 45 laps would be cut for an over-run of the South Yorkshire Divisional Sheep Dog Trials Pre-Qualifying Under-12's event.

[infoxicated]

Sky confirmed during the Daytona 500 broadcast on Sunday that they are still committed to showing the IndyCar Series on one of the Sky Sports channels, alongside NASCAR events should they clash.

Whether this applies to any additional events they didn't say, but they can be quite agile with their four channels so I would hope they can manage.

[Alfa Fan]

The series will be shown on Sky Sports in the UK. It is Champ Car folding into IndyCar not vice-versa.

[BobGarage]

they can be quite agile with their four channels so I would hope they can manage.

they could always put it on the "red button" on the same channel as they are broadcasting NASCAR on. They do it regularly enough with the rugby and the football to great effect.

[Adder]

they could always put it on the "red button" on the same channel as they are broadcasting NASCAR on. They do it regularly enough with the rugby and the football to great effect.

And make it completely inaccessible to cable viewers at the same time, no thanks!!

Just put it on one of the other Sky Sports channels!

[infoxicated]

Yeah - like anyone who grew up in the shadow of the cold war will tell you; red button should only be used as a last resort! ;)

It means you cant record it... and you cant go channel hopping during the commercials, without having to wait for it to set itself up again when you come back, either.

[BobGarage]

but its better than a tape delay if the two did clash and Sky didn't have any free channels.

as you can be 100% sure if the two do clash sky will favour NASCAR over additional events that the IRL may add.

[V12]

From a British perspective - while NASCAR does have Franchitti now, any merged series would have Wheldon, Howard and most likely Justin Wilson as well - and while Franchitti will probably spend the entire season bar the road courses bumping around in 30-something-th place and probably failing to qualify/rely on owner points for a few races, Wheldon (and Wilson once NHL get up to speed) will contest for wins and possibly the championship.

I know NASCAR is apparently the be all and end all from a US perspective, and it has had a worrying increase in exposure from the specialist press over here since the ex-open wheeler influx, but to the casual fan here NASCAR is nothing more than the US version of the BTCC on steroids.

So is summation I would *hope* that Indy Cars would take precedence over NASCAR, although I don't currently have Sky (still recovering from being a broke student lol), have they been properly pushing and making a big deal over their newly acquired NASCAR coverage? (like Setanta did when they got half the football?)

[infoxicated]

The thing is, the NASCAR coverage probably costs Sky more than the IndyCar coverage, so that's the one they'll force feed us the most.

It was only with about three races to go last year before they started putting "Live IndyCar Series" on the EPG instead of "Live Motorsport" - it was almost like they were throwing it out there without trying to entice new fans to watch or help people find out when it was on, for the most part.

Sadly for Dario, I think Montoya going to NASCAR raised more eyebrows amongst british racing fans (i.e. F1 fans) than the combination of Dario winning the Indy 500, the IndyCar Championship, and going to NASCAR combined. He's always been under the radar as far as british race fans are concerned, and I think NASCAR will draw enough fans without having to rely on pockets of Franchitti fanatics.