When ESPN’s George Bodenheimer was handed the reins at ABC Sports in 2003, he praised the sports division’s “elegant” 40-year history.
“It’s one of the greatest assets in television sports history,” he said. “We’re going to obviously seek to maintain and enhance that.”
Seven years later, not only has ABC Sports ceased to exist, but the replacement (ESPN on ABC) continues to shed sporting events. NASCAR is just the latest sports property to virtually vanish from ABC.
After airing 12 races each year from 2007-09, including the entire Chase for the Cup, ABC will air only three NASCAR races during the 2010 season, all on Saturday nights — the Aug. 21 race from Bristol, the Sept. 11 race from Richmond, and the Oct. 16 race from Charlotte. The rest of ESPN/ABC’s 17-race schedule will air on ESPN.
Only 15 NASCAR races will air on broadcast television in 2010. Once the FOX portion of the schedule ends in May, 20 of the remaining 23 races will air on cable.
This move comes on the heels of ABC airing just 15 regular season NBA games during the 2009-10 season — the minimum allowed in the network’s contract with the league. ESPN also plans to air the entire NBA Eastern Conference Finals, a departure from previous years when ABC would air 1 or 2 games.
ABC also gave up rights to the Rose Bowl to ESPN, and recent ESPN acquisitions — including the rest of the Bowl Championship Series and the British Open — have left out ABC entirely. And Monday Night Football famously left ABC for ESPN in ’06.
In 2003, ABC aired the Super Bowl, Monday Night Football, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, the entire Bowl Championship Series, the British Open, and the Indianapolis 500. Now, the network is left with just the NBA Finals, the Indianapolis 500, and three NASCAR races on the lowest rated night of the week.
