32 replies to this topic

[SonnyViceR]

With SPEED TV sadly dying out this week and being replaced by general sports channel FOX Sports 1, the fear was that all FOX was planning to show next year was ball and stick games, plus NASCAR. Well indeed, FOX has killed off most of their motorsport programming (or the little of non-NASCAR stuff that was left on SPEED) and cancelled shows like Wind Tunnel and Speed Center. Many of the fans have been raging on. However, they have released some information about the series they are planning to broadcast in 2014 on FOX Sports 1 (formerly SPEED) and FOX Sports 2 (formerly FUEL). Also some on FOX, ie NASCAR

* United Sports Car Racing
* Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge
* 24 Hours of Le Mans
* FIA Formula E Championship
* MotoGP World Championship
* Monster Energy Supercross
* ARCA Racing Series
* NASCAR Camping World Truck
* NASCAR Sprint Cup (selected)

More maybe (?) coming up later

Of course, with FOX Sports being a general sports channel with more busier schedules, not motorsport oriented like SPEED, we should except inferior coverage to the past and less screen time. Tape delayed broadcasts too... well with the exception of those boogity boogity series of course.

Obviously the death of Speedvision and more recently SPEED is quite sad. Even though the downfall of the channel has been a long one (ever since the NASCAR coverage started to dominate) it was still the premier motorsport place on US for many years. Interesting, and a little sad read about the death of SPEED here: http://m.sportsbusin...edia/Speed.aspx

With the fall of SPEED the NBC Sports Network is now probably the most versatile 'motorsport channel' in US now, even if their ratings suck ***. However, I was actually expecting USCR to end up there, but no...

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 19:07.

[HaydenFan]

I actually though sports racing might not have any U.S. coverage this year. Outside the shows that just filled space on Speed, not much has really changed it seems. Bummer about Windtunnel going out, as the interviews (last episode Despain flat out asked Jeff Gordon about squandering his chance at IndyCar/F1 glory by going to NASCAR) were gold and will be missed.

[ApexMouse]

Thank the lords for sopcast, youtube and Torrents.

[Deluxx]

I'm hoping for Fox to randomly pick up Wind Tunnel because in the midst of all of the crap that is on that station now, it is one of those quality programs that keep a fanbase loyal.

[SonnyViceR]

I'm hoping for Fox to randomly pick up Wind Tunnel because in the midst of all of the crap that is on that station now, it is one of those quality programs that keep a fanbase loyal.

It has been cancelled for good. Why would FOX pick it up again since they were they ones who shutted it down in the first place...

Outside the shows that just filled space on Speed, not much has really changed it seems.

Well yes technically in terms of live motorsport coverage most of the (very low number of non-NASCAR motorsport) series that were left on SPEED have been renewed for FOX Sports, even the Grand-Am/ALMS morph. But as I said I predict a huge drop in broadcast hours - FOX Sports 1 ain't gonna have like 12 hour time slot for Sebring 12 hours, but instead give a few hours for them. Or throw them to FOX Sports 2 (FUEL), which no-one receives...

The extension of Le Mans deal comes up as a little surprise, even though SPEED's original deal with the ACO did run through 2014. Formula E is probably the only real addition?

Obviously along with the reality show crap and other nonsense filler programs that were axed, what is also gone are the touring cars and whatnot european/worldwide series SPEED tended to have on tape delay basis

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 14:55.

[seltaeb]

In my opinion, SPEED's downfall foreshadows the eventual demise of NASCAR. I won't miss the latter, despite growing up a HUGE fan of Richard Petty, Bill Elliott, etc.

[Ross Stonefeld]

What?

[KWSN - DSM]

When ever I blame the demise of something good for something worse on 'the business model does not work', I am being yelled down. But it the demise of Speed in it's various incarnations is through the Autoracing working under a broken business model.

Most racing on TV is becoming completely uninteresting, spectators are leaving in droves, and the all mighty commercial side buy everything to give us a diluted product.

[ebc]

In my opinion, SPEED's downfall foreshadows the eventual demise of NASCAR. I won't miss the latter, despite growing up a HUGE fan of Richard Petty, Bill Elliott, etc.

Why do you think that? I reckon NASCAR will be fine and will probably get stronger in the future, after football (soccer) Motorsport is the most popular sport in the world and NASCAR is one of its most popular categories, it is not going away it has too many fans for that to happen.

Motorsport will outlast pretty much every other sport in some form or another I would say.

Look at football across Europe, the stadiums are half empty with the exception of Germany and England yet it is still hugely popular, for whatever reason people don't attend as much anymore but doesn't mean they won't come back.

Edited by ebc, 12 August 2013 - 15:35.

[MP422]

No big deal to me, all the stuff i watch will still be on TV. Mainly NBCsports presume... F1 and Motocross/Supercross. Couldn't care less about the rest.

