Last week we waved goodbye to the Fox Network's season of broadcasting NASCAR Sprint Cup races.  This week we welcomed NBC to provide us with the television broadcast of the remaining half of the season.  To put it mildly most fans were not happy.  There wasn’t much, if any, criticism directed at any of the broadcast crew.  Misters Allen, Letarte and Burton were all informative, entertaining and easy to listen to.  In fact Steve Letarte a former NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief was excellent in his description of the various issues with poor handling cars and the effect that air flow has on them.  Those gentleman get high marks for their nights work.

No, the angst directed at NBC and its NASCAR performance had nothing to do with its coverage.  It had all to do with its not covering.  There were times during the broadcast where the number of minutes of commercials seemingly exceeded the number of minutes of racing.  At times it was hard to watch or might I say impossible to watch.

Let’s take a look at the numbers provided by Jayski’s.com.  There were 124 commercials totaling 47 minutes.  The minutes of actual racing broadcast time was 143.  That is a 75% racing time to 25% commercial time split.  At first glance that seems to confirm what the naked eye has told us.  Let’s compare the numbers to the last few FOX broadcast.

Sonoma 

159 Minutes Race Broadcasting Time

38 Minutes Commercial Broadcasting Time

Racing/Commercial Percentage 81/19

Michigan

159 Minutes Race Broadcasting Time

38 Minutes Commercial Broadcasting Time

Racing/Commercial Percentage 81/19

Pocono 

168 Minutes Race Broadcasting Time

36 Minutes Commercial Broadcasting Time

Racing/Commercial Percentage 82/18

                                                                    

As an old wise women once told me, numbers don’t lie.  There was a significant increase in commercial time from the FOX Networks broadcast to NBC’s opening night.  Even NBC’s own 2015 broadcast of the Coke Zero 400 had fewer commercials minutes and was much more in line from the typical FOX broadcast (82/18).

Twitter was active with fans and members of the media tweeting about the commercial interruptions.

  Some examples:

“I now know what NBC stands for.  #Nothingbutcommercials” 

“We interrupt these commercials for some racing.”

“Stop interrupting this commercial marathon for this stinking race.”

“NBC is giving recap of the race.  Special moments missed enjoying so many lovely commercials.”

Of course we all understand the value that advertisers bring to the sport and most of us are grateful for them.  There were even a few tweets from fans defending commercials noting the value they add to the sport.  So true but what we were subjected to Saturday night was a bit much.  Instead of talking about an enjoyable race and a great job by the NBC broadcast team, fans were all about commercials.  Too bad because Letarte had a perfect night and was every bit as good as anything the FOX boys and girls threw at us during the first half of the Sprint Cup season.

Come to think of it perhaps @RickKaufman1 said it best when he tweeted.  “You know what twitter needs?  Commercials.” 

On second thought……..

Thanks for reading.  Listen to WTBQ radio on Monday and Friday mornings at 8:45 as I join Frank, Taylor and the Morning Show gang to discuss all the current happenings in NASCAR.  You can also follow me on twitter @JimLaplante.