SPEED channel is now Fox Sports 1

  • Thread starter Earth
  • 370 comments
  • 31,069 views
GTPorsche
It's official. SPEED become Fox Sports 1 on August 17th.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/FOX-Sports-announces-FOX-Sports-1-network-030513

Speed's racing lineup remains mostly unaffected. Their "filler" shows will be gone.. like "R U Faster Than a Redneck".

The one thing I can't find is if Aussie V8 stays on the channel or not. I'm guessing that's what Speed 2 will be for.
Click to expand...

Mixed feelings on this. On one hand, thank goodness we'll have no more of those god awful shows. Unfortunately, it also means we're getting all the stick and ball sports that already get more coverage then Motorsports to begin with :indiff:
 
I guess if you want a channel fully devoted to motorsports, you may have to move to Europe and watch Motors TV. That's unless Motors TV somehow becomes a channel devoted to curling and paint dry world championships. I do watch "stick-and-ball" sports, but my first love is and always will be motorsports. Ask me if I would rather see the Super Bowl or the 24 Hours of Dubai, and I probably would respond Dubai as much as I enjoy the Super Bowl. Ask if I would rather see a kart race or a sports game between two last-place teams, and I would probably answer the kart race. Motorsports will always be my first love.

Have to say it... it's a damn shame Speed Channel will go to a multi-sport network while still having some roots to motorsports. Perhaps the outrage began when Speed (of all networks) would show a match of the English Premier League. I even blogged about my disapproval of this move once. I guess FOX Sports want to REALLY contend with ESPN/ABC to where people stopped caring about Speed Channel. I think over time, the racing may all but fizzle out. That's unless someone else wants to make a new network devoted to racing and automobiles using what (then) Speedvision made famous and fun.


End of an era. Shame.
 
So there are dedicated channels for all the other sports: NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, etc...but the one dedicated to motorsports (which there are many different kinds of, mind you) is going away. What a load of crap. Fox just wants their $$$. SPEED is the channel I flip to when I just want to sit down and relax. So much for that. :grumpy:
 
Hey now, I like curling. And no, I can't explain why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5deGCvJOGg0


I'm personally hopeful that we will see more online coverage. I know I'm in the minority here when I say I preferred the ESPN3 coverage of ALMS, but the Internet allows near limitless "channels" and doesn't have to contend with other programming schedules. I have enjoyed being able to see flag to flag coverage and qualifying without interruption for some reality shows.

The fact is that sports in general, and particularly motorsports, are time consumptive. Broadcast is on a relatively narrow spectrum and so there is only so many hours available. It is also expensive to host a whole other cable channel to support an extra 24 hours of coverage a day (really more like 18 hours since evenings are mostly reruns). You have to negotiate with hundreds (thousands) of cable providers for a spot, and then the more niche your audience the less willing the cable providers are to pay a decent cut of subscriptions and put your channel in a tier people are willing to pay for. Sports as a whole will probably do better in an online world. We will be left to the big time ball and stick sports, plus some NASCAR on broadcast and cable while the lesser known motorsports series can be put online and outside of production costs the only expense is bandwidth. If it justifies subscription fees then the production company basically gets all of those.

Add in the fact that the Internet can keep videos up after the event and then even if some of your audience can't make the live schedule they can still watch and as the producer you can still get your advertising dollars without the fear that a DVR'd copy just skips the advertisements. It even alters the advertising payment structure as you can accurately count the number of views without Nielsen estimations as charge by unique views count.

Basically, as we see our only hope of cable/broadcast dedicated motorsports fading it is time we began supporting the online models. When the biggest thing out there are fat, illiterate toddlers and hillbilly duck hunters the Internet might be our only hope.
 
ESPN3 (Watch ESPN as it's called now) does it without subscription fees or needing an account to watch their online content. Would be nice to see SPEED2 handled like this as currently you need access to SPEED on your cable lineup AND your cable provider account access to watch anything on SPEED2. That way they still have a motorsports dedicated internet channel with On-Demand options as well as live content to keep everyone happy.

Of course, with SPEED being repackaged, they could just rename SPEED2 to FOX Sports Speed.

I highly doubt anything happens like that though.
 
Any word on Wind Tunnel remaining? Shame if it isn't, I generally like to hear Despain's opinion on racing for the week.
 
I wish we had a fully dedicated Motorsport's channel too. R U Faster Then A Redneck is so stupid, they could replace that with some sort of racing series... Is NASCAR Raceday going to still be on?
 
