Can't we all just get along?

One thing my brethren and sistren in the television business need to understand (at least better than they apparently do) is that the broadcast rights fees their networks pay don’t “buy” them a bit more right to be at the track than any other reporter.

Over the all-star weekend, I stated in this blog that the “TV pestilence” was spreading at an alarming rate at NASCAR tracks.

According to dictionary.com, “pestilence” means “a pernicious, evil influence or agent” or “something that is considered harmful, destructive or evil.” Evil might be just a tick strong, but otherwise that definition sounds about right.

The television compound continues to gobble up more room week after week. At Darlington they actually blocked off one road outside the track and another one inside the track to “accommodate the TV partners.” At Charlotte, what used to be the media’s press box parking lot has now been completely swallowed up by TV trucks and their annoying offspring, golf carts.

“You know how you get a good parking spot at the track?” one TV person told me after hearing me gripe. “Pay $4 billion for the right to be there. How much does the Observer pay for you to be at the track?”

That’s typical.

It’s also wrong-headed.

Television networks are invited to bid for NASCAR broadcast rights. The networks elect to do so because those rights grant them the opportunity to produce programming to air over said network. In return, the networks also have the right to sell advertising on the broadcasts. They also can use the NASCAR programming to promote other shows on the network, hoping to increase viewership through those promotional opportunities.

If a network didn’t think it could get more out of covering NASCAR than it is putting into it, why would it bid on the rights? Television rights fees are an opportunity to MAKE money, not an excuse to SPEND it.

It certainly costs a lot for networks to produce the programming, to hire its announcers and to effectively promote that programming, but if the network doesn’t come close enough to turning a profit or at least breaking even and accepting that overall having NASCAR is helping the network, then they’re not very good at the business they’re in.

Now, every television commentator and reporter who comes to the track is issued a media credential. That credential gives them access to the garage area and pit lane and other media areas around the track.

Guess what? My credential gives me the exact same access. NASCAR credentials media to “cover” the sport, and that’s what we’re all there to do. The rights fees don’t give anybody who works for Fox or TNT or ESPN one whit more of a right to be there than I have, just like my credential doesn’t give me any more right to be there than anybody else with the same “annual” credential or one-race passes.

I know most fans don’t care about our little intramural squabbles, but it bugs me when people tell me there in a different class than I am when they’re absolutely not.