Speed Channel

Post by **Londoner** » 12 Oct 2012, 19:41

I suppose some of our American members have heard the news that Speed will no longer be showing F1 after this season.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-series-moves-forward-with-new-media-partner-in-2013/

And judging by his Twitter feed, this announcement has caught Will Buxton totally unawares.

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 12 Oct 2012, 19:46

Yeah, I could tell from not just Buxton but also Varsha's Twitter feeds that they knew something was up but they legitimately didn't know what was going to happen. I know this basically puts Wil out of a job, but about Varsha, Hobbs, and Matchett? Will NBC hire their own commentating crew?

Either way, I don't like where this is going. If worse comes to worse and there is no F1 coverage in America next year (But that's an unlikely worst-case scenario), I'm sure I can always find a BBC/Sky feed and watch that, but it definitely won't be the same :cry:

Benetton · Post by **Benetton** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:09

Feel really bad for Buxton. Hopefully he`ll stay with the sport as he is one of the better journalists out there.

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:20

Who's gonna air F1 in the States? NBCSN? That's a pretty bad substitution. Who negotiated the deal, Tony George?

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:26

Honestly its no big loss. Speed used to be awesome. F1, GP2, WRC, Dakar, DTM, Aussie V8s, Grand-Am, BTCC, ALMS, and IHRA Drag Racing. Plus there used to be 15+ hours of both 24s. Now WRC is on Velocity, ALMS is on ESPN 8 (The Ocho!), Dakar went to Versus, BTCC and IHRA were just dropped, and DTM and the V8s are shown months after the races are run, edited into a half hour block. Plus there was only about 12 hours of Le Mans this year, and less than 8 Hours of the Daytona 24. What do they show? NASCAR, NASCAR Trucks, ARCA (NASCAR's Formula Ford), NASCAR Pre-Pre Race shows, Pre Race shows, and Post Race Shows, a NASCAR American Idol, a NASCAR Cooking show, and 6 Hours week of Barrett Jackson reruns. Also awful reality shows like PINKS (which was rigged), Texas Hardtails, Unique Whips, and that Brooklyn junkyard show. Eck.

As for the commentators, good riddence. Matchett was the only one worth a damn honestly. The others were openly pro-hammy, and Varsha often rambled about his son's Star Mazada races (like thats a comparsion). Also they welcomed back Peter Windsor after his USF1 Debacle and said "it was in the past, forgive and move on." Really? Seriously? I hope NBCSN gets the contract, they have awesoe Indycar coverage, and they used to have Rally America and the Dakar rally on there too. Time for new blood.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:27

Ferrarist wrote:Who's gonna air F1 in the States? NBCSN? That's a pretty bad substitution. Who negotiated the deal, Tony George?

Have you watched Indycar on NBC? Its coverage is top notch, far better than ABC's.

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:39

Wallio wrote:
Ferrarist wrote:Who's gonna air F1 in the States? NBCSN? That's a pretty bad substitution. Who negotiated the deal, Tony George?

Have you watched Indycar on NBC? Its coverage is top notch, far better than ABC's.

I did, and I can't complain about that. But what use does good coverage have, if said station doesn't score good enough ratings?

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:43

Ferrarist wrote:
Wallio wrote:
Ferrarist wrote:Who's gonna air F1 in the States? NBCSN? That's a pretty bad substitution. Who negotiated the deal, Tony George?

Have you watched Indycar on NBC? Its coverage is top notch, far better than ABC's.

I did, and I can't complain about that. But what use does good coverage have, if said station doesn't score good enough ratings?

Fair point, but I'd bet the difference in viewers in no inal. Foe example both Speed and NBCSN are both part of the same tier on Directv. Neither is that great, both are the proverbial "8th tier" packages, but I won't view this as a downgrade, more of a sideways step.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:47

Why can't TV producers realize that the only way to make money on television is to make good shows??

