Tag: Eric Shanks

Photo by Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment

“We are going to blow the doors off Indy,” Eric Shanks, CEO of FOX Sports, told the assembled media last Saturday at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.. Shanks joined IndyCar CEO M ark Miles and IndyCar President Doug Boles to talk about the direction FOX planned to take their coverage of the series.

Shanks, who owns a motor home across the street from IMS on Georgetown Road, has attended the 500 as a fan for more than 20 years. He understands that a broadcast partner’s obligation isn’t just the Indianapolis 500.

-” …we also wanted to make sure that our
focus is not just on Indy. So, you see what we’re doing
here. You’re going to see what we’re doing at Thermal,
Long Beach, as it goes out. But we are going to blow the
doors off of Indy. We’re going to bring everything that Fox
has to bear.”

Shanks takes a driver centered approach to his network’s coverage.

“The really cool thing about this series is it really is all about
the driver. The cars are so similar, and there’s an
enormous amount of engineering that goes into these
things, but at the end of the day it’s how aggressive, how
smart, how strategic are these drivers. These drivers are
elevated more than any other series in the world probably.”

“Honestly,” Shanks continued, “what I would love to see is the relationship with Fox help teams get new sponsors, help the league get new sponsors, because that’s what sets us off on this flywheel,
right, is economic success. Every sponsor that comes on
then uses their voice to actually market the sport as well,
and I’m kind of hearing this from teams, too. They’re
hearing better conversations with people either wanting to
buy in or sponsor, because they believe in the trajectory
that these guys have built and the media trajectory as well.”

FOX plans a mass marketing campaign to promote the 500, involving fox affiliates nationwide.

“I think what you’ll see around the 500 is much more of all of our local stations all over the country really dive in and our marketing team
will be working with each of them,” Shanks said.

Shanks wants to make the sport more approachable, and his driver centered approach is a big part of that.

“I would say everything that we’ve done technology-wise
here is to make the sport more approachable. As much as
it’s easy for me to watch, I just put myself in fans who are
trying to get into this, and first and foremost, they need to
know the rules, so we’re going to have a lot of technology
to show the car and what the rules are and the impact of
that, but then also just who is in what car, right? So, I think
that will go a long way highlighting how easy it is to attach
yourself to the drivers and to this sport.”

We saw some of this approach in Sunday’s broadcast, when blurbs appeared explaining a rule, and a cartoon representation of a driver accompanied their name. I think photos would be better, and I hope to see some of the kinks worked out by Long Beach.

Shanks has lofty goals, and he seems to be really invested in IndyCar both as a network executive and as a fan. when these two sides of Shanks clash, I hope the fan wins.