SPEED channel is now Fox Sports 1

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DwightSchrute12
Varsha is currently contracted and tied to Speed/Fox so don't plan on seeing him transition. Hobbs has been around awhile but may retire now, no idea what he'll do. I'm hoping they at least retain Matchett and Buxton, but we'll see.
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I think Buxton is planning on doing the Sky Sports GP2 broadcast full time. So he might be out as well. Hopefully NBC will get quality commentators if they can't get the SPEED trio. And hopefully they'll get a bigger budget from NBC and actually get to commentate live from the race instead of in a studio thousands of miles away from the action.
 
astrosdude91
I think Buxton is planning on doing the Sky Sports GP2 broadcast full time. So he might be out as well. Hopefully NBC will get quality commentators if they can't get the SPEED trio. And hopefully they'll get a bigger budget from NBC and actually get to commentate live from the race instead of in a studio thousands of miles away from the action.
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Will sure hasn't given that impression on twitter today...

"Hey @IndyCar. What you up to next year? I've got an opening and a hankering for more US style racing in my life..."

https://twitter.com/willbuxton/status/256836379139514368

"Dear potential employers. Options officially open for 2013 and beyond. Many thanks. Will."

https://twitter.com/willbuxton/status/256839296760283136

He'd be fine for GP2. But we'll never see it 👎
 
After seeing the direction the Speed broadcasts have taken in the last 2-3 years the focus shifted from the racing to filling a time slot with commercials.Things changed when the victory lap became a 3 min commercial,then the drivers on the podium and the anthems were taped and shown after another break.The ultimate slap to the fans was earlier this year when the post race and podium was cut so the could go to NASCAR Raceday.That show started 3hrs before a race and showed (quite clearly to me anyway) that F1 was no longer a priority at Speed.

NBCSN did a very good job with the Indycar broadcasts this year so I am encouraged that they will be an upgrade.
 
Jordan
I'm glad to see someone else is nostalgic about "Victory by Design" and "Legends of Motorsport", they were excellent.
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Still sorely missed, but shelved to make room for NASCAR and other script-based programming.

Well, I hope NBC doesn't screw this up. They haven't been big proponents of motor racing over the years, but they've had IndyCar for the past year or so. Getting two of the most popular open-wheeled series on the same channel can't hurt their ratings, to be honest.

I would really like to at least see the trio of Varsha, Hobbs, and Matchet come on over. Maybe they can lure John Bisignano back to the pits?

(Speed's channel was almost impossible to find on the road, can't say I've seen NBC Sports Network much of anywhere, but I get it at home.)
 
They showed MMA tonight on SPEED with the Fox Sports logo above the SPEED logo. They're definitely starting the transition.

We know this new channel is likely to continue to carry NASCAR races. F1 is going to NBC. So what about everything else?

In April SPEED signed a multi-year extension to broadcast the 24 Hours of Le Mans that includes "expanded digital rights". My guess is that this new channel will probably only show the first 2 hours and last 2 hours with the rest of the 24 hours online. With a channel devoted to stick and ball sports and auto racing theres no way they can show 18+ hours of the race over a Saturday sports weekend like they use to.

The problem I have with internet streaming of racing is there is no way to DVR it and it is not in high def nor is it reliable.

I really want a new motorsports channel to pop up, maybe by ESPN. Theres plenty of motorsports out there to cover that arent being shown in the United States. The WEC, WRC, FIAGT, DTM, Nurburgring 24 hours, Spa 24 hours, Dubai 24 hours, etc etc, Super GT etc. And as for original programming we want oldschool Speedvision shows like Champions and Victory By Design.

There are plenty of quality motorsport programs to broadcast. Documentaries like TT: Closer to the Edge, BMW's One Team, One Target, Superspeedway, etc etc, or biographies like Jim Clark: The Silent Champion. Maybe make every Thursday movie night . Show films like Grand Prix, Le Mans, or Days of Thunder.

Reality programming? How about broadcasts of virtual leagues from iRacing or other simulations. Get Chip Foose to make a show about fixing up cars inside and out or something

Theres literally 1,001 ways to make a better motorsport channel then SPEED.
 
Your right there is many ways to offer better coverage than SPEED but so far no one wants to try. You know they really need to look into easily having online only deals where you can stream and a monthly fee. I can easily see $10-$25 bucks a month for a race (any race to a degree that's large groups like we have known), and its a win win for both sides.
 
I think sponsors are wary of an all-motorsports channel, when you think about it: The paid sponsors get the advertising time of 1-3 minutes, but others essentially get "free" advertising, since they're part and parcel of the action...the part that isn't skipped over or ignored.

Speed did as good a job as they could; other networks would have never tried a 24-hour racing event (at least in America), shown all the qualifying and dedicated a show towards the goings-on with F1 and NASCAR. That much showed Fox's dedication for so long, and with generally a consistent quality to match. Sure, there's lots of other programming that was either hit, miss, or indifferent...and lots of experiments at vehicle-related programming to stretch the envelope a littele, too.

On the other hand, motor racing still takes a back seat to 4-5 major sporting leagues, plus college-level athletics, and has to compete with golf and tennis for attention, after most of its spent on a larger piece of the pie.
 
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GTPorsche
Wonder what will happen with SPEED 2. Would be smart if Fox opened that up so it worked like ESPN3 does.
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Since I only watch Speed for F1 and the WRC recaps this was my concern as well. I think speed 2 is pretty cool, and the only way I know of to watch a lot of the racing it offers like GP3. Seems strange they would drop it though after only starting it earlier this year.
 