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 12 Oct 2012, 20:59

F1 is on the way out because SPEED as a channel is on the way out. Greedy brit Murdoch has got speed by the bollocks and is kicking them out the door to make way for Fox Sports Net(like the fifth sports channel they own) by 2014.
2014 is shaping up to be a Turbulent(pun intended lol) year for motorsports all around the array of disciplines.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 12 Oct 2012, 21:14

nome66 wrote:F1 is on the way out because SPEED as a channel is on the way out. Greedy brit Murdoch has got speed by the bollocks and is kicking them out the door to make way for Fox Sports Net(like the fifth sports channel they own) by 2014.
2014 is shaping up to be a Turbulent(pun intended lol) year for motorsports all around the array of disciplines.

Ah, that makes more sense. FOX does own a TON of sports channels. Theres about a dozen or so "Fox Sports (Insert Region Here)" that air localish sports teams along with the same half dozen infomercials, Speed, Speed 2 (Think ESPN3.com), Scout TV, something called the Yardbarker Network, Fox Sports Digital (online), and the Fox Soccer Channel, which used to be Fox Sports World. Plus Fox News, Fox Buisness Channel, and Fox itself. Looks like Speed is the second Fox Sports inetity to rebrand, as I said Fox Soccer was Fox Sports World and brought us Americans all sorts of European sports (funny F1 wasn't on there, eh?) until they realized only soccer made money. There were rumors 2-3 years ago when the last F1 contract was up, that Speed was going to morph into the NASCAR Network, as Kimi would say wewillsee.....

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 12 Oct 2012, 21:15

Wallio wrote:Have you watched Indycar on NBC? Its coverage is top notch, far better than ABC's.

Are we talking about the same coverage that let Marco Andretti's swear-filled radio transmission in Long Beach and Will Power's double-bird salute at Loudon go uncensored last year? Not to mention the "side-by-side" coverage is anything but, and they always miss the action on track when they're not racing on an oval. Plus, I just don't like Bob Jenkins as a commentator; I'm so glad he's retired.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 12 Oct 2012, 21:25

Rocks with Salt wrote:
Wallio wrote:Have you watched Indycar on NBC? Its coverage is top notch, far better than ABC's.

Are we talking about the same coverage that let Marco Andretti's swear-filled radio transmission in Long Beach and Will Power's double-bird salute at Loudon go uncensored last year? Not to mention the "side-by-side" coverage is anything but, and they always miss the action on track when they're not racing on an oval. Plus, I just don't like Bob Jenkins as a commentator; I'm so glad he's retired.

Will Power at NH was ABC as is "Side-by-Side" (NBCSN has their own version, but they use it much less) as for swearing, if a racing driver saying a few naughty words into the radio bothers you might I suggest a new sport? Like badminton? NASCAR drivers (who air on Fox), F1 drivers (who air on Speed), etc all curse and 90% don't get caught by the seven-second delay. What's that have to do with anything?

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 13 Oct 2012, 02:11

Well, this comes as no surprise to me. I used to watch SPEED all the time back in the day when they showed rallying, historical F1 races (F1 Decade was awesome!), V8 Supercars and DTM. As other users have noted, the channel has gone from the best racing channel outside of Europe (IMO) to the NASCAR Network. I find NASCAR incredibly dull. Thus, I stopped watching SPEEDTV altogether, except for the F1/GP2 coverage. Even then I had to deal with constant ad breaks, annoying tape delayed race broadcasts on FOX and Westbury Gillet. I like Will Buxton a lot and I find the Matchett/Hobbs/Varsha combo to be quite entertaining but it's become quite clear in recent years that they have absolutely no commitment to the sport, an attitude that matches up well with the rest of the American market. To be honest, I'm open to change as long as I don't have to get one of those expensive TV packages to watch Formula 1. I would just find some Sky stream at that point.

DOSBoot · Post by **DOSBoot** » 13 Oct 2012, 02:17

The Speed Channel (or Speedvision for those with long memories) has been going downhill ever since they were bought out by Fox. Nothing but NASCAR, Barret Jackson, and crappy "reality" shows that most cable channels have sadly emulated over again, and again. I really hate it when they mention a Barret Jackson auction commercial comes on, trying to make it look like the next big thing while this is going through my head. F1 coverage in the U.S. is better off without the Speed. I just hope whoever takes it isn't an oddball channel that I do not have on my service plan.

