The SPEED channel.. Why they will not show boat racing
 

A long while ago I heard that the APBA had a misunderstanding with the SPEED channel . To with this may be the reason that speed has no APBA racing on it. SpEED has cooking shows game shows quiz shows, shows with dancing and singing and a whole bunch of guys talking ,but not really much boat racing to speak of, The IHBA can be seen from time to time with the drag boats but what happen to all the other forms of boat racing… Can anyone shed some light on this situation… and also if this is so how can it be resolved… I like the cooking shows but I can watch those on the food network. I want to see my friends racing and running their boats on the SPEED channel.. I hope I am not rambling… But what is the real deal?

Cooking dancing and singing on SPEED channel??? :rolleyes: They're desperate. :lolhit:

it's almost like MTV (the M stands for Music) showing everything BUT music.

They're too busy informing you of the color of underwear of each NASCAR driver.

Nobody cares. Too many organizations, too many different classes.

Speed Channel, formerly Speedvision did have a fair amount of boat racing when they were an independent channel 10 years ago.
Wednesday nights were called, "Wings and Water Wednesday". In addition to airplane racing (the Wings part)They covered offshore, Champ, F1, and drags. They also had boat racing on weekends.
They were purchased by Fox, who sniffs Nascar like cocaine, and that's why you get nothing but Nascar 24/7, and Nascar trivia.
Boat racing is a harder sell to sponsors and TV. Everyone has a car, not everyone has a boat, so it is easier sell auto racing and auto racing specialty parts.
When I was racing (drags/ODBA/MSDBA/KDBA) we had to pay Outdoor Channel to cover our National Championships. Someone has to pay for the production costs. Then you hope to sign up enough sponsors and advertisers to make a little money or at least break even.
Is boat racing exciting. Yes. To me, much more so than auto racing, because you are racing on an unstable, unpredictable surface, and I just like the technology better. Not a knock on car racing. I just like boats more, as a lot other people on this site do.
The Water Channel was supposed to pick up a lot of boat racing. Haven't heard much about that lately. I don't know if they are even still on the air.
Ah, the good old days.................
Regards,
Steve

You can't imagine how many broken promises, cancelled races and competing organizations have infected boat racing's relationship with the networks. In the beginning( 1975-86) there was ABC and ESPN. ABC got no bang for their buck and a few years later ESPN made the decision to limit motor racing to "the deuce" (ESPN 2) because there is a school of thought among many sports "journalists" that racers aren't "athletes" (They apparently don't relate to anybody who is not a Title IX, inner city, steroid abuser...or an out of shape golfer) . This led to an ESPN executive breaking away and forming the original Speedvision, which was designed to showcase the cast off races. Meanwhile, even "the deuce" had enough of Offshore's shenanigans, lies, exaggerated fan base, and lack of racing, so they limited boat racing to only Unlimited Hydro and Champ Boat events (both Budweiser sponsored) which had a much more viewer friendly, fact based, and competitive racing model with a cult like fan base. However, even those events never garnered enough ratings to put them over the top and in line with Motorcross, or NHRA. ( My position has always been that until Champ Boat clicks with the American consciousness, Offshore hasn't got a chance....... Who really wants to see an ever diminishing handful of big egos with expensive toys that look slow on TV due to their size, splashing around in a maze of idiotic classes?).

Meanwhile back at the ranch...err Marina...... Offshore (OPT and APBA)journeyed through Speedvision, which was reincarnated as "Speed" for a few seasons only to fall off the network for failing to maintain the budget needed to put together a packaged series. At the same time other competing sanctioning bodies (US Offshore, etc) were "pooping in public" on MSG, Prime Network, and the like, all with limited ratings, confusing classes, more broken promises and an ever diminishing check book balance ( Sponsor after sponsor came, saw, and ran away screaming). The production values were all over the map due to low budget, backyard producers like Gateway and others coming in and creating "bargain priced" programming that catered to the racers more than the viewer.

Finally, during the APBA LLC era the outlets stepped down another notch onto TNN and TNT while SBI explored "The Storm Door and Washing Machine channel" and the like. Later the LLC went kaput, and SBI came up with the unique approach of having camera crews at each event and never actually putting anything on the tube (a really economical way of going forward) while labeling everything but the porta pottis with CBS stickers. This satisfied the racers' need to be interviewed on camera at virtually no cost.....you gotta love it!

So to sum it all up...... millions of dollars have been spent putting bad races in front of channel surfers...broken promises and bounced checks have been left all over the TV world...(which is not that big, but has a memory like an elephant)......and the sport itself still struggles to put on anything remotely resembling a true, watchable program (UIM excepted).

The damage can be repaired of course, with a Fortune 500 sponsor based budget, but not before the "Offshore Flying Circus" is vastly simplified, has true fleet growth, and makes sense to John Q Public....but that, my friend, is a challenge that few of today's racers can accept.

