Side-By-Side is a television graphic introduced by ESPN which allows the broadcast to show commercials and live sports simultaneously. Currently, it is largely associated with ESPN on ABC's telecasts of the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500.

The technology was adopted due to certain televised sports (such as soccer and auto racing) not having natural breaks in action. Sports such as football and baseball have timeouts and scheduled breaks, which allow for commercial time without viewers missing any playing action. Auto racing had long suffered from commercial breaks interrupting live action, as races are never purposely halted outside of emergency situations. The only time during races which commercials could be shown without missing action was during caution periods, but they are random and could not be counted on for regular intervals.

The technology uses a split-screen to show the feed of the live sports event on one side with no audio, while the traditional commercial is placed on the other side, with full audio. Typically, the square used for the commercial is larger and more prominent than that of the event. Sometimes, a small graphic showing the lap count and leaders' names accompanies the square. Side-By-Side is used during all commercial breaks during the race except for local station breaks (ABC) or during local ads (ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Classic). Side-By-Side is not used during pre-race and post-race coverage, nor during non-racing periods such as rain delays.

ESPN first used Side-By-Side for an IndyCar event on March 19, 2005 during the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was adopted for the entire season outside of Indianapolis. The format was first used for the Indianapolis 500 in 2006.

[edit] Versus

Beginning in 2009, Versus became a new television partner with the IRL. During the race broadcast, they introduced IndyCar Non-Stop with a similar format to Side-By-Side. This is done to satisfy IndyCar fans who are used to Side-By-Side.

[edit] References

ESPN2 to provide in-car camera simulcast of opening race