McDuck · Post by **McDuck** » 13 Oct 2012, 11:18

DOSBoot wrote:The Speed Channel (or Speedvision for those with long memories) has been going downhill ever since they were bought out by Fox.

100% correct. Speedvision's motorsport coverage was freaking amazing back in the day. Formula 1, LeMans, WRC, World Challenge, etc. Tons of quality racing and so many good memories.

I remember reading a pro-Fox propaganda article in Car&Driver or something after they bought Speedvision and renamed it Speed. The Fox executive claimed that they were only going to "enhance" the channel with a little NASCAR coverage, but that everything else would remain untouched (except for boat racing).

Lies.

At this point I don't really have a need for cable TV anymore. 95% of the stuff on now is crap. I'm going to stream/torrent the 5% I want and save $700-$800 a year.

tzerof1 · Post by **tzerof1** » 13 Oct 2012, 16:15

This change is something I welcome, good to see America's F1 coverage out of the grasp of the Murdoch empire. As far as I know the only exclusive to satellite/cable channel NBC owns is CNBC, which just broadcasts political publicocrap all day, so F1 wouldn't be being broadcast there. Which means that F1 would have all the races broadcast on NBC's free-air local channels in all probability. That would be really great for F1 here in the US if it can reach reach a much broader audience than the satellite/cable subscribers 20 times(currently) a year instead of the current 4.

The only question I have is: If the races are broadcast on the free-air affiliate stations, will it be time delayed in some way?

For example: Friday practice 2 for the European/Bahrain rounds usually starts around 7:00 CST. Qualifying is around 7:30 CST Saturday morning. And the race broadcast starts at 6:30 CST

To broadcast these live in those timeslots puts it directly in conflict with NBC's "Today Show", which for those who don't know, is a national news and talk show broadcast every morning, 7 days a week. Also in conflict with Saturday morning cartoons broadcast, and on race day it would also conflict with "Meet the Press" (another political commentary/publicocrap type of show).

So would the European action be time delayed in favour of these programs or would the programs be pre-empted in favour of F1?

It wouldn't be an issue with the Australian, Asian, North and South American rounds because live they broadcast in the late evening/early morning, noon/midafernoon, and mid morning/ early afternoon respectively. With no major programming conflicts that I can think of (though perhaps some fellow Americans here may think of something I may have missed).

Also, Hobbs and Matchett should be grafted into the new commentary team I think.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 13 Oct 2012, 17:46

Uhhhh hate to be the one to tell ya, but NBC owns a TON of cable stations. CNBC, which is stock market crap, MSNBC, which is politics, NBCSN, which is where F1 is going, Bravo which is a style network, and USA which just shows Law and Order repeats. Sorry but F1 is not coming to NBC proper (well except for the mandatory 4 network races anyway). Its going to NBC Sports Network a low tier cable channel like Speed. (But better). And no to Hobbs/Varsha.

Row Man Gross-Gene · Post by **Row Man Gross-Gene** » 13 Oct 2012, 17:50

I hope buxton gets offered a job at the new network.

tzerof1 · Post by **tzerof1** » 13 Oct 2012, 18:30

Wallio wrote:Uhhhh hate to be the one to tell ya, but NBC owns a TON of cable stations. CNBC, which is stock market crap, MSNBC, which is politics, NBCSN, which is where F1 is going, Bravo which is a style network, and USA which just shows Law and Order repeats. Sorry but F1 is not coming to NBC proper (well except for the mandatory 4 network races anyway). Its going to NBC Sports Network a low tier cable channel like Speed. (But better). And no to Hobbs/Varsha.

