By Scott Warfield (Sports Business Journal)
Aug. 1
AMA Pro Racing, the national sanctioning body for professional motorcycle racing, is set to announce early this week that its Supercross Series is leaving ESPN2 and will join Speed Channel for the 2006 season. This will be the second AMA series to leave the ESPN network in the last year.
AMA Pro Racing’s Supercross Series features 16 races in major markets.
Motocross, one of four series that AMA manages, left ESPN2 after the 2004 season and had its first full year on Outdoor Life Network in 2005. John Farris, vice president of commercial development for AMA, said ESPN2 was pushing for a time-buy for the series instead of the current arrangement that requires the series to pay only for production costs.
Farris would not discuss terms of the Speed Channel deal but did confirm that an announcement should come early this week.
ESPN, which has been rumored to be in negotiations with NASCAR for Nextel Cup Series rights, said in a statement: “Despite ratings underperformance, we were interested in retaining the property if it made good business sense for our company. Apparently it didn’t and we’ve elected to walk away.”
Clear Channel, which manages the Supercross television rights for AMA, would not comment for this story. Clear Channel’s barter deal with ESPN2 was arranged so that Clear Channel paid for production in exchange for free air time and half of all commercial inventory.
Under the OLN-Motocross deal, AMA covers production costs and manages international rights and home video and wireless inventory, while the network sells the commercial time, Farris said.
Eric Arneson, director of public relations for Speed Channel, said the network was in “active negotiations” with Clear Channel. Industry insiders confirmed that the deal was not a time-buy and that it was a multiyear agreement that could last as long as five years.
Farris said in an e-mail that Supercross and Motocross began airing on ESPN in 1990 and 1994, respectively, and that “the terms have evolved over time, putting more risk/cost on the side of the rights holder.”
Arneson did not speculate why the series was leaving the ESPN network but did say that a deal with Speed Channel, if completed, would be a “huge deal” for the network that would be “comparable to landing the [Craftsman] Truck Series.”
The 2006 Supercross Series schedule, which runs from early January through early May, features 16 races in major markets, including Phoenix, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas. Next season actually begins with two international, non-AMA series events later this year in Toronto on Dec. 3 and Vancouver on Dec. 10.
The AMA series begins in Anaheim on Jan. 7.
In addition to Supercross and Motocross, AMA also manages the rights to AMA Superbike and AMA Flat Track. AMA Pro Racing, which is headquartered in the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, Ohio, will be televised in more than 100 million households worldwide this year.
Aug. 1
AMA Pro Racing, the national sanctioning body for professional motorcycle racing, is set to announce early this week that its Supercross Series is leaving ESPN2 and will join Speed Channel for the 2006 season. This will be the second AMA series to leave the ESPN network in the last year.
AMA Pro Racing’s Supercross Series features 16 races in major markets.
Motocross, one of four series that AMA manages, left ESPN2 after the 2004 season and had its first full year on Outdoor Life Network in 2005. John Farris, vice president of commercial development for AMA, said ESPN2 was pushing for a time-buy for the series instead of the current arrangement that requires the series to pay only for production costs.
Farris would not discuss terms of the Speed Channel deal but did confirm that an announcement should come early this week.
ESPN, which has been rumored to be in negotiations with NASCAR for Nextel Cup Series rights, said in a statement: “Despite ratings underperformance, we were interested in retaining the property if it made good business sense for our company. Apparently it didn’t and we’ve elected to walk away.”
Clear Channel, which manages the Supercross television rights for AMA, would not comment for this story. Clear Channel’s barter deal with ESPN2 was arranged so that Clear Channel paid for production in exchange for free air time and half of all commercial inventory.
Under the OLN-Motocross deal, AMA covers production costs and manages international rights and home video and wireless inventory, while the network sells the commercial time, Farris said.
Eric Arneson, director of public relations for Speed Channel, said the network was in “active negotiations” with Clear Channel. Industry insiders confirmed that the deal was not a time-buy and that it was a multiyear agreement that could last as long as five years.
Farris said in an e-mail that Supercross and Motocross began airing on ESPN in 1990 and 1994, respectively, and that “the terms have evolved over time, putting more risk/cost on the side of the rights holder.”
Arneson did not speculate why the series was leaving the ESPN network but did say that a deal with Speed Channel, if completed, would be a “huge deal” for the network that would be “comparable to landing the [Craftsman] Truck Series.”
The 2006 Supercross Series schedule, which runs from early January through early May, features 16 races in major markets, including Phoenix, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas. Next season actually begins with two international, non-AMA series events later this year in Toronto on Dec. 3 and Vancouver on Dec. 10.
The AMA series begins in Anaheim on Jan. 7.
In addition to Supercross and Motocross, AMA also manages the rights to AMA Superbike and AMA Flat Track. AMA Pro Racing, which is headquartered in the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, Ohio, will be televised in more than 100 million households worldwide this year.
