Mecum Auctions and NBC Sports Group have announced a three-year contract that will provide more than 425 hours of classic car auction coverage, including 125 hours of programming in 2014.
This is the second such major deal for a classic car auction house announced this week. Earlier, Barrett-Jackson and the Fox family of networks released news of their new deal.
NBC’s coverage of Mecum Auctions begins with Mecum’s 10-day January auction at Kissimmee, Florida, where the auction house plans to offer some 3,000 vehicles for bidding.
Kissimmee coverage begins at 1 p.m. (Eastern time) on the Esquire Network. Coverage on Esquire continues until January 24, which NBCSN joins the effort.
Finally, at 3 p.m. January 26, NBC will show a one-hour special featuring the highlights of the Kissimmee event.
Esquire Network, NBCSN and NBC are part of the NBCUniversal family of networks.
The NBCSN and NBC coverage will be streamed online via NBC Sports Life Extra. Coverage can be seen on desktop computers through NBCSports.com/liveextra. There are apps for watching the online coverage on iPhone, iPad, IPod touch (at the App Store) and on Android handset and tablet devices (at Google Play).
After Kissimmee, the Mecum/NBC contract will show coverage of 2014 auctions at Houston, Kansas City (both the April and December sales), Indianapolis, Seattle, Harrisburg, Monterey, Dallas, Chicago, Anaheim and Austin.
Does this mean that the Velocity Network will no longer be airing the Mecum auctions?
the SD tv picture sucks SO BAD on esquire network. It hurts my eyes its so bad on a 64 inch plasma. ouch
It certainly makes it hard to see the details of the vehicles.I think I’ll switch over and watch Barrett-Jackson.Hopefully NBC will upgrade to HD,I mean it’s 2014 for Pete’s sake!
It is surprising that Mecum would allow such poor quality. It truly sucks, and will reduce the numbers of viewers. A very bad idea.
Worst decision Mecum has ever made. Coverage SUCKS THE BIG ONE !!!
Esquire network station is horrible. Used to spend hours watching Mecum Auction. Not anymore. Picture is so fuzzy.
The coverage was awful with having to switch networks all the time. Tonight I tried to watch the NBC network one hour broadcast I recorded which was supposed to have most of the high dollar cars and in HD. Turns out the auction was replaced by a hockey game. Maybe Mecum needs to think about its long term image and not just the money today.