ESPN yesterday at its upfront presentation unveiled a new picture-in-picture advertising format for its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series broadcasts that will allow it to stay with race coverage later this season. The format, known as "NASCAR NonStop," will be used during NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup races on ESPN. Rather than go to a traditional commercial break, ESPN will go to a split screen that shows the race in a small screen in the right corner of the TV, a commercial in a larger screen on the left side of the TV and an advertiser's logo in the bottom right corner of the screen. The format will be used beginning after the midway point of a race. It will debut Sept. 18 for the Chicagoland Speedway race (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal). ESPN Exec VP/Content John Skipper said, "Since we returned to NASCAR racing in 2007, one of the most common questions from our fans has been, 'Why don't you do the commercials side-by-side?'" The AP's Jenna Fryer noted ESPN "first introduced the split-screen format for its IndyCar coverage in 2005," but has not used it for NASCAR. Fox implemented the side-by-side coverage for the first time late in last Sunday's Cup race from Dover. TNT previously had been the "only network to use the feature, during the July race at Daytona" (AP, 5/17). An ESPN official said that the net's "planning took place before Fox's move and was not a response to what Fox did" (ROANOKE TIMES, 5/18).
WORKING WITH ADVERTISERS: Fox Senior VP/Media Relations Lou D'Ermilio indicated that Fox' decision to "use a split screen was discussed last week, but became doable only when advertisers Sprint, FedEx and Pizza Hut agreed to share their screen time with race coverage." Fox will "discuss using a split screen again with advertisers, but the network has only two races remaining on its portion of the NASCAR schedule." D'Ermilio: "At this point, the fan feedback we've seen via social media has been very positive" (AP, 5/16). CBSSPORTS.com's Pete Pistone wrote, "Perhaps the side-by-side coverage is the first step in bringing ... NASCAR closer to being on par with other professional sports, all who have the luxury of built-in timeouts and breaks for commercials to run" (CBSSPORTS.com, 5/17).
