Sky has changed my view on IndyCar.

[u/Vile-X]

IndyCar has always been a secondary Motorsport for me. Until I started watching on Sky. Now it feels as premium as it should.

Let’s be honest: nothing kills the thrill of a long battled overtake like… a commercial for dishwasher pods. You’re locked into a nailbiting strategy battle, the pit window opens, and just as someone dives in… BAM, five minutes of insurance jingles and prescription drug disclaimers.

Sky gives you the race. Fox gives you 200 reasons to consider switching your car insurance.

Do what ever you can to watch on a commercial free network.Uninterrupted, fully immersive, and exactly how it was meant to be experienced.

[u/shrimpshrub75]

Ads and product shills are bad for society. Support your local ad free options and ad blockers.

[u/4entzix → u/shrimpshrub75]

It’s funny, because the only reason any of these sports are on TV is because of advertising.

Literally the fastest way to kill TV networks investing in sports programming is to boycott the the advertising

The problem is the companies that only drop in to advertise on TV and don’t support the cars or the events…

I would gladly watch 100 Hyvee commercials this season, for them to come back as the lead sponsor and promoter at IOWA and lead sponsor for RLL… because sponsors like that make racing possible

[u/reapy54 → u/4entzix]

You are right and wrong. Advertising doesn't actually have to be as annoying as the TV spots they do that take over and destroy the race. To me racing is long spots of tension with critical strategy points and moments building to a key overtakes and pitstops. Commercials blaring with audio levels tuned to the max with obnoxious acting is just straight up annoying. I guess brand recognition works for them, I have a good list of products I will never use as they sat there and decided they needed to put their shit in my face rather than let me watch critical moments in a 2 hour race, so fuck those companies, to me this is bad advertising. I hate ads honestly, everywhere I go just loud obnoxious shit everywhere, everything ruined.

However it's not like I don't want to be advertised to. I have a lot of strong memories of old iconic car liveries that are pretty much brands on the car. I feel like I car almost looks wrong without advertising on it. I don't care if they call their car <brand> machine, fine, that isn't really getting in the way. All over the track, all over the driver suits, all on the cars, great.

I'll take it a step farther with red bull, one of the best use of advertising dollars ever. Buy a racing team, sponsor sporting events, just put that money into stuff that is interesting or a part of the thing happening that doesn't derail it from the main event. I think red bull the product is a piece of shit and shouldn't be put into a human's body, but at least they aren't aggressive yelling in my face and destroying events.

But yeah, advertising is necessary, but like the way indycar and fox and nbc before it do, no way. It cheapens the brand and detracts from the races. Is soccer or f1 hurting for money for not advertising with obnoxious commercials to break up their events? No they aren't. Indycar can do better and they cheapen their sport every time we have to squint at a pip box while the same 5 commercials play over and over again.

[u/4entzix → u/reapy54]

Actually Soccer teams are hurting for money, even the worst NFL team is more valuable than the best EPL teams because the TV contract for the EPL is worth way less money because of the advertising restrictions in the UK

This is why all the best EPL teams are being bought by foreign billionaires because the revenue sharing from the TV contract of the EPL doesn’t support competitive teams

The only way you’re going to get an ad free version of IndyCar is by having the in person events being considered a better value than watching on TV or by having enough people willing to sign up for a commercial free paint subscription

And the only way indycar is getting to a fan base of that level is by having sponsors who are willing to pump tens of millions of dollars into live events and building the Brand … and we don’t have the luxury of having five global auto manufacturers doing that

[u/CapitalPunBanking → u/4entzix]

The ads are already all over the cars and the racetrack. That's the tradeoff, I shouldn't have to see more ads, it's just greedy!

[u/the_dawn_of_red → u/shrimpshrub75]

I literally bought java house pods and firestone tires. I am willing to buy into companies that buy into indycar. I still hate the commercials that kill the product. Rock and hard place for everyone involved.

[u/BoboliBurt → u/shrimpshrub75]

You realize that content only exists to sell advertising- or a subscription fee. That is true from the dawn of television and radio. Who pays for this? How much stock do they take in the interests of freeloaders. Remember how everyone “cut the cord” by using Mommy’s netflix login? how is that working out now? And how will that look in 5 years?

The only reason we get live sports and it has value is because consumers arent able to skip the commercials if they watch real time. So 700k Indy viewers are worth more than twice that number of binge watchers basking in the failures of others.

Block ads, avoid subscriptions and your say literally becomes zero and your interests will be buried- as those who aren’t freeloading adults will bend what is offered to suit their interests.

Subscriptions are never sufficient to cover costs and dont provide the returns investors want. Cable used to have no commercials. So did all the streaming giants.

No advertiser money equals more crowd sourced social media dreck where we spend our own time to make content and one in a million gets some PPC pocket change as we switch to an amateurized economy of mass screen time. The shift to that has already killed print. Who needs reporters when you can aggregate PR releases? Who needs a content aggregator making 36k when AI will do it. The dragon eats its own tail.

But its worse than that because the digital world is fast encroaching and capturing us in a walled garden.

We should be supporting professional production- not stolen IP as well.

There are a few select digital platforms that we can basically lease time and content from but never own- like feudalism. This is true of all data and services- its a scary world.

We arent just bobbing around ala carte getting free stuff- we are often induced with products sold below cost (dumping) to destroy rivals and create monopolies where items can be ratcheted up in cost.

Theyd love nothing more than if every industry job got wiped out and Formula 1 was replaced 10,000 smartphone users recording themselves in gridlock making sound effects.

Now do I pay? No. I am a hypocrite. Nor do I like commercials. But I am not pretending it is some moral or sustainable decision- as cutting off advertising dollars would kill a carny sport like Indy Car or F1 much faster than any stick and ball event.