[Deluxx]

It has been cancelled for good. Why would FOX pick it up again since they were they ones who shutted it down in the first place...

It's been done before... and a man can dream

[KWSN - DSM]

NASCAR went from 200.000 spectators at Indy to 80.000 someone should be able to see that is not progress.

[SonnyViceR]

after football (soccer) Motorsport is the most popular sport in the world

And this is based on what?

Regarding NASCAR viewership values, it has gone down 32% from 2005 to 2012.
http://www.bizjourna...l.html?page=all

Also I urge you to listen through the (~ second hour of) this Midweek Motorsport podcast from few weeks ago, deals with the popularity of it in the US market as well as what the recently announced NBC tv deal means

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 15:50.

[SonnyViceR]

It's been done before... and a man can dream

Maybe, but Dave Despain would probably say "I'm too old for this ****"

[Ross Stonefeld]

When ever I blame the demise of something good for something worse on 'the business model does not work', I am being yelled down. But it the demise of Speed in it's various incarnations is through the Autoracing working under a broken business model.

Most racing on TV is becoming completely uninteresting, spectators are leaving in droves, and the all mighty commercial side buy everything to give us a diluted product.

No I think what happened was the parent company (Fox) wanted to compete with ESPN and had an eye on the growth of NBC Sports and realised an all-sports channel is better than a just cars channel.

[SonnyViceR]

Yes. But SPEED was the only of it's kind in US (despite having all of that reality crap in recent years). What FOX Sports 1 is basically the same as all the other general sports channels around, showing the same sports as them... networks don't specialize in anything anymore

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 16:12.

[Ross Stonefeld]

That's business for you. They'll make more money with a wider remit than the few of us watching Pass Time.

[SonnyViceR]

That's business for you. They'll make more money with a wider remit than the few of us watching Pass Time.

Yes, ratings are the key of course, however they could've let SPEED survive and have FOX Sports as a separate channel, not replacament. But then again the last few years of SPEED had been less about motorsport and more about... "can you be faster than redneck" typed BS TV shows and 6 hours of NASCAR previews per day. Oh and the ever so interesting Barrett jackson auctions, which will apparently continue on FOX... so you know.

SPEED had quite a few phases
1) Speedvision - awesomeness
2) SPEED when there was some NASCAR stuff but other ranges of motorsport (national and international) were still high in priority
3) SPEED in later stages when NASCAR 'took' over and controlled almost everything in TV listings
4) FOX Sports transformation

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 16:25.

[Ross Stonefeld]

But why have both? I don't think Speed was ever a big money turner for them. It was a place to park some extra NASCAR coverage and milk out a few more ad dollars from low-cost shows like hour and hours of NASCAR pre- and post-race coverage. That's why those shows existed, not because they were interesting or useful.

Let's look at it another way. With Speed become FS1 and Fuel becoming FS2, what programming are we actually losing?

The thing I'll miss is they probably won't fill the offseason with all the random racing like they have in the past. Even when you know all the DTM and V8 results it's kind of fun to watch it in December.

[SonnyViceR]

Like I said above already, there has been very little (non-NASCAR) motorsport programming left on SPEED in recent years and most of it has been -surprisingly- renewed for FOX Sports, so yes we are not actually "losing" that much. Minus the off season, midweek random racing + racing related TV shows, and a few smaller series.

However, again, what is going to happen - I can assure you - is reduced amount of coverage you are going to get when you have all of those other sports lined up for the weekend. You will either have partial live coverage, more tape delay or highlights. And most people don't have, or won't even be able to receive FUEL (= FOX Sports 2), which I'm sure will be the place where they are going to throw most of the USCR season for example. And they're not going to do anything about FS2's availability, as I read from certain interview

Edited by SonnyViceR, 12 August 2013 - 16:35.

[Skroob]

Will Speed destroy all copies of all the episodes of "Are You Faster Than A Redneck' ? Don't want someone else getting their hands on that.

[MP422]

Like I said above already, there has been very little (non-NASCAR) motorsport programming left on SPEED in recent years and most of it has been -surprisingly- renewed for FOX Sports, so yes we are not actually "losing" that much. Minus the off season, midweek random racing + racing related TV shows, and a few smaller series.

However, again, what is going to happen - I can assure you - is reduced amount of coverage you are going to get when you have all of those other sports lined up for the weekend. You will either have partial live coverage, more tape delay or highlights. And most people don't have, or won't even be able to receive FUEL (= FOX Sports 2), which I'm sure will be the place where they are going to throw most of the USCR season for example. And they're not going to do anything about FS2's availability, as I read from certain interview

Fuel is not HD it's almost unbearable to watch.

[ebc]

And this is based on what?

Common sense.

F1 is the most watched annual sporting event and that is just one category, just look at all the different categories you have, NASCAR, indycar, MotoGP, Le Mans, WRC, DTM, V8 Supercars, Superbikes etc.

