| Speed | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | January 1, 1996 (United States) July 2005 (Latin America) |
| Closed | February 5, 2012 (Brazil) November 5, 2012 (Latin America) August 17, 2013 (United States) |
| Owned by | News Corporation (SPEED Channel Inc.) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV/16:9 letterbox) 720p (HDTV) |
| Slogan | The Motor Sports Authority |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Formerly called | Speedvision (1996–2002) Speed Channel (2002–2005) |
| Replaced by | Fox Sports 1 (United States; effective August 17, 2013) Fox Sports (Brazil) Fox Sports 3 (Latin America) |
| Sister channel(s) | Fox Sports Networks Fuel TV Fox Soccer Fox Soccer Plus Fox College Sports Fox Deportes Big Ten Network |
| Website | www.speedtv.com www.speedtv.com.au www.foxsports.com |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | Channel 607 (HD/SD) Channel 1607 (VOD) |
| Dish Network | Channel 150 (HD/SD) |
| Bell TV | Channel 417 |
| Shaw Direct | Channel 406 |
| Cable | |
| Available on most American cable providers | Check local listings |
| Vidéotron (Canada) | Channel 612 (HD) Channel 112 (SD) |
| IPTV | |
| AT&T U-verse | Channel 1652 (HD) Channel 652 (SD) |
| Verizon FiOS | Channel 583 (HD) Channel 83 (SD) |
| Bell Fibe TV (Canada) | Channel 417 |
| TELUS TV (Canada) | Channel 117 |
Speed is an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television channel dedicated to motorsports that is owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of News Corporation. The channel's headquarters are located at University Research Park in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Programming includes NASCAR-related shows, how-to programming, auto-related movies such as The Fast and the Furious, auto shows, less-popular racing series, a weekly news show, call-in shows, and reality shows. Speed is also the exclusive United States broadcaster of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, the Gatorade Duels at Daytona, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
On March 5, 2013, News Corporation announced that Speed will be relaunched as Fox Sports 1 on August 17, 2013, focusing on a broader array of sports programming (including some motorsports events) than those currently seen on Speed.[1][1][2][3]
Contents |
History [edit]
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2012) |
As Speedvision [edit]
The channel which eventually became Speed was launched on January 1, 1996 by Roger L. Werner, Jr., E. Roger Williams, Nickolas Rhodes and Robert Scanlon under the name Speedvision. Its original ownership included Cox Communications, Continental Cablevision and AT&T Corporation.
Its initial lineup featured various automotive programs, including various documentary-style series focusing on prolific vehicles, manufacturers, and racing teams (such as Victory by Design and Legends of Motorsport), series focusing on classic automobiles (such as Dream Car Garage, coverage of Barrett-Jackson's auctions, and My Classic Car, which moved to the network from TNN), an AutoWeek-branded television series, along with MotorWeek and Autoline Detroit—two programs syndicated from PBS member stations in Maryland and Detroit respectively. Speedvision also carried coverage of various minor and professional auto racing series, including the SCCA's World Challenge series (of which it also acquired title sponsorship of in 1999, becoming the Speedvision World Challenge).
Fox acquisition and NASCAR push [edit]
In the summer of 2001, News Corporation purchased a one-third ownership interest in Speedvision. In August 2001, the company negotiated to acquire the stakes held by Cox and Comcast, thus giving them majority control of the channel. Since Fox Sports had recently acquired broadcast rights to the first half of the NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup Series in a multi-year deal – Fox planned to leverage its ownership in Speedvision to introduce more supplemental programming for its NASCAR coverage to the network. To coincide with the 2002 Daytona 500, Speedvision changed its name to Speed Channel on February 11, 2002 (the "Channel" was dropped from the name in late 2005). In the following years, additional NASCAR-related programs were slowly brought onto to the schedule, ranging from news programs (such as Totally NASCAR, re-ran from Fox Sports Net), pre-race programs Trackside and NASCAR RaceDay, and the post-race NASCAR Victory Lane. Speed Channel also added a weekly call-in show in 2003, WindTunnel with Dave Despain, which features interviews and discussions relating to news and events in auto racing.
In later years starting in 2003, Speed began to carry NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series (after buying out the remainder of ESPN2's contract for the events), along with coverage of practices and qualifying races in NASCAR's main national series, the Gatorade Duels qualifying races, and the Sprint All-Star Race. Until late 2007, Speed also aired coverage of International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation events over the winter months – including bobsledding, luge and skeleton. Its winter sports coverage also included an annual charity bobsledding event organized by NASCAR driver and bobsled builder Geoff Bodine, which featured participation by various NASCAR drivers. Universal Sports acquired the rights to FIBT events beginning in the 2007-08 season.
Speed still maintained coverage of other professional racing series, such as the Rolex Sports Car Series (including the 24 Hours of Daytona), the American Le Mans Series (along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans), the newly renamed Speed World Challenge until 2010, and the Formula One World Championship. In recent years, these came along with an increasing number of reality series (such as the street racing-inspired Pinks, Unique Whips, Chop Cut Rebuild, the drag racing game show Pass Time, American Trucker and Hard Parts: South Bronx, along with reruns of the MTV series Pimp My Ride).
