Barracuda Racing Livefeed cancelled by IndyCar. What? Why?!

[NotSoBad]

http://viaas.com/

The live feed from the Barracuda racing team throughout the whole weekend has been cancelled at the "request of Indycar"

[pdas1996]

Doesn't want other teams looking into their garage?

[Mr. Bean]

IndyCar owns all broadcasting rights. Not kidding.

[TimmyZ1]

IndyCar owns all broadcasting rights. Not kidding.

When DRIVE was at Long Beach last year discussing Indycar I believe they had the same issue.

[ARROWZ46]

INDYCAR needs to grasp they are not the NFL or MLB!

Will BHA be able to retain this associate sponsor now? More importantly these exclusive contracts are killing other efforts that are trying to create buzz for the series. DRIVE reaches people that are "gear heads" & crave news/info on motorsport... who knows the people the VIAAS cams were reaching. Short-sided IMO.

[Viper99]

INDYCAR needs to grasp they are not the NFL or MLB!

Will BHA be able to retain this associate sponsor now? More importantly these exclusive contracts are killing other efforts that are trying to create buzz for the series. DRIVE reaches people that are "gear heads" & crave news/info on motorsport... who knows the people the VIAAS cams were reaching. Short-sided IMO.

In Indycar's mindset it's still 1995. This is just BS, with this out of touch way of thinking this series will not go anywhere. It's the same when they upload the races on youtube, they're available for just 2 o 3 countries....

[Z28]

Shortsightedness would seem to be as much a part of INDYCAR as wheels and tires. INDYCAR gave up so much exclusivity to then Vesrus that when something new comes along there's no way of exploiting it because they turned over too much. It's the same as giving ABC exclusive rights to over the air race broadcasts and not being able to show qualifying for the ABC races.

And it's not like NBCSN is any less rigid in their thinking. Why wouldn't they allow a sponsor to have the limited access to the one team, it's not like it's competition for them. And is there any reason to not see it as promotion of INDYCAR races which might add even one to the mind boggling 235,000 viewers they get for any race? What is motivation for these networks to want ANY restrictions on others showing anything having to do with these races. Is there some super inside benefit to keeping it a secret from all but the most dedicated fans? The 0.2 Club shouldn't be the ceiling.

[ICS001]

In Indycar's mindset it's still 1995. This is just BS, with this out of touch way of thinking this series will not go anywhere. It's the same when they upload the races on youtube, they're available for just 2 o 3 countries....

FOM upload pretty much nothing and take down F1 content. Indycar haven't interfered with third parties that upload the races and still have a lot on their channel.

[KevinNeely]

It's not INDYCAR's call. It's a broadcasting rights issue with NBCSN. It's kinda like how Magnus Racing had to kill their webcam showing the track during the Rolex24.

NBCSN controls ALL broadcasting rights. Period.

[TimmyZ1]

It's not INDYCAR's call. It's a broadcasting rights issue with NBCSN. It's kinda like how Magnus Racing had to kill their webcam showing the track during the Rolex24.

NBCSN controls ALL broadcasting rights. Period.

This probably also is the same for NASCAR right? I never see any links for live feeds from them unless coming from the official source

[Jsieczka]

This probably also is the same for NASCAR right? I never see any links for live feeds from them unless coming from the official source

NASCAR controls their streaming rights, and works with the networks. Indycar in a very shortsighted move sold the rights to a company that hates internet streaming.

[castronevesfan3]

In Indycar's mindset it's still 1995. This is just BS, with this out of touch way of thinking this series will not go anywhere. It's the same when they upload the races on youtube, they're available for just 2 o 3 countries....

That's the case indeed with all the NBC races; ABC races can be watched here in The Netherlands as well... For the other races I would have to watch them from another uploader or to download a torrent..

[cpthornman]

In Indycar's mindset it's still 1995. This is just BS, with this out of touch way of thinking this series will not go anywhere. It's the same when they upload the races on youtube, they're available for just 2 o 3 countries....

Took the words right out of my mouth. They need to get with the times in the biggest way.

[cheeseczar]

If there is a dick sitting around anywhere, IndyCar will find it and step on it.

[Oben]

As others have already said, it is NBCSN (aka Comcast) that demands this. The reason is that Comcast is a cable company, and they believe that live sporting events are something that cable can use as a defense against the rise of internet streaming services like YouTube, Netflix, Apple TV, etc. They don't want to be a provider of bandwidth... wire... while content companies are raking it in hand over fist with their stock price going through the roof.

They want to sign long term deals for live broadcast of sports, and they don't want you to be able to get it on the Internet. Go ahead and call them dinosaurs, but they know their business, and they know that TV ratings are going down across the board, and that means that their cable broadcast services are losing value. One of the few bright spots for TV is live sports, and Comcast would rather you continue to sit in front of your TV while watching them as the value of their stock depends on it.

I think they are raging against the dying of the light, so to speak, but IndyCar's contract with NBC Universal/Comcast is a long one, so we shall suffer-on for now.