Television future for Indy 500 uncertain

INDIANAPOLIS >> It began with a simple, black-andwhite highlights show on the venerable “Wide World of Sports,” grew into a proving ground for broadcast innovations, and is now one of the longestrunning relationships between a sports event and television network.

ABC and the Indianapolis 500, a marriage going back more than five decades.

It’s been one of comfort, too, not only for the parties involved but for race fans who tune in every Memorial Day weekend. Those familiar voices of Jim McKay and Chris Schenkel, Brent Musburger and Marty Reid, have beckoned viewers to settle into a recliner, grab a cold lemonade and become engrossed in the colors, sounds and pageantry of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Yet the rapidly changing sports media landscape has left a hazy cloud of uncertainty over the future of the race. Its current contract with ABC runs through next year, and some experts anticipate new bidders angling for the rights to the iconic sports property.

“Marquee properties, and the Indy 500 is certainly a marquee property with a great history, there will always be interest from various outlets,” said Doug Perlman, the founder of Sports Media Advisors, a company that specializes in broadcast and digital media negotiations.

Perhaps network rival NBC, which already has cable rights to the IndyCar Series, could take a closer look, or social media and streaming video services that have made sports television even more competitive.

“The important dynamic people lose sight of is, increasingly, there are going to be new bidders in the space for sports rights,” Perlman said. “You’ve seen that with what Twitter and Facebook and Amazon are doing. Multiple bidders are always good for a seller.”

Officials from ABC and its cable sports network, ESPN, declined to discuss whether broadcast rights negotiations are underway. But despite cord-cutting that has trimmed ESPN’s once-vast subscriber base, forcing the company to closely examine costs, nobody expects ABC to be on the sideline when it comes time for the Indy 500 to settle on a future TV partner.

After all, the company has been part of the Indy 500 every year since 1965, televising the race live since the 1980s and in high-definition for the past decade.

DARRON CUMMINGS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A technician checks on one the dozens of television cameras used for during the broadcast of the Indianapolis 500.