I think it's too early to tell what shows stay or go, aside from scripted shows.

NASCAR coverage is only going to expand so I'd expect the NASCAR shows to stay.
 
I hope with all of this mess FOX created that Wind Tunnel and SPEED Center (or whatever they would call it as long as it stays as a motorsports only show) will stay. I also hope someone would make a motorsports channel like Speedvision.
 
I think in the short term, we are not going to lose as many different shows and racing events. Down the road, though, some of those beloved shows and races will get the axe. I don't watch Speed Channel much for shows anyways except (and especially) On the Edge. Last show of any kind I remember being fond of on Speed was Pinks and Pinks All-Out.

Like I said... unless some kind of "Motors TV America" or something comes along once Speed Channel croaks and dies, this is the end of an era as far as motorsports and automobile television is concerned. Not the total end- more like the end of a dedicated channel towards these things.
 
GTPorsche
It's official. SPEED become Fox Sports 1 on August 17th.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/FOX-Sports-announces-FOX-Sports-1-network-030513

Speed's racing lineup remains mostly unaffected. Their "filler" shows will be gone.. like "R U Faster Than a Redneck".

The one thing I can't find is if Aussie V8 stays on the channel or not. I'm guessing that's what Speed 2 will be for.
Click to expand...

Well...mixed feelings. Speed has kinda just been the Nascar channel lately. They lost F1 and WRC. When Speed rolls over into Fox 1, then any big ball/stick event that is the same weekend as Daytona 24hr, Sebring, Le Mans, etc. will likely air instead. Shame.

I guess I'd be okay with it if Speed 2 stuck around.

On a slightly unrelated note, I also follow BPL through Fox Soccer and I don't see any of that mentioned (just FA, UEFA, etc etc). That will suck if that goes too.

And anytime I see that Redneck show commercial I want to jump out my second story window. Holy crap :yuck:
 
DwightSchrute12
Well...mixed feelings. Speed has kinda just been the Nascar channel lately. They lost F1 and WRC. When Speed rolls over into Fox 1, then any big ball/stick event that is the same weekend as Daytona 24hr, Sebring, Le Mans, etc. will likely air instead. Shame.
Click to expand...

There shouldn't be a problem for races outside Le Mans(At least for the near future). NBA's contracts(ABC/ESPN & TNT) all run through 2016 and NHL's runs through 2021. The only event I can see impacting the two earlier races is the Superbowl, but Fox only has that every 4 years as it's on a rotating basis. MLB is the only one that may impact racing programming as it takes place in the summer and Fox has a deal with them, but it's not like SPEED shows the whole 24 hours currently so they could easily sneak in an MLB game without much trouble.
 
JohnBM01
Like I said... unless some kind of "Motors TV America" or something comes along once Speed Channel croaks and dies, this is the end of an era as far as motorsports and automobile television is concerned. Not the total end- more like the end of a dedicated channel towards these things.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not motorsports, but there is the Velocity channel, another Discovery branch. Not great, but not bad either. Shows are tollerable, and I seem to remember WRC related stuff, maybe a recap. So all may not be lost.

I thought of something that I'd find hilarious if it happened. Speed becomes FS1, Disney corp. looks at this, then looks at their motorsports stuff and think,"They failed, but we can do better." They proceed to convert one of their current channels, ESPN Classic for example, and eventually convert it into a dedicated motorsports channel. They already have the name AND the music, they just have to dig it out of the vault.

A strech, but I can dream.
 
Well I think its no longer a question now: Speed Channel IS Dissolving.

BKGlover
I thought of something that I'd find hilarious if it happened. Speed becomes FS1, Disney corp. looks at this, then looks at their motorsports stuff and think,"They failed, but we can do better." They proceed to convert one of their current channels, ESPN Classic for example, and eventually convert it into a dedicated motorsports channel. They already have the name AND the music, they just have to dig it out of the vault.

A strech, but I can dream.
Click to expand...

Wait a damn minute. Disney owns ESPN? :odd:
 
RACECAR
Wait a damn minute. Disney owns ESPN? :odd:
Click to expand...
Technically, they own ABC, whose cable sports arm is ESPN. It has been that way almost as long as I can remember.

This is why I hope ESPN starts getting more involved in motorsports, even if it is just the online stuff. They have the financial backing to get it right.
 
I'd rather not see ESPN try their hand at motorsports again. Their recent attempts with the ALMS was nothing more than a catastrophic failure.