In 2011, Speed began carrying Australia's V8 Supercars series; it also aired live coverage of the Gold Coast 600 (where major international racers are invited to compete alongside Australian drivers) and Bathurst 1000 featuring Darrell Waltrip, Mike Joy, and Leigh Diffey on-location. The move was met with praise from series organizers who felt that the series could benefit from the additional exposure it would receive from American coverage – organizers had also recently announced the addition a new race at Austin's Circuit of the Americas for the 2013 season.[4]
On October 12, 2012, Fox Sports announced that it was unable to renew its contract to air Formula One racing on Speed after the conclusion of the 2012 season. Two days later, NBC Sports announced that it had reached a new four-year deal to broadcast F1 races beginning in the 2013 season, with the majority of its coverage to be carried by NBC Sports Network.[5][6] Three days later, Fox Sports reached an agreement with NASCAR to extend the channel's broadcasting contract through the 2022 season (maintaining its rights to the first half of the Sprint Cup season and the full Camping World Truck Series season), along with the addition of online streaming rights beginning in 2013.[7]
Relaunch as Fox Sports 1 [edit]
On March 5, 2013, Fox Sports announced that it would relaunch Speed as Fox Sports 1 on August 17, 2013. Fox has directly positioned the channel to be a major competitor to ESPN: studio programs featured on the channel will include the daily sports news program Fox Sports Live (which will compete directly against ESPN's SportsCenter), Rush Hour, a new early-evening program hosted by Regis Philbin, and Fox Football Daily (a companion program to Fox NFL Sunday).
Beginning in 2014, Fox Sports 1 will air 26 weeks worth of regular season Major League Baseball games and coverage of select post-season games (the Fox network will air significantly fewer games as a result), and select NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races will be moved to the network as early as 2015.[8][9] College football and basketball games from the Big East,[10] Big 12, Conference USA and Pac-12 conferences, soccer matches from the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and CONCACAF Champions League along with rights to the Men’s and Women’s FIFA World Cup tournaments and Ultimate Fighting Championship events and live fights will also be featured on the new network.[2]
Programming [edit]
Speed's current lineup includes coverage of various domestic and international motor racing series (including live and tape delayed coverage, along with news and highlight programs), along with factual series dealing with auto racing and automobiles, reality programs. A large amount of its programming is devoted to NASCAR events and coverage.[11]
On-air personalities [edit]
International [edit]
Canada [edit]
As Speedvision, Speed was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to be added to its list of non-Canadian channels approved for carriage on Canadian cable and satellite providers in 1997.[12] As such, Speed is carried by most Canadian television service providers. Some programming, particularly live Formula 1 events, are blacked out to protect TSN, the owner of F1 broadcast rights in Canada (unlike the American broadcast networks, foreign cable channels must own Canadian rights to the programming they distribute in Canada).[13]
With the launch of Fox Sports 1, the fate of the network in Canada is currently unknown.
Latin America [edit]
Speed's Latin American channel has live coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide Series, Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Also shows delayed coverage of World Series by Renault and NASCAR Mexico. Other programming includes highlights shows of Australia's V8 Supercars (delayed), British Formula Three Championship, FIA GT (months delayed), AMA Supercross (delayed), Monster Jam (delayed), Argentine TC 2000 and Turismo Carretera and Colombian T.C. 2000, as well as non-motorsport programs such as Grand Prix On Track, Grand Prix Story, Unique Whips, Tuner Mania and Pinks.
On February 5, 2012, this service will no longer be broadcast in Brazil, where it will be replaced by a local version of Fox Sports. From 2012, free practices for Formula 1 are broadcast live and delayed qualifying and races, and the races of GP2 Series and GP3 Series are broadcast live. On November 5, 2012, Speed Latin America was relaunched as Fox Sports 3.
Australia [edit]
Speed launched in Australia on November 1, 2010 on Foxtel in both standard and high definition.[14] After months of negotiations and controversy, on March 25, 2011, Speed and Speed HD launched on Austar (the regional Australia subscription television provider).[15] The Australian channel shows NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, V8 Supercars, and Superbike World Championship to name a few. The channel also has its own version of Speed News as well.
Speed HD [edit]
Speed operates a high-definition simulcast feed that broadcasts in the 720p resolution format, the standard HD format for News Corporation's U.S. television networks. Speed HD launched on February 8, 2008, and broadcasts all studio shows and most live sports events in high definition. Programs broadcast in HD by Speed are downconverted to the 480i letterboxing format for its standard definition feed.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b "Pedigree part of pitch for Fox Sports 1". SBD. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
- ^ a b Fox Reveals Details of New National Sports Network, Variety, March 5, 2013.
- ^ "Fox Sports Media Group Gives Rise To Fox Sports 1, A New National Multi-Sport Network (Press Release)". Fox Sports. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
- ^ "Waltrip joins US TV coverage of Bathurst 1000". Crash.net. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "SPEED coverage of Formula One comes to an end in 2012". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
- ^ "Formula 1 lands four-year deal with NBC". Racer. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
- ^ "NASCAR rides hot rights market to increase with Fox". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ "Fox Sports launches direct challenge to ESPN dominance". USA Today. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
- ^ "Fox Sports announces Fox Sports 1". Retrieved 5 March 2013.
- ^ Soon-to-be-renamed Big East, ESPN complete TV deal; contract runs through 2019-20 season, Fox News (via the Associated Press), March 19, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
- ^ Ourand, John; Mickle, Tripp (2 April 2012). "Will Fox launch all-sports network?". SportsBusinessDaily. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
- ^ Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (1997-07-22). "Public Notice CRTC 1997-96". Retrieved 2013-03-05.
- ^ Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (2013-02-13). "Revised list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution as of 13 February 2013". Retrieved 2013-03-05. "Authorization for the services on this list is subject to the following: Providers of these foreign services must have obtained and must remain in possession of all necessary rights for the distribution of their programming in Canada. [...]"
- ^ "SPEED is on the air". 'David Knox'. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
- ^ "AUSTAR News: SPEED Channel , About Austar – AUSTAR Television". 'Austar'. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
External links [edit]
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