Versus To Air Four One-Hour IndyCar Series Programs In March

Versus' First Of Four IndyCar Series Specials Will Feature Danica Patrick, Airs March 7

Versus will begin its coverage around the IRL IndyCar Series next month with four one-hour specials airing each Saturday in March at 2:00pm ET. The first show will air March 7 and is called "Danica: Five Years Running." That will be followed by "IndyCar Series: Top 10 Closest Finishes" on March 14, "IndyCar Series: Crashes and Conflicts" on March 21 and "IndyCar Series World Tour 2009" on March 28. The first race of the IndyCar Series is Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 5 (Versus). In this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, John Ourand reports one of the reasons the IRL signed a 10-year, $67M deal with Versus in August was the "promise that the network would devote more hours to programming around its races." Versus Exec VP/Programming, Production & Business Operations Marc Fein said, "It's a fine line if you want to blow out the coverage. You can't be 24/7 of one thing, because I think that's too much. But we definitely saw an opportunity (with IRL) based on how motorsports have done on other networks." Ourand notes IRL stakeholders "have been unhappy with the lack of ancillary programming on ESPN, which still holds the rights to five races," including the May 24 Indianapolis 500 on ABC. But Fein said, "May's going to be such a big month for us, with the hockey playoffs and the Indy 500" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/23 issue).