[Ed. note: Artie Kempner, Lead Director of NASCAR/NFL on Fox, has graciously written an article for us about a hot topic among NASCAR fans: racing vs. commercial broadcast times. We appreciate his taking the time to do this during the busy NASCAR Speedweeks broadcasts.]

“NASCAR and COMMERCIALS, A DELICATE BALANCE”

There is nothing better then being in Daytona in February getting ready for the start of another NASCAR season. In 2006, Fox Sports signed a new eight year deal with NASCAR to broadcast the Nextel Cup Series’ first 13 points races, and especially exciting for all of us in production, the opportunity to broadcast the Daytona 500 through at least the year 2014!

There is no better event in racing in my mind then the 500! I’d certainly love to direct the Indy 500, but Daytona in February, 43 cars, huge packs, huge expectations, it’s just the best.

That being said, one of our biggest challenges at Fox is the integration of commercials, specifically during long green flag runs. No one in our production truck, producer Barry Landis, executive producer Richie Zyontz, associate director Greg Scoppettone or me, ever want to leave the racing, but the economics of our business does not allow us to be commercial free. As an “over the air” network, Fox does not have the ability to sell our channel to cable systems. Unlike ESPN or Turner, the other NASCAR Nextel Cup partners, Fox Sports’ only revenue source is through the commercials that our advertisers purchase. Because ESPN and Turner are cable channels, they charge each cable system a monthly fee—which is passed on to the consumer through their cable or satellite bill. ESPN commands the highest monthly charge, around three dollars, while Turner is around one dollar. But even though these cable networks are making substantial profit through those fees, that doesn’t mean that they run less commercials during a broadcast then we do at Fox.

We pay multi-million dollar rights fees to broadcast NASCAR. 13 races for well over $200 Million, plus production costs that are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for each race. As a business, we have to try and at least make that money back. It is simple “Business 101” to understand that if we don’t generate enough revenue to at least make ends meet, that the senior executives at Newscorp, our parent company, will not likely want to keep the series.

The decisions that we make during a broadcast, always have the integrity of the race, and the race fan’s interest as our main priorities. We want our viewer to love the product that we put on TV, we want them to enjoy DW, Larry, Mike, Jeff and the rest of our group, and we certainly want them to get up close to the race with dynamic pictures, sounds and graphics.

Our sales guys do a great job working with our sponsors, and our sponsors want their brand to be seen by the NASCAR faithful. They also care about the sport, and invest millions of dollars in it. It is up to us in the truck to strike a delicate balance to get those commercials in, while covering an event that doesn’t have any timeouts. That balance takes expertise, but it also takes some luck.

Hopefully the 2007 Daytona 500 will be both an exciting race and one that has just enough debris cautions to help us get our commercials in with a limited number of missed green flag laps. I love the action of the 500, and I certainly don’t want anyone to miss anything important!

-Artie Kempner-