Indy Racing League’s New TV Package a Boost for Indy Lights Racers

VERSUS Network and ABC Affiliation a Major MarketPlace Coup

Commentary by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com

The announcement of migration of many Indy Racing League events from ESPN to VERSUS network is an opportunity that comes rarely for any sporting entity: a network mostly dedicated to its product, for extended and enhanced coverage beyond the usual, solitary race-day production.

It’s a terrific coup that the IRL has pulled off with the move: nationwide ABC outlets will still carry the crown-jewel of IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis 500, to its wide audience on cable and over-the-air; while VERSUS creates a unique and highly marketable niche for itself, affiliating with the world-class IndyCar Series and its developmental Indy Lights Series, both of which are on the rise.

In a market culture that’s media-driven, and becoming more-so with the price of travel quickly becoming prohibitive for most of middle-America, the combination of VERSUS’ 70-million plus viewers (Channel 603 on DirecTV) and the League’s compelling international line-up of men and women competitors in big cars and small finally gives stateside open-wheel racing the kind of ‘push’ out the door it sorely needed.

It’s the kind of competitive advantage on the airwaves and at the cable box that the stock car world has enjoyed for a decade.

NASCAR got big not because America suddenly decided it wanted to see ungainly Fords, Chevies, Dodges and Toyota’s race around in big packs between colossal wrecks.

It got big because Rupert Murdoch bought FOX and told his programmers, “We have one product (NASCAR) to sell here, and we are going to promote the hell out of it—24/7.”

Thus we have nonstop day and night coverage of the tin-tops on every FOX Regional Sports channel and Speed (also owned by Murdoch) whether we’re interested in it or not.

The Indy Racing League has taken a successful page out of the same playbook and now VERSUS is the new Fox—a channel with a product it wants to sell nonstop to willing viewers.

This is the kind of media-savvy and marketplace move that American open-wheel racing could never muster prior to merger. It puts the world’s fastest cars and world’s fastest drivers into the public eye with the kind of attention they deserve.