CBS

[DaveL]

Now that the Brands Hatch telecast is in the books, let me be the first to give a kudos to CBS and CART for a great job of broadcasting. ABC/ESPN made road races ass achingly boring. But the way CBS/SPEED/CART do the job, you can get a great appreciation of the work the drivers do and how fast they really go through those corners.

The telecast conveyed the excitement of a race day, they stayed on top of every situation on the track, and gave constant relevent information in form of lap rundowns so that the viewer knew how any given car was doing.

One other note: The field is getting tighter. The rookie teams and drivers are getting more and more laps underneath them and the performance gap is narrowing big time. Teams went to St. Pete with almost no preparation and it showed. We'll seeing grids far more typical to what we have been used to for the rest of the season.

[Railbird]

I hopethey re-air it on Speed as we here in Indy had to suffer through a bunch of "storm watch" nonsense mid program.

I agree though Dave, much better production than on the family 'o channels.

[cart7]

We were also getting storm updates and runners on the screen every 15 min to half hour. All in all, CBS makes ABC look pathetic. It's no wonder there are so many ABC coverage complaint threads at TF when they can tune into a CArt race and make a direct comparison. There is no comparison.

[IlliniRacer]

Originally posted by cart7
We were also getting storm updates and runners on the screen every 15 min to half hour. All in all, CBS makes ABC look pathetic. It's no wonder there are so many ABC coverage complaint threads at TF when they can tune into a CArt race and make a direct comparison. There is no comparison.

Very well done by CBS. Also, props to St. Louis's KMOV. We were having severe weather (again :eek: ), after the initial start was waved off, they broke to a weather update. The weatherman said that since the start had been waved off, he would give his alert now so we wouldn't miss any the race! :thumbup: :thumbup:

[Hink]

For a boring race (IMO - I had higher hopes) Varsha and Kendall did a hell of a job.

[nrc]

Unfortunately the CBS races rarely get re-aired on SPEED.

[Kate]

I enjoyed the race because I didn't have to do any work during it, and I could see what was going on instead of just hearing it or watching the TV screens while trying to write race notes and subedit someone else's race report!

I agree that the grid is getting tighter. Marios I and II are getting very fast indeed, and even the men of less experience such as Yoong and Lavin are showing signs that they will turn into drivers.

Regarding coverage, I thought it was nice that the broadcast crew settled down and stopped acting like frat boys on a spree; everyone was professional today and only one inadvertent "Double D" was heard, and I'm sure it was an error. Varsha and Kendall focused on the race and not on who picked up what girl last night, and there were LOTS of shots of the crowds.

As far as advertisements go, the following observation was made by one of the Irish marshalls at the race:
CART may want to revisit some of their standard advertising though... I was particularly amused by the advertisements which appeared to be for a karting circuit in Indianapolis – have to wonder if they’ll get any business……

P.S. I don't think Joel Camathias wants any more jokes about his height. He was decidedly Not Amused to be teased about it, althoug he is nearly as tall as Matt Neal!

[lisa]

Hey Railbird
You should have come back to McGilvery's today. When it was obvious that CBS was staying with the weather alert, Lisa found it on satellite again for us. Watched it starting from about 20 laps in.

[Railbird]

Lisa

I was working yesterday or I would have been there. You can just about always count on Lisa to dig up the feed for the race fans. McGilvery's is my favorite sports pub on the westside just for that reason.

[Wheel-Nut]

The Houston CBS channel decided to show and hour of Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues. The race came on after an hour at 86 laps complete!

Oh well, re-load and try again!

[oddlycalm]

CBS and Speed have both done a good job as has Speed with F1. The chronic fly in the ointment for any network airing is the local affiliate unpredicatbility. Not only does it make a muddle for live viewing, but they manage to screw up tape delays just as badly.

IMO the major (for now) networks simply aren't able to offer a reliable vehicle for event coverage, and that is a fundamental flaw with their overall business model. Inconsistancy of product is the #1 reason poeple cite in surveys for changing brands, hence the paradigm shifting success of the McDonalds business model where mediocrity is tolerated in the quest for consistency.

oc