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Nascar Expands on Its Popularity
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
With Nascar's $2.4 billion broadcast and cable deals with
Fox, NBC and TBS wrapped up, the stock car racing
behemoth is focusing on plans to create its own 24-hour
channel.
A network that is all-Nascar, all the time, would feature
news,
highlights, pre- and post-race programming, qualifying
races,
races on circuits like Winston West and Busch Grand National
North that aren't on TV and golden oldie races.
The format would be similar to NBA.com TV, the National
Basketball Association's 24-hour channel that started
earlier
this month.
"We will be pursuing a Nascar channel," said John Griffin, a
Nascar spokesman, who declined to say who its partners would
be.
One option being explored is to create the Nascar Channel by
converting SpeedVision from its programming about cars,
boats, aviation and motorcycles. Fox owns 30 percent of the
channel, which has 25 million cable subscribers, in
partnership
with the cable partners Cox, Comcast and Media One. A
conversion to dawn-to-dusk Nascar would very likely
accelerate
its subscriber growth.
For Fox to be Nascar's partner in the channel, it might have
to
buy out its partners. SpeedVision could also continue as it
is
and spin off a second network that would be for Nascar. Or
SpeedVision could keep some of its programming but devote a
heavy amount of time to Nascar.
The organization could also go to NBC, TBS, as well as Fox,
and create a joint venture in a channel.
But it's clear that Nascar's goal is to blanket the world
with stock
car races and programming. The notion of a Nascar channel
bespeaks the perceived insatiability of fans, viewers, track
owners and sponsors.
One assumes diehard stock car fans would find an
embarrassment of riches in a full-time Nascar network. Just
because it wouldn't carry live Winston Cup races doesn't
mean
it wouldn't attract those who find three hours on a Sunday
afternoon inadequate.
Imagine the programming lineup:
Wake up to "Live! With Junior Johnson."
Watch the sitcom "Everybody Doesn't Love Jeff Gordon."
Tune in to the "Nascar Evening News with Benny Parsons."
And don't forget "Nascar E.R.," with Dr. Jerry Punch, and
"This
Old Track (With Condos)," starring the speedway mogul Humpy
Wheeler. N.B.A. and Politics
Just why did NBA Entertainment stage Bill Bradley's
presidential fund-raiser last Sunday at Madison Square
Garden? Besides its usual work like making videos, "Inside
Stuff," international basketball games, the NBA.com Web site
and NBA.com TV, the National Basketball Association unit is
in
the event-producing business.
The Bradley-NBA Entertainment relationship began when the
former senator's staff called seeking some archival video,
and
the possibility of producing the fund-raiser with some of
the
former Knick's best basketball friends arose.
"Given our New York City base of operations, our familiarity
with
the Garden and the number of current and former N.B.A.
players
there, we said yes," David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner,
said. "We've done other arena events like 'Don't Foul Out,'
with
Nancy Reagan at Market Square Arena," the Pacers' former
home in Indianapolis.
The message, then, is that NBA Entertainment is an event
producer for hire, not that it provided a special,
one-time-only
service for a former player who was a New York star. Stern
said
the service is available to all political comers. So
presidential
hopefuls like Vice President Al Gore -- who averaged 2.8
points
a game as a Harvard freshman -- Gov. George W. Bush,
Senator John S. McCain and the rest need only book their
rallies and make friends with enough current and former
N.B.A.
stars to make the event worthy enough to involve NBA
Entertainment.
"All our stagings are about the N.B.A.," Stern said.
The farthest NFL Films has gone beyond its basic mission was
a deep-sea fishing tournament for Clint Murchison, the
former
Cowboys' owner. It has spurned requests to film bar mitzvahs
and weddings, but once mulled paid promotional work for a
presidential run by Jack Kemp, the former quarterback.
Airwaves
HBO Sports is preparing a documentary for next year on Bill
Russell, one that the Boston Celtic great suggested to the
cable
network through Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated. Russell
recently refused to be interviewed for his ESPN
"SportsCentury"
profile, but Ross Greenburg, the HBO Sports executive
producer, said, "Now Bill says he's ready." . . . HBO is
also
planning a third edition of "When It Was a Game," its
baseball
home-movie series, covering the 1960's. . . . NBC and Turner
Sports will decide shortly after Thanksgiving if they will
start a
spring-summer football league.
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