T2x............... (formerly appearing on NNRT, ESPN, ESPN2, PRIME, MSG, Speedvision, Speed, TNN, TNT....and ABC (once))... :D

I miss it!!!:mad:

Because they must have a quoata to show 20 hours of NASCAR each day.

I was ****ing pissed when they cut off the podium ceremony of the Monaco Grand Prix to show ****ing NASCAR Raceday. I mean **** - I am not a huge Mark Webber fan but c'mon - I still wanted to hear what he had to say about winning the most celebrated race in the world.

Sadly, that about sums it up.

I think with the personalities, ego, boats, power, beaches, babes, etc etc there has to be something marketable here. Especially with some creative editing. Can't wait to see what OPA puts together on VERSUS.

hey you can always watch endless runs of poker games , now those guys are athletes. What ever.

yea MTV to me is all Rap

Ive seen espn 2 having some boat stuff,I just dont have time to watch TV to catch it.

a few years ago i switched from direct tv to dish net work just because they had the water channel and promised all of that good offshore boating showe we boaters crave.......what a joke.the water channel did not show jack,and i dont think it is even aired now.i would have been better off staying with direct tv.........they suck less.frezzeframe dvd,s and the internet is my only sorce for boat racing.what the hell is this world comming to?lol

T2x pretty much summed up why racing isn’t on TV.

In my opinion TV would get more mileage by airing poker runs. In fact they could do it with little or no production cost. I’d be willing to be that all of us poker run promoters would more than happily provide our event DVD’s to a network that was willing to air them. A network could fill days worth of air time with Poker Run DVD that they didn’t pay a dime to produce. Although I can only image that our Poker Run insurance rates would go through the roof if the general public saw some of hardware and speeds at these events.

They do that in florida. Not sure the channel but there's are a lot of the FPC stuff. my sister tivos it for me for when I visit. :drink:

What personalities? This may come as a shock but the average viewer (the key to TV sponsorship) has never heard of any of the racers....Some may vaguely remember "Popeyes" from the 90's. H*ll, even the current performance boating enthusiasts are still looking for somebody to top the Aronow "legend".....and he quit racing almost 40 years ago.


They get too much of that already with the likes of Simon Cowell, George Stephanopolis, Whoopie Goldberg, and Judge Judy.

Not if they are running (racing?) by themselves

You can't hear a turbine on TV and the last film crew to pickup proper Offshore gasoline motor noise was our NNRT chopper in the early 90's. (The Supercharged motors would give you headache ...even with headphones on)

If that's your gambit, you get all of that in a better format in Women's professional beach volleyball. To quote Al Pacino in Scarface...."First you get the money and the power....then you get the women"....... not vice versa.

I am afraid that until the racing model is corrected, this will simply be more of the same sad tale(see my post above). I have never seen so many examples of Albert Einstein's quoted definition of insanity--- "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

Listen, I didn't write the script, but I sure did narrate the story.

T2x

Mike...you're agreeing with me again.....Back away from the keyboard and double check that you took all of your medications today...... ;) :D

+1 Women's professional beach volleyball. Jmo\TV sucks anyway,
the supercatracing.com guys (and the like) are off to
a great start!

Personalities??? Well everyone I meet is always intriqued by the likes of Love Muscle, Haggin, etc etc. People don't have to be known "before" being on tv, just look at all the reality shows that are a hit.

Egos? No way around it they are what they are. Why not use it to their advantage and play it up. Hell it is TV its suppose to be entertaining... BTW you just named off some of the most popular people on TV so I don't really see your point.

Boats? Who's racing against themselves? take a look at the average OPA boat count not to mention with some editing viewers could get an indepth look at the boats, engines, manufacturers, etc (not a fountain commercial tho) as well as maybe some inserts from kilo runs, loto, poker runs, etc.

Beaches and babes? your kidding right? no straight man shoud have to justify my point there...:drink:

OPA on Versus? Ever hear of learning from your mistakes and not giving up??? Why knock it until its out.

I know your background in all of this but the negativity is getting old. Its an open forum so of course you are entitled to your opinion but I personally like to see the positive side of things. makes life more enjoyable that way. Hence I'll be watching VERSUS come fall. And I bet you will be too.

:poopoo:

You'll lose that bet......... I haven't watched any offshore racing TV in years, with the exception of 2 P-1 races......... which were "okay" in my opinion. I would, however, stay up til 2 AM to watch the Formula 1 tunnel boats if need be... or Champ boats.

On the other hand Darren watches it all..........................

As far as "the negativity"............ I'll get positive when somebody shows me a real and logical Offshore growth and marketing plan.....but please spare me the cheerleading and blind enthusiasm. I respect your passion but you are merely an echo of thousands who bit into the same apple for over 20 years. What I don't understand is why so many after chewing on multiple bites and tasting the worms continue to eat more without asking for a new and fresh one?

