NBC Olympic coverage delays and Danica Patrick

The NBC Olympic coverage issues continue.  Here's a piece from Sports Illustrated that chronicles NBC's defense from the vitriol of not broadcasting events live: bottom line their strategy is working.  Ratings for the primetime coverage are up 27% over the Turin Games.  Check and mate.  Should be interesting to see if the strategy will carry over to the 2014 Games in Sochi.  In case you were wondering, Sochi is 8 hours ahead of EST.

Furthermore, even though I noted the complaints about pushing the USA-Canada hockey game to cable yesterday, today's quarterfinal matchup for the USA (against the Swiss) will be televised live on NBC at 3pm Eastern.  Sounds great.  Except, there's a catch: if you live on the West Coast, the game will also be televised at 3pm Pacific Standard Time - three hours after the game will have already taken place.  So, if you live in Oregon, don't check ESPN or Twitter or basically any other website that could spoil the three hours you have to wait to watch the tape-delayed game on your local NBC affiliate.

The Swiss team played the US tough in the preliminary rounds, losing 3-1.  

With NHL goaltender Jonas Hiller, the Swiss could test the Americans again.

The good news?  If you do happen to reside on the West Coast, you'll be treated to three hours worth of Ellen DeGeneres, Days of Our Lives, and the Martha Stewart Show.  And oh, the gold medal game on Sunday, for you West Coasters, that will be tape delayed too.

Stuck in Oregon watching Martha?  At least you weren't one of these unfortunate 

Canadian fans who witnessed the US victory first-hand on Sunday.

In other news, two weeks worth of Danica Patrick in the NASCAR Nationwide series has brought record ratings to the season's first two races.  Reports from her first race at Daytona revealed that the "Drive 4 COPD 300" was the most watched Nationwide race on cable ever - even though Patrick didn't finish the race.  Ratings have yet to be posted from the race last weekend at Fontana, where Patrick finished 31st.

A slideshow of coverage for Danica Patrick on ESPN the past two weeks.
Two speeding tickets on pit lane in Saturday's race pushed Patrick to the back of the pack.

With her third race in the NASCAR series coming up this weekend - after which she'll take a 4 month break to race in IndyCar - some of the media are suggesting that, with poor results in the first two races, the shimmer on this story is fading quickly.  Others have noted that it doesn't matter where Patrick finishes the race, just that she finishes it.  And Tony Stewart, well, he's just tired of answering the same questions every week:

"It's just that you guys pestering us about her gets to be too much.  After a while, you wonder how much you can talk about the same topic and we haven't even gotten her to her first regular (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) and we're still talking about the same stuff.  Our opinion about her hasn't changed."

When the media finally leaves her alone, Stewart added, "she'll be fine."  No word from Stewart on when, or if, that could actually happen.

NASCAR nobodies opine about Danica Patrick coverage

A few NASCAR drivers have started to show their frustrations at the media firestorm that is Danica Patrick at Daytona.

Patrick has been at the center of attention.  

Following up her debut in NASCAR's double-A equivalent minor league, ARCA, current IRL driver Danica Patrick continues to be the story in what is supposed to be NASCAR's biggest week.  Patrick finished 6th in the ARCA race and exceeded most expectations, considering the race was her first in a stock car.

Patrick's ARCA ride

Building on that success, Patrick and her team, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports, decided to give her the green light for the Nationwide Cup race on Saturday (Patrick has an agreement to drive at least 12 Nationwide Series events, considered the Sprint Cup's triple-A circuit).  The first practice for the Nationwide Series race took place on Wednesday.

The subsequent media frenzy, with reporters focused on Patrick, has thinned out the crowds for some of the sport's biggest drivers.  Jeff Gordon emerged from his traveling trailer surprised at the few scant reporters waiting for him outside.  Other drivers have encountered more questions about Patrick than about their own preparations for the start of the NASCAR season, but all the big names have handled the media with aplomb.  Jimmy Johnson, four-time defending Sprint Cup champion, noted that he was encouraged by her presence: "As long as it is bringing eyes to the television sets and putting butts in the seats in the stands, that is a good thing."  

But unfortunately, the incredible publicity that Patrick has brought to the sport has not been uniformly welcomed.  From the seemingly-always controversial Twitterverse, Scott Speed and Regan Smith had this to say, respectively:

"According to the media not only is Danica the most amazing racing driver since Dale Sr., but she also is related to Jesus."

"Maybe ESPN could cover Danica on ESPN2 and the other 50-plus cars on ESPN classic or something."

For the record, neither of these guys have much credibility for their NASCAR careers.  Between the two of them, there are 100 NASCAR Sprint Cup starts with an average finish position of around 30th place.  Still, for a sport with a desperate need for a ratings boost, during its most important week of the year, with a driver who has been a bonus for every circuit she's been a part of, it's curious to see some low-level drivers deliver some media criticism (both Tweets seem more like criticisms of media than Patrick, right?).

The question, therefore, is how will ESPN's coverage of Saturday's Nationwide Series race maintain balance?  Direct from the mouth of ESPN vice president of motorsports Rich Feinberg:

"First and foremost, it's about racing in Daytona.  It's the biggest race for a lot of people.  You win at Daytona and things change for you.  And that's going to be our primary thing.  After that, the next biggest story, and quite frankly opportunity for all of us, is Danica.  It's our strong belief that there will be people that turn on Saturday's Nationwide telecast that perhaps don't watch a lot of Nationwide races or NASCAR at all, because of the interest in her.  We want to serve that curiosity.  We want to serve that interest because our belief is if they like what they see, and we provide them what they're interested in, they may come back next week, and next week, and watch Fox's Daytona 500 coverage, and read more stories.  The more people that watch, the more successful the entire sport is.  It's a balance thing but we also view it as an opportunity."

To me, that speaks volumes (also notice how in sports, people typically refer to female athletes by their first names).  For Speed and Smith, it looks like they will be getting plenty more Patrick coverage.  And they won't have to look too hard to find it.