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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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Reversal of fortune Network shifts to reverse, will show all car logos
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- FOX relented Tuesday and agreed to show the logos of all cars competing in NASCAR races even if they are not network sponsors. In its first NASCAR broadcast Sunday, FOX showed the logos of some cars but not others. After meeting with NASCAR officials Monday, however, FOX said it would use all the logos in its graphics beginning Thursday with the twin-125-mile qualifying races. "There's always some things to get used to when things are different," said FOX spokesman Lou D'Ermilio. "This was one of them. It's kind of like when you buy a new home there are always some things that have to be fixed. We got it fixed." Brian France, senior vice president of NASCAR, called the matter a "bump in the road."
"We were surprised by what happened, and we'll probably be surprised in the future with a lot of other things," said France, grandson of the found of NASCAR, Bill France Sr. "But that's the nature of new relationships. You have to expect that things aren't going to be perfect." FOX, NBC and Turner Sports are at the start of a six-year, $2.8 billion contract to share coverage of stock-car racing. FOX and NBC will split the Winston Cup race broadcasts, with FOX covering the first half of the 2001 season, which began with Sunday's Budweiser Shootout, a made-for-TV race for last year's pole winners. On that broadcast, FOX showed accurate graphic depictions of cars sponsored by Budweiser, The Home Depot, Havoline, Dodge and other network clients. The cars of those companies that didn't buy sponsorship on FOX were displayed without logos when the starting lineup was given and each time the top 10 standings were shown. "We think they were trying to push the envelope and we don't blame them," France said. "It's not an adversarial situation. They're being aggressive and they should be. They want to drive as much sales as they can. They've got to help us grow the sport and we've got to help them. But they let us know [Tuesday] they intend to clear this up." Ratings for the race were up 17 percent from last year's broadcast by CBS. "This issue involved 20 seconds of the broadcast," France said. "FOX has 42 hours of coverage of Speedweeks. If you look at all the coverage, you'll see a pretty fair balance." The flap with FOX was the second this year for NASCAR, which had a dispute last week with ESPN over the use of materials for its RPM2Nite magazine show. NASCAR said interviews and images shot at the speedway could be used on ESPN's SportsCenter but not on RPM2Nite. In response, ESPN, which was part of the NASCAR coverage before the new contract, turned down credentials for the Daytona 500.
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