The Fox television network is seeking to amend its TV-rights agreement with NASCAR
David Hill, Fox Sports chairman, says the company would like to move some of the 13 Sprint Cup races it televises to Speed. A Fox source says the company could ask to move as many as six races. Hill says Fox always intended to carry the races on Speed.
With a rich racing heritage, the Triad for decades was home to operations of racing legend and Level Cross native Richard Petty, and it continues to host the operations of Richard Childress Racing in Welcome and Kevin Harvick Inc. in Kernersville, among others. The region has historically been one of the strongest media markets in the country for NASCAR.
Fox is five years into an eight-year, $1.76 billion contract with NASCAR that mandates it televise all Sprint Cup races on its broadcast channel except for two specialty events. If Fox wants to move regular-season races to Speed before the contract expires in 2014, it would have to amend the agreement. Fox sources were skeptical such a move would be made.
?It would be very good for Speed to put cup races there,? Hill says. ?That?s just part of the dialogue, so we?ll see.?
Steve Herbst, NASCAR vice president of broadcasting, declines to discuss the specifics of conversations with Fox.
The talks come a year after NASCAR agreed to let ESPN shift the majority of its stock-car coverage from ABC to ESPN. Ratings on ESPN, which showed 14 races, and ABC, which carried three, dropped 14 percent following that move. A similar drop in viewership likely would follow if races moved from Fox to Speed, which is distributed in 78 million homes. The all-star race on Speed this year drew 4 million viewers. Fox won 8.6 million viewers for its 13 regular-season Sprint Cup telecasts.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2011/06/20/fox-mulls-move-to-speed-channel.html
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