Tuesday, August 9, 2011

NHRA on ESPN3 – The next best thing to being at the track

As NHRA fans, when it comes to watching our favorite sport on TV we’ve been mostly relegated to watching it via tape delay. Up until last season, ESPN had sporadically offered live broadcasts on ESPN3, which is ESPN’s internet channel. The overwhelming response from fans was that it was a hit. I often wondered why it was not available for every race. I even used social media to promote the idea of having it for every race. I am not sure if I had anything to do with it, but ESPN decided to offer live streaming of all elimination events live on ESPN3.com in 2011!

For most of this season, my Sundays have been filled with family obligations and I was not able to commit the time to watch it live. I found myself with open Sundays during the Sonoma and Seattle races and decided to watch them live. I sat down on the couch with my son, turned on the XBOX 360 and opened the ESPN3 application. Our XBOX is connected to our big screen TV and the surround sound system. ESPN3 streams the video in full screen HD quality, so basically it was as if I was watching the broadcast through my TV provider, not through the internet. It was simply awesome!

The coverage begins during the singing of the national anthem and does not end until the top fuel winner is interviewed by Gary Gerould. Not only do you see all of the Full Throttle Series action live, you also see all of the Lucas Oil Sportsman series and Get Screened America Pro Mod Series. It’s as if you were sitting in the stands all day at the track! Throughout the broadcast, ESPN is recording the shows which will be played later that evening, or in the case of sportsman and pro mod, at a later date. Once in a while, you will see a blooper and they will have to rerecord an interview, etc. All in all, it is a great way to watch the race!

Suggestions for Improvement:
With anything, there is always room for improvement. I have a few suggestions. ESPN needs to get the live broadcast to the point where we don’t have to watch the ESPN2 show at all. Sometimes, there are special features and interviews that are not shown on ESPN3 and you would miss out on these if you didn’t watch the ESPN2 show. I also think it would be great if ESPN could show live qualifying from Friday and Saturday on ESPN3. If there are recording the action, I don’t see why it cannot be broadcast live.

About ESPN3:
Access to ESPN3 is available nationwide in the United States, but you must either subscribe to a participating internet service provider or have an XBOX Live account. 

To see a list of participating internet service providers, click here.

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