With these Olympics games, more people than ever are looking for NBC Sports Network. The US Men's national basketball team and Women's national soccer team are the two big draws for the network as well as many other events. While ads have been run by the network promoting their entities, the question is will this draw a more regular fan base for the network?
What is difficult for NBC Sports Network to do is promote their next IndyCar race. The Sonoma race is a little under a month away and due to the cancellation of China gives NBC Sports one less race to show. We may see more promotions towards the end of the Olympics as that will closer to the Sonoma, which now has a title sponsor in GoPro.
The bigger hope is these Olympic games makes NBC Sports Net into a more attractive place for sponsors. Drivers and teams have been having trouble finding sponsors for the races on NBC Sports Net due to the low ratings but a changed perception about the network would surely help.
IndyCar has been struggling for ratings, we all know that. This weekend's race at Mid-Ohio is on ABC at 12:30pm ET. It will be going head-to-head not only with the Olympics but the NASCAR race from Pocono. One thing in IndyCar's favor will be the ALMS race on Saturday at 2:00pm ET which is also on ABC. This is the perfect opportunity for in-race promotions and hopefully turn a causal fan watching Saturday into a causal fan watching Sunday.
We can only wait and see if NBC Sports Net is able to become a bigger network in the eyes of sports fans after these Olympic games and if IndyCar benefits. Until then IndyCar has to work with what is at hand.
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