I don't even know if there was a 2012 ALMS season. :confused:
 
GTPorsche
I'd rather not see ESPN try their hand at motorsports again. Their recent attempts with the ALMS was nothing more than a catastrophic failure.

I don't even know if there was a 2012 ALMS season. :confused:
Click to expand...
I've stated before that I'm in the minority, but I found it better, coveragewise, than Speed. I got races fully covered from flag to flag and included VOD viewing if I couldn't catch it live. No interruptions for reruns, no extra fees to watch it later, and I often got an HD signal on a 5mb connection before Speed had HD available to me without paying extra.
 
Maybe its just on my end but even though the coverage is flag-to-flag, the streaming tends to be inconsistant. It'll be smooth and decent, then it'll get choppy and even stop every few minutes. Meanwhile, on a fast and Overall good internet connection.
 
RACECAR
Maybe its just on my end but even though the coverage is flag-to-flag, the streaming tends to be inconsistant. It'll be smooth and decent, then it'll get choppy and even stop every few minutes. Meanwhile, on a fast and Overall good internet connection.
Click to expand...
On a live feed I might have trouble for the first hour, when people first tune in, but it gets much better after that. And any post-race viewing is as perfect as my rate will allow.

I'm also watching on the Xbox app, wired connection, so I don't know how that compares to any other device.
 
DwightSchrute12
Well...mixed feelings. Speed has kinda just been the Nascar channel lately. They lost F1 and WRC. When Speed rolls over into Fox 1, then any big ball/stick event that is the same weekend as Daytona 24hr, Sebring, Le Mans, etc. will likely air instead. Shame.

I guess I'd be okay with it if Speed 2 stuck around.

On a slightly unrelated note, I also follow BPL through Fox Soccer and I don't see any of that mentioned (just FA, UEFA, etc etc). That will suck if that goes too.

And anytime I see that Redneck show commercial I want to jump out my second story window. Holy crap :yuck:
Click to expand...

If they still cover the 24 hour races they'll probably only show the first 2 hours and last 2 hours.

We really need another network to come in and take speed's place. Otherwise its going to be all about hunting eurosport or motorstv streams
 
You would really think with Motorsport being as big as it is, there would be a dedicated channel to showing as much as possible and with a good variety. Even here in the UK, although we have Eurosport and MotorsTV, both really do show very little.

I think the only racing I ever watch on Eurosport is the Le Mans 24 Hours, which the coverage of, is of very high standard and in HD. MotorsTV tends to show more actual road racing but is still quite limited in my opinion. We're quite lucky to have the BBC and Sky F1, but that's still only one of the major series of motorsports.

I guess it all comes down to who has the rights and the cost of covering an entire race weekend. 👎
 
Earth
We really need another network to come in and take speed's place. Otherwise its going to be all about hunting eurosport or motorstv streams
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be shocked to see NBC make a move for some other series' and races. They acquired F1 starting this year and have shown interest in acquiring some NASCAR races as well. Racing could very well be their best bet if they can't get any stick & ball sports.
 
This is an outrage! We need a true motorsports channel in America, not one that occasionally shows it. Of course, we could also be witnessing a repeat of what happened to the old Outdoor Life Network, which upon becoming VERSUS, started covering a wider variety of sports, including the Dakar Rally and the Iditarod. I was concerned of what would their programming would be like when they became the NBC Sports Network. So far, not much has changed. Still, we need a channel that's all racing and racing-related program.
 
NBC has always come off to me as the one network that whatever little Motorsports they do get, they put alot of care in it unlike ABC and CBS. Seeing as they also have rights to Dakar and wasted no time in getting Diffey in the booth, I would not mind seeing them become the go-to place for Motorsports.
 

Similar threads

JohnBM01
Torque TV: The New Speedvision/Speed Channel?
Replies
13
Views
2K
GTPorsche
GTPorsche
syntex123
The GT7 Livery Editor Competition #03 (Sports Teams) - CLOSED
3 4 5
Replies
138
Views
16K
lancia delta hf
lancia delta hf
Cristobal1234
Lola B98/10 Judd LMP DAMS 1999
Replies
0
Views
2K
Cristobal1234
Cristobal1234
Cristobal1234
Rezvani Tank X 2019
Replies
1
Views
1K
HarVee
HarVee
Cristobal1234
Ford Mustang GT3 Prototype 2023
Replies
1
Views
2K
Trippyyitz
Trippyyitz

Latest Posts

Back