Today it is politically incorrect to criticise anything, so all kinds of moronic efforts move forward unfettered by honest assessment (the White House and Congress for instance). Apparently, today I am supposed to be enthusiastic about the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military and the building of a Mosque at Ground Zero. These and thousands of other ideas are so ridiculously stupid or irrelevant as to defy all standards of common sense....yet those who point this out are painted as "negative". Maybe, before you throw words around like that, you might take a little time and ask some pointed questions about which demographic the shows are pointed at, what the budget and production values are, and how the story will be couched to make the sport look good and attract sustainable sponsors for the events and racers (The only real reason to make the effort). While you may get your wish regarding the "personalities" I would be very careful lest they wind up looking like the "Real Housewives of Manhattan"....another very "popular" program.

T2x

I have alot of trouble with that PC thing to....It might be age related ?

As always..Well written and to the point, T2x

I managed to do this video with my point & shoot Kodak....

Maybe one day I will get some good equipment and see what I can come up with ! :drink:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnNp1RHikkQ[/youtube]

last weekend
 

Shot last weekend in Biloxi, with Canon XL-2 there will be more as I attend other events. the sound is as important as the video, as far as I am concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6I9D7KrnzU

T2x has said it over and over but the handful of loyalist refuse to believe the truth. there are approx. 13 million powerboats registered in the US. (this includes 15 ft outboards to 60+ ft yachts) but there are almost 255 million cars on the roads. taking into account the percent of registered boat owners that have any interest in watching what has to be some of the most boring tv shows about boats, (just the reality, in the 30 years around the sport I have yet to see many watchable ones) you have such a small audience that unless each of you wants to buy your own commercial during the show NO network in their right minds will touch it. you may love watching the shows but television is a business and if you cant sell it to the sponsors (who only want to know the demographics and viewership) then you quickly close up shop (i.e. the water channel). I have been to more races than I care to recall and I cant stay awake through any of the shows that have been on and that includes the freeze frame videos. (sorry Jeff). while the shows have their moments if you cant keep the viewers attention the entire 30 or 60 minutes there is no hope for it.
steve schmidt

Interesting debate, however the proof is in the pudding. Back in the early 90's jetski racing was on fire, Budweiser, ESPN, weekly televised national tour races. It was mostly indepent teams with factory teams coming into play. As soon as the general public was exposed to the sport and sales for PWC's took off, the factorys pulled out as well as all the other entity's The sport is a pathetic shell of what it once was but the PWC market is huge now. Its all about the money and the high perfomance aspect of the marine industry is a small fraction of the entire market. However I do believe that an independent production company could have a decent run using the internet as its main media. Here is a cool video that was produced for fun by some passionate individuals in support of water ski racing. Some of this footage will be airing (small local show California life HD) on the west coast next week to get a little exposure for the Catalina water ski race.

http://www.vimeo.com/10627278

I personally think the more marketable idea would be more like a poker run "reality show" (I f'n hate reality tv but it seems like the applicable term here).

Honestly, the race boats typically are less "cool looking" and don't necessarily go any faster. The racing is only interesting to a small crowd. Poker runs would have something for everyone. Fast boats, some partying, hot chicks, etc. Could either follow some guys that hit up several big runs, or just interview and film different people at every run.

Dunno if exposing the general public to the fact that 500 to 2000hp
boats run 75 to 150+mph on open public waters with virtually no restrictions
is a good idea..
Just my opinion though..

This will probably offend many but offshore racing in its current form is BORING! It's sad but true in my opinion.

I believe they should dramatcially reduce the amount of classes (maybe 2) obviously you then have v's and cat. But you then have a handicap system much like they do in sailing so they all ultimately compete for handicap honours.

I believe reducing the class numbers could in the end make it more competitive and at the very least you would have similar number competing across fewer classes.

Once it is competitive then maybe it will make for more interesting TV.

The other problem is there are not enough races. Look at NASCAR 30+ races per year. The weekly saturation keeps people interested. With the boats a season of half dozen races isnt really going to keep in peoples minds for long.

If you want to make it more of a "mainstream" sport you have to remove the emotions of the competitors and look at it from an ordinary consumers perspective. I feel those involved in the sport are in a way blinded by their passion which simply does not correspond with the "wants" of the broader community. This has to be evidenced by the consistent failure of this sport to breakthrough into the mainstream.

You don't have to ride w/ Pure Platinum out front of everyone showing the speedo! I agree, and the editing needs to exclude any talks of speeds well over 100.:drink:

Wow and thank for the responce
 

your input into this situation has been fenominal. ... Now what can we do with this. Is there room on the TV to replace a weddingdress show or a cake artist show ,,, the numbers sited are a good indicator but as these shows prove they are not the only indicator .. there is certinly the personalities , the drama , the danger and excitment to bring some kind of fast boat show to the idiot box... If years ago you were to tell me there was going to be a show , a series on TV about some guys pulling crab traps out of the water I would have told you you are crazy but look [ deadliest catch how many seasons ] . Iwill write more later ... we can make some thing happen.

they have a talent show now:lolhit: for the roundy round people with singing :angry-smiley-038: but no boat racing:angry-smiley-038: