Keith Huewen on his website posted that Sky Sports have not secured the rights to NASCAR.

http://www.huewen.com/index.php?news&nid=69

So the question is will ESPN be showing NASCAR possibly on ESPN America? Hopefully not a repeat of 2007 where we had no live coverage on TV of the Daytona 500.

This Just In. TV

channel 5 have crappy highlights
i just "aquire" the nascar races from various sources. cant watch it live, but it doesnt look like crap, which is a bonus

Bollocks, I'm not shelling out for ESPN as well as Sky Sports that's for sure.

Nascar was live in Germany until 08 and then Nascar just wanted too much money so we don't have any coverage at all

iirc in 2007 Sky managed to just not show Daytona, which meant their 'investment' was probably considerably lessend, and then we got the rest of the season.....having said all that, i'm with OLB - there are 'other ways' to see nascar and the community spirit there makes for a very entertaining set of Sunday evenings I'll pm you details nearer the time if you're interested Phucaigh

Just to put things into perspective:

- NASCAR on Sky has roughly ~20,000 viewers per race - very low compared to other sports on Sky. Premiership football gets ~1m, cricket can get between 200,000 and 600,000, while even things such as WWE get ~100,000.
- According to ariusuk on Digital Spy: "the price is still too high to attract anyone else"

Should probably PM me them again since there's been no point me finding where everyone's gorn this time given that I have Sky Sports.

hmmm...
An unreliable source down the pub last night told me ESPN in the UK will indeed be taking it over
Jp

I watch the Nationwide series online and some truck races, I like the community spirit you talk about as I think I know the site you're on about

I'd like ESPN if they show it in HD, something Sky were too lousy to use 99% of the time.

Hope it ends up on a channel I can watch it on, as I'm not forking out for ESPN when there's very little on there I'd want to watch.

Euro fans should tune in, it is much more entertaining than F1, the last 20 laps are always good value

Get in on free to air, I don't think NASCAR charges that much... a British, German and French driver should enter the sport in midpack teams to promote interest

current british and maybe euro tv is dominated by people trying to be famous, or famous people doing talent shows :\

The SKY presenter thinks ESPN-UK may not have it either
Jp

Why doesnt NASCAR offer a pay per view live stream like the NBA, NHL, NFL etc. offer?

I emailed several people at NASCAR and ESPN about an hour ago and just received this:

Thank you for your email. ESPN and NASCAR are working hard to secure the future of Sprint Cup Series race coverage in UK TV it is a subject as close to our hearts as it is to yours. I’m not in a position to be able to divulge details of discussions however I can say that I am confident you will be able to watch NASCAR in the UK for the 2010 season.
Yours sincerely,
Heather White
Director Sport Syndication, EMEA
Disney-ABC-ESPN-Television

Thank you for taking the time to do that Anafurn, looking forward to hearing more on this. (While i'll still probably be 'community-minded' for some of the races, the opportunity to see their night races on a repeat/delayed-live showing will hopefully see my recent investment in a laaaarge tv and HD box not go completely to waste, given that 'other racing series' don't seem to think HD isn't worth the investment )

the night races in hd are awsome

sunday, 6pm, sky sports 3 according to the planner....... (ss3 means HD too.....yaay!)

I was browsing through the planner last night and saw the Shootout was on one of the Sky Sports channels. Was a bit late so I recorded it, but glad to see that NASCAR is back on Sky.

Apart from Daytona, the remainder of the races are highlights:

Daytona 500 - Live (Sunday 6pm Sky Sports 3)
Auto Club Speedway - Highlights (22.02.10 6pm SS3)
Las Vegas - Highlights (1.3.10 7pm SS3)
Atlanta Motor Speedway - Highlights 8.3.10 7pm SS3)
Bristol - Highlights (22.03.10 7pm SS 3)
Martinsville - Highlights (29.03.10 7pm SS4)

What planner is that wrighty? Boxing on at 6pm sunday according to Radio Times.No mention of motor sport in Sky sports magazine which covers march & april.I am not that much of a NASCAR fan,but if they are not doing Indycar either I think I will be cancelling my subscription..BTW is HD that much better than regular? Just acquired 40' HD ready TV and can't imagine what can be improved on that would be worth paying Sky another £10 per month.

Firstly, many thanks D.M.N, thats the best of both worlds in a way....i can watch the sunday races live on the 'community-based' method discussed earlier ;) and the Saturday night races can be watched as highlights

Hi Rob,
This is the 'tv guide button' planner (where you scan through the listings on the tv). Given that the take-up by Sky to showing nascar was pretty late in the day, that's probably why the print edition listings aren't showing it as a programme but trust me, i have a reminder set ;)

(and without wishing to drag the thread OT) Rob, i got HD for the first time just after xmas and i have to say, when the broadcaster has all the kit to hand (as Sky do for the footie, as an example), there's an appreciable difference in quality. American programming (such as the 'football' (lolz) season that has just finished) looked sparkingly good (again, because their original feed is HD) and i'm very much looking forward to watching Daytona 'blinged up'
If you're near north-east England, bring a butty and some bevvies

NASCAR is probably charging to high a premium for live coverage. Plus the fact 90% of the cars sponsored in NASCAR, are for the domestic market. So there wont be pressure from the sponsors to get to the widest worldwide audience as possible, as they have relatively no market in these places.

But there are so many teams struggeling with funding and sponsorship, you would think companys that are heavily investing in NASCAR like Shell, Budweiser, Red Bull, Miller, Kelloggs, UPS, FedEx, GoodYear, Burger King, M and Ms, 3M, DuPont, CAT, Polaroid, Valvoline, Mobil1, Bosch,... would all want to get worldwide exposure.

If the viewership is only 20.000 in the UK and 10.000 in Germany I understand NASCAR might want to get more money for the rights then TV channels think its worth.

But if the fans are so thin spread out across the world why not move to the new media - the Internet. The NBA has realised long ago that selling TV rights to overseas TV stations doesnt make that much sence, but selling an official high picture quality stream over there own website is much more lucrative, and offers much more for the fan then what TV channels can offer. You can watch any game from the whole season Live and On Demand on NBA International LeaguePass. For a Basketball Fan thats like heaven, beeing able to watch any game from any team of the whole season, TV was never able to offer that.

So NASCAR should offer a Stream subscription service for a couple of dollars per month with which you can watch the Races Live in HD and up until a week later on demand.

I can think of several torrent sites who will carry it...

Demonoid or Pirate bay?

Even I'm against that, a sport that takes up the entirity of prime time over here and would always only be watched by a minority can never take up one of the free to air channels.

Open Access have picked up live rights for the remainder of the season - next race to air 7pm on SKY channel 190.

woohoo!!!!!!

great news, looking at the live timing every 5 mins just isn't the same

Is it a free to access channel, or do you have to pay?

sky channel 190, part of the variety pack I believe.

I just looked at the channel on TV GUIDE and there is hardly anything on it. It's off air more than it broadcasts. Still, it will brighten up my Sunday evenings until F1 kicks off.

What a crap name for a channel, what a bunch of muppets.

I have no idea whether I can receive this on Virgin cable, and just try searching for it, and you get thousands of stories about ISP access to virgin's cable network.

6 hours of coverage - 7pm to 1am

for TV coverage.

Is this channel encrypted?

not usually no

I have to say i'm shocked that they've picked up this coverage....i've seen nothing on their channel that led me to think they'd be into this in anything like a big way but, if they've seen the niche and the support that the racing has over here and have taken the coverage on to broaden their interest and their profile then more power to them - i'll be watching

I don't even remember seeing the channel in the listings before. So in that sense, they've probably increased awareness of their brand a fair bit.

Strange choice but its good cause i can now watch it live.

I'm fairly sure that it's a rent channel. Could be Nascar doing the renting.