Versus will become the exclusive cable television home of the Indy Racing League

[anthonyvop]

Versus...hmm...why do I feel I've been down this road before? Oh yeah, CC and Spike. .

Spike is in 96.1 Million Households

Versus is in 73 million. SO about 1/4 less homes.

[-Helix-]

Versus used to be Outdoor Life Network, an I believe it's owned by Comcast, so no comcast, no versus unless they have a deal with your satellite provider.

Not true. I have Versus on my basic cable package and I have Brighthouse.

So the deal is worth 60 Million, eh? I believe I predicted 30-50 Million in the other thread. Guess I was a little low.

As for being invisible to the general public: They already are on ESPN, so what's the difference? At least now we'll be getting better coverage.

[indycool]

It sounds like there's going to be much more airtime on VS., separated from the glut of NASCAR on ESPN and Speed, at a time when the former OLN is in expansion mode and Comcast owns it, so I 'spect VS. is on the basic cable package on Comcast everywhere. The link the IRL has with DirecTV makes it available to everyone who goes that direction, and that's the technology of the future. ESPN is still in charge of international rights (rain or shine). And the IRL is still getting cash for the races and Indy and four others are on ABC.

Time will tell, but when I say time, I mean 3-5 years, not some 3-point "microwave" gain at Long Beach.

[Alexamateo]

Just FYI, I have Comcast, but VS is not in my cable package here in Memphis, It's in the Digital Variety Tier. I guess the only thing I need to figure out now is how much it's gonna cost me.

[DrDomm]

I have Time Warner Cable, and have Versus. HD is split with the Golf Channel.

Anyway, I don't think there's a positive spin to this at all. Too bad.

[beachbum]

Found some interesting numbers. They are close to what has been posted previously, although like anything, the dates they were tabulated are important.

70 million television households for Versus (Dec 2006)
70 million television households for Speed (2006)
90 million television households for Spike TV (Dec 2006)
94 million television households for ESPN (Current from ESPN website)
90 million television households for ESPN2 (Current from ESPN website)

I get Versus, but only found one program some time ago that was worth watching. However, it looks like the program package will be much better than what ESPN and ABC are doing now so it may work out. With Speed going NASCAR all the time, there isn't much room left for other motor sports.

[DrDomm]

Just because a channel is available to a trillion people, doesn't mean that 50 of them are watching.

[FIAT1]

This is not good.

[ezhop7]

I get Versus with my Directv package. Since I'm in Colorado Springs and we don't have a racing track within a 500mile radius that is allowed to host a Indycar race. I don't feel sorry for you guys back on the East, Midwest or on the West coast crying about you don't have Versus.

[mlittle]

On the surface, it would seem to be an interesting, if odd move, going from ESPN/ESPN2 to Versus.......then again, there seems to be a couple of positives from today's announcement:
(1)each IndyCar broadcast on Versus will be, at a minimum, a 3-hr. broadcast without being joined in progress(IIRC, haven't a couple of ESPN's IndyCar broadcasts begun by them joining the race after it starts?) with extended pre-race coverage.
(2)a preview show the day before each race
(3)re-airs of all IndyCar races(regardless of whether the race originally ran on ABC or Versus) the following week
(4)a minimum of 10 hours of IndyCar-related programming each year
(5)weekly broadcasts of Indy Lights races

Granted, who knows if the move from ESPN to Versus will be a good move or not, but considering that ESPN seems to be slowly but surely moving towards NASCAR's sphere of influence, this could be a good move long-term.