
Seen on Screen: NBC Sports Joins Virtual Racing Circuit With IndyCar, Short Track iRacing Challenge; SEC Network's Marty & McGee To Return April 4 By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Friday, April 3, 2020 - 9:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Seen on Screen provides a roundup of the current sports programming landscape as networks deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In this week's edition, major networks like NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN are combating the silence of no live sports with previously-released, taped, or archival content. Many networks have also continued producing live studio content - often with on-air talent located remotely.
NBC Sports presents the INDYCAR iRacing Challenge, a live, virtual racing event featuring a field of NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers, this Saturday with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at the virtual Barber Motorsports Park live at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The event will mark the inaugural INDYCAR iRacing event to appear on NBCSN.
More than two dozen INDYCAR drivers are expected to compete in this weekend's INDYCAR iRacing Challenge, including five-time series champion Scott Dixon, two-time and reigning series champion Josef Newgarden, and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud. Last Saturday, 2013 Indy Lights champion Sage Karam won the inaugural INDYCAR iRacing Challenge American Red Cross Grand Prix at the virtual Watkins Glen International.
NBC Sports' lead INDYCAR broadcast team of Leigh Diffey (play-by-play), Paul Tracy (analyst), and Townsend Bell (analyst) will call the action
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin headline a group of 18 drivers that will compete at virtual versions of iconic and short tracks across America next week on NBCSN, as NASCAR America presents the NBC eSports Short Track iRacing Challengebeginning Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m. ET.
From Monday-Wednesday, six different drivers will compete in two timed races in Cup Series cars at an iconic track at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The top two finishers from each night will advance to the championship race at the virtual Martinsville Speedway on Thursday night on NBCSN.
Monday - Rockingham Speedway
Tuesday - Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis
Wednesday - Myrtle Beach Speedway
Thursday - Martinsville Speedway (Championship Race)
The following drivers will compete in the NBC eSports Short Track iRacing Challenge:
Monday at Rockingham Speedway - Kyle Busch, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Parker Kligerman, Tyler Reddick, and Bubba Wallace
Tuesday at Lucas Oil Raceway - Justin Allgaier, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Larson
Wednesday at Myrtle Beach Speedway - Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Timmy Hill, Ryan Preece, and Myatt Snider
NBC Sports NASCAR commentators Rick Allen and Steve Letartewill call the action, including interviews with drivers during the races. Jeff BurtonandMarty Snider will host the NBC eSports Short Track iRacing Challenge via Zoom
After a three-week hiatus, Marty & McGee will return to its weekly Saturday morning schedule on SEC Network with an audio-only format, beginning Saturday, April 4, at 7 a.m. ET. The show, which will now extend to three hours from 7-10 a.m., continued in the interim with its weekly ESPN Radio presence, and now becomes the second SEC Network programming offering to return to live TV with a new format.
SEC Network's televised format of the show will feature a slate, showcasing the live audio from the ESPN Radio broadcast of the show. This format is also being utilized for The Paul Finebaum Show, which returned to TV this week.
SEC Network has also introduced a robust lineup of social and digital programming for SEC fans who are looking for current conversation surrounding the world of sports, including SEC For Now, No Offseason with Laura Rutledge, and SEC Game Night. Daily content is premiering on SEC Network's Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as SECNetwork.com
NESN is leveraging social media for their broadcast presentations of archival content. For encore showings of past playoff runs from both the Boston Bruins and Boston Red Sox, the regional sports network will be hosting Twitter Takeovers, where tweets will be shown in the lower third of viewers' television screens. For example, former Bruins player Chris Kelly will be with NESN on Saturday to answer fan questions during a showing of Game 4 of the 2011 Eastern Conference Semifinals, a game that clinched the series against the Philadelphia Flyers
CBS Sports will feature the final rounds of the 2004 and 2019 Masters Tournaments on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. These two classic tournaments featured historic victories from two of golf's biggest names, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
CBS Sports' broadcast coverage will also be available to stream live on the CBS All Access subscription service, with additional content throughout the week and weekend on the CBS Sports HQ streaming sports news network, CBSSports.com, and The First Cut podcast, as well as on CBS Sports social handles.
Masters.com and @TheMasters social media will feature complementary archival and never-before-seen content from the iconic final rounds. Fans are encouraged to follow along and share their viewing experience using #MastersRewind.
The schedule will be
Saturday, April 11
THE MASTERS: 1975 (1:30-2:30 PM, ET)
FINAL ROUND - 2004 MASTERS TOURNAMENT (2:30-6:00 PM, ET)
Sunday, April 12
FINAL ROUND - 2019 MASTERS TOURNAMENT (12:30-6:00 PM, ET)
The Masters content continues on ESPN, where the network will salute the Masters Tournament with encore presentations of the final rounds of two of Tiger Woods' five wins, Jack Nicklaus' stunning victory in 1986 and other classic editions of the iconic e
North America Stories
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
AI will help build the energy it needs.
That's the case U.S. Energy Secreta...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...