TV iNCAR popular among viewers

The interactive TV system puts viewers right in the drivers seat.
By RANDY COVITZ
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Butch Hylton was in the comfort of his living room but felt like he was still on pit road at Daytona.
Hylton, crew chief for Kevin Harvick's Busch series team, and his son, Brandon, punched up NASCAR's iNCAR on DEMAND on their cable system for the Daytona 500 telecast. They clicked the remote to the in-car cameras of seven drivers, listened to the voice communications and studied the data on virtual dashboards.
Hylton was hooked.
"I kept flipping over to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car, and I actually learned some things by watching him," Hylton said. "I was watching the way he was driving the car and some things he said to his crew tipped me off to a few things."
Hylton's not alone. In its first full season as a complement to NASCAR's live Winston Cup telecasts on Fox, NBC and TNT, the iN DEMAND coverage not only has been popular among viewers, but television's first multi-channel, digital sports package just won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television.
"It enables the real core fan to get a look that is unparalleled in sports," said Fox Sports chairman David Hill. "It's like sitting in the huddle and hearing the instructions come from the coach to the quarterback."
State-of-the-art coverage
The ability to deliver such state-of-the-art coverage was one of the features that appealed to Fox and NBC/Turner Sports when they signed their watershed, eight-year, $2.4 billion contract with NASCAR beginning with the 2001 season.
From an audience and production standpoint, the networks couldn't be happier with the TV package. NASCAR continues to be the only sports property besides the NFL to increase its audience, with an average 5.26 million households in 2002, and its ratings are second only to the NFL.
Consider:
UThree Winston Cup races this year -- Daytona (9.8 rating, 21 share), Las Vegas (6.9, 15) and Rockingham (6.7, 16) -- outdrew the 2003 NBA finals' six-game average of 6.5, 12.
UThree Fox's 5.8 rating not only beat the NBA regular-season (2.6), but also topped network coverage of the NBA playoffs (4.8); NCAA Tournament (5.0); PGA Tour (3.3), NHL regular-season (1.1); and Stanley Cup finals (2.9).
UThree NBC's eight prerace shows that ran from the start of the 2002 NFL season through Nov. 17 averaged a 2.6 rating and 7 share, which edged CBS' "NFL Today" pregame show (2.5, 7) and narrowly trailed Fox's "NFL Sunday," (3.5, 10). Additionally, NBC's prerace show outperformed CBS' "NFL Today" five of the seven times the shows went head to head.
"You go back 10 or 12 years ago, NASCAR was seventh, eighth or ninth on the American sports landscape," said George Pyne, NASCAR's chief operating officer. "I'll let others say where we are today, but wherever we are, we're in a good spot. When people watch on TV, and when people buy licensed products and attend events, to me, it's like going to the turnstile and voting. Those facts are indisputable."
Problem is, despite growing television audiences, the two networks have been hampered by a slow economy and are losing millions of dollars on the package.
Televising the Winston Cup/Busch series is a costly endeavor, similar to producing a weekly Super Bowl. Depending on the venue, each telecast requires between 36 and 50 cameras (including in-car, robotic and blimp); 75 microphones; 28 video-tape replay machines; 25 miles of cable; nine mobile units; a digital satellite and digital transmission truck; and a staff of 300.
So even though NASCAR is NBC's lone major sports weekly property since it relinquished rights to the NBA in 1998 and to major-league baseball in 2000 and the NBA in 2002, the network will seriously consider whether it wants to renew its portion of the NASCAR contract when it expires after the 2006 season.