Mixed feelings about this. I won't miss the announce team as a group, as Hobbs is long past relevance and Varsha as lead announcer has been inferior to occasional pinch-hitter Diffy. Matchett I hope hires on with NBCS. But I'd like to know if the plan is to show all 20 races and at the very least the associated quali sessions. If NBC intends to cherry-pick then it's a loss for American F1 fans.

Frankly I never understood why SPEED didn't just pick up the Sky broadcast, given that they're both Murdoch operations. The old Murray Walker/James Hunt thing of doing the commentary from a faraway studio is beyond lame.
 
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More details on NBC's broadcast plans have now been made public.

Fortunately, all the races will be broadcast and streamed online live, either on NBC or on the NBC Sports Network channel.
 
"More than 100 hours" sounds like they may not be covering Friday practice, unfortunately.
 
I like this:

"The AP report said the four NBC races for 2013 are the Canadian Grand Prix June 9, then the final three races of the season at Abu Dhabi, Austin and Brazil in November. The inaugural Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial is scheduled for June 16, the same date as the U.S. Open golf final round, also an NBC property. "

Intelligent choices. Cover Montreal because it's always a good race (rather than starting with Monoco, which almost never is), and then cover the closing stages of the title fight (if there is one; Vettel could walk it next year as easily as he did in 2011). Very different choices than by Fox.
 
zippy_the_cat
I like this:

"The AP report said the four NBC races for 2013 are the Canadian Grand Prix June 9, then the final three races of the season at Abu Dhabi, Austin and Brazil in November. The inaugural Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial is scheduled for June 16, the same date as the U.S. Open golf final round, also an NBC property. "

Intelligent choices. Cover Montreal because it's always a good race (rather than starting with Monoco, which almost never is), and then cover the closing stages of the title fight (if there is one; Vettel could walk it next year as easily as he did in 2011). Very different choices than by Fox.
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But the FOX coverage was Montreal, Valencia, Silverstone, Nurburgring/Hockenheim depending on which track was ran that year. So, I don't know what you are getting at with the Monaco comment.
 
So is it going to be similar to FOX in the way that they broadcast a couple, but let another, owned, channel show the rest? I think I know the answer but I'm asking for clarification. If not, like I suspect, will there be commentary for the online races?

By the way, this move isn't making me very happy. My computer (laptop) isn't great so I'd much prefer to watch it in HD on my 55" tv. Really not happy or looking forward to next season 👎 :grumpy:
 
Jsoccer9
So is it going to be similar to FOX in the way that they broadcast a couple, but let another, owned, channel show the rest
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So it appears. Most will be on the cable channel. I can live with that because my satellite package includes NBCSN.

I seem to recall that Monaco was a Fox broadcast choice in one recent season. Might not be remembering that correctly though. Broader point is that there didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason behind Fox's choices, whereas NBC's have reasons that seem easily discerned. In particular, putting (almost) guaranteed snooze-fest Valencia on the broadcast network never made sense if you were only going to broadcast four. I think we all can agree Fox lucked out on that front this year.
 
Monaco never was. Fox always picked up coverage once their NASCAR coverage ended in June and Monaco has always been in May.
 
I'm not suprised that they're taking out a channel that dedicates half of their time in one thing: NASCAR, but also, here in Mexico, there's no other channel to watch Le Mans 24h coverage, Australian V8's, FIA GT, American Le Mans Series and repeated F1 races the morning after the race, so for me that's a loss rather than a win :(
 
That's good that 3/5 of the current crew will still be there. My questions are who will fill the roles of Will Buxton (the guy running around the paddock, etc) and Bob Varsha ("lead" announcer)?
 
IforceV8
NBC confirms announcers for F1 and Indycar. http://www.racer.com/nbc-sports-confirms-2013-f1-announcing-crew/article/268516/
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Don't get me wrong, Hobbs and Matchett are more than welcome, but I'd much rather have Varsha over Diffey. With all due respect to Leigh (who isn't a bad replacement for those off-races, just not as good as Varsha, in my opinion - the former's voice gets a little too "squeaky" during some high-action moments), I think NBC is making a mistake in not choosing at least one American in the "play-by-play" booth, if they hope to gain more casual viewers and change them into fans. Varsha started back in '87 on a sporadic basis, but was a fixture on ESPN's coverage from 1989-95...he commentated other [motor]sports at ESPN (he did some track-and-field calls), and steadily improved his style with every race.

Perhaps Varsha's contract still binds him to Fox?
 
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Pupik
Don't get me wrong, Hobbs and Matchett are more than welcome, but I'd much rather have Varsha over Diffey. With all due respect to Leigh (who isn't a bad replacement for those off-races, just not as good as Varsha, in my opinion - the former's voice gets a little too "squeaky" during some high-action moments), I think NBC is making a mistake in not choosing at least one American in the "play-by-play" booth, if they hope to gain more casual viewers and change them into fans.

Perhaps Varsha's contract still binds him to Fox?
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Varsha still has 1-year left on his contract with Speed.
 
I'm guessing that Varsha will take over as lead announcer for Grand-Am replacing Diffey.

F1 and Indycar share 4 race weekends so I wonder if Diffey will do double headers or if someone else will do those 4 Indycar races.
 

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