If not motorsport then what? Tennis, Golf. People only care about Tennis when the grand slams are on same with golf and its majors the rest of the tournaments don't get mentioned at all. The attendances aren't great either except for the big games or tournaments. Last years Irish open in golf was the only competition in the European Tour history that sold out, so its not like all other sports are selling out stadiums all over the place. Soccer stadiums are only half full across Europe. Athletics is popular but it is not on every week so it always have a novelty factor going for it. Cricket is popular too but only across a few countries, same with Rugby, NFL, Basketball and Baseball. Most sports are struggling to bring in viewers because there is so much competition, we notice it more in motorsport because we watch it every week.

After Footbal(soccer) I can't think of any sport that is so popular across the world, pretty much every first world country has its own racing series that brings in a big audience.

[KWSN - DSM]

Ross is obviously correct.

The fact that we here have our little niche we want covered in depth and with quality mean nothing to the bean counters at 'insert sports entity and TV entity'. They all shoot for lowest common denominator, and we the niche viewers will still turn on and watch.

My personal belief is that there is room for both, or rather if they make the sport interesting rather than dumb it down, and if the coverage reflect that then the spectators and viewers are there to be had. Declining numbers for most sports, and red numbers for most franchises in the big sports can not be the way forward, I know that I am a broken record but the spec series have made a lot of the racing less interesting, and despite everyone knowing what is wrong and what can be made to solve it, that is never the way they go.

[Risil]

Let's look at it another way. With Speed become FS1 and Fuel becoming FS2, what programming are we actually losing?

How big are Fox's plans for their sports network? Marketing wise.

Because this looks like a big opportunity for MotoGP, Supercross, Formula E and USCR to become major shows in the years ahead. A Fox/NBC arms race could do a lot for the profile of various kinds of motor racing in the States.

I may be late at the funeral but what's happened to ESPN in all this?

Edited by Risil, 12 August 2013 - 17:23.

[SonnyViceR]

Seeing how horribly lazy FOX is covering USCC just in their second race (only first three hours of Sebring will be on FS1, the rest wasn't good enough even for the lame duck FS2 as the remaining 9 hours will be web-only), I think we can savely say that FOX Sports is doomed case for motorsport followers. Miss SPEED. Well I miss ALMS even more than SPEED but what can you do.

 

I think the initial USCC TV deal discussions went like this

 

Bennett: So in order for you to continue broadcasting NASCAR programming we also want you to host our sportscar series, as extra side commitment.

FOX representative: What series is that?

Atherton: What we wish to present to our proud nation is the Tudor United Sports Car Championship, the ultimate dream come true, brand new series that combines the best techn...

FOX representative: What the hell is that?

Ed Bennett: It's Grand-Am Sports Car Series we want you to continue covering.

FOX representative: Oh that.

Atherton: But I thought that...

France: Shut up Scott.

Atherton: Yes master.

Bennett: So it's alright for FOX family?

FOX representative: Whatever.

Bennett: We will have plenty of air time on Fox Sports 1 and ocassionally maybe even on the network, right?

FOX representative: We will sign the deal.

Bennett: Good, but you will cover this series wholeheartedly?

FOX representative: See ya later. *walks away*

France: We're in good hands.

Bennett: We are?

France: Sure we are, Sprint Cup is well covered this year.

Edited by SonnyViceR, 04 March 2014 - 19:56.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Pretty sure it was either last year or the one before, that Sebring wasn't live on TV. It was either ESPN.com or a tape-delay on Sunday.

[SonnyViceR]

Pretty sure it was either last year or the one before, that Sebring wasn't live on TV. It was either ESPN.com or a tape-delay on Sunday.

 

Sebring hasn't been live on (American) TV since ESPN/ABC ALMS deal was formed in 2011 but that is not the point and you should know it.

 

edit: Sorry I somehow forgot that the race was live on SPEED last year for the most part (finish was tape delayed), meant 2011-2012

Edited by SonnyViceR, 04 March 2014 - 20:09.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I'm not sure what your point is. The name is changed, the coverage of non-NASCAR motorsport is still pretty poor. I guess maybe there was some hope that since the 12hour is Grand-Am now it'd get a better TV deal, but I think live coverage of endurance racing will become more and more rare. Everywhere. 

 

So in that respect, it's just another year where Sebring coverage isn't great.

[Andrew Hope]

[Deluxx]

I miss Dave Despain :/

[loki]

Despain is on MAVTV this season and this spring will launch the Dave Despain show, a weekly motorsport interview/fan program.  They haven't released the air date but he's done a couple of races for MAVTV as a presenter/interviewer (started earlier this year at the Chili Bowl) and it's been good. Classic Despain.  Looking forward to his new show.

[Deluxx]

What really? Hmm, let me know if you hear anything else!