I figured NBC had an expansive empire something like that but I didn't know. Probably because NBC doesn't go getting themselves in massive scandals like the Murdoch empire. And as for NBC Sports Network, anything has got to be better than "NASCAR punctuated by reality show re-runs and time delayed coverage of other series that nobody knows/cares about, and other series that people do care about aired at a completely stupid time channel." Do you know if NBC is getting the rights to GP2 coverage as well or is it just F1? Also, with the rights change I can only hope that NBC's online news article coverage of F1 will be significantly less supermarket tabloid rag like in contrast to Speed's.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 13 Oct 2012, 18:54

I remember that during the prior Speed negotiations they said GP2 is a package with F1 but I have no idea if thats true. I certainly hope so. Trust me, NBCSN is worlds better than Speed. They are collecting a neat variety of sports. NHL, MLS, UFC, WEC, Indycar, Tour de France, Dakar rallye, ADRL drag racing, Bassmaster classic, and now F1. All their coverage is top-notch. NBC has said they eventually want NBCSN to be as big as ESPN and as such have thrown a ton of money into it. This F1 bid is just more proof of their commitment.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 13 Oct 2012, 19:02

Wallio wrote:I remember that during the prior Speed negotiations they said GP2 is a package with F1 but I have no idea if thats true. I certainly hope so. Trust me, NBCSN is worlds better than Speed. They are collecting a neat variety of sports. NHL, MLS, UFC, WEC, Indycar, Tour de France, Dakar rallye, ADRL drag racing, Bassmaster classic, and now F1. All their coverage is top-notch. NBC has said they eventually want NBCSN to be as big as ESPN and as such have thrown a ton of money into it. This F1 bid is just more proof of their commitment.

TdF and Indycar? What happened to Versus, I thought they only bought the rights to these three or four years ago?

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 13 Oct 2012, 19:04

kostas22 wrote:
Wallio wrote:I remember that during the prior Speed negotiations they said GP2 is a package with F1 but I have no idea if thats true. I certainly hope so. Trust me, NBCSN is worlds better than Speed. They are collecting a neat variety of sports. NHL, MLS, UFC, WEC, Indycar, Tour de France, Dakar rallye, ADRL drag racing, Bassmaster classic, and now F1. All their coverage is top-notch. NBC has said they eventually want NBCSN to be as big as ESPN and as such have thrown a ton of money into it. This F1 bid is just more proof of their commitment.

TdF and Indycar? What happened to Versus, I thought they only bought the rights to these three or four years ago?

Versus transmorphed into the NBC Sports Network

.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 13 Oct 2012, 21:12

How do we know NBCSN will get the American F1 coverage?

McDuck · Post by **McDuck** » 14 Oct 2012, 11:20

JeremyMcClean wrote:How do we know NBCSN will get the American F1 coverage?

Rumor, plus it's the only thing that makes the most sense.

A mostly tape delayed season on broadcast TV would seriously cripple F1 in America, and undermine the efforts at Austin and New Jersey.

NBCSN isn't on many cable systems at the moment. Once NBC and FOM confirm their new contract (and Speed mutates into Spike TV-lite), they should be able to recoup some of their Bernie losses by shopping the network to more providers.

It should be a fairly easy and straightforward pitch. It will basically be part "old" Speed and part content for the younger ADHD crowd.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 14 Oct 2012, 14:20

McDuck wrote:
JeremyMcClean wrote:How do we know NBCSN will get the American F1 coverage?

Rumor, plus it's the only thing that makes the most sense.

A mostly tape delayed season on broadcast TV would seriously cripple F1 in America, and undermine the efforts at Austin and New Jersey.

NBCSN isn't on many cable systems at the moment. Once NBC and FOM confirm their new contract (and Speed mutates into Spike TV-lite), they should be able to recoup some of their Bernie losses by shopping the network to more providers.

It should be a fairly easy and straightforward pitch. It will basically be part "old" Speed and part content for the younger ADHD crowd.

ESPN?

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 15 Oct 2012, 13:52

The Associated Press has confirmed that NBC Sports will get the US rights to Formula 1 coverage. I am in favor of broadcasting the last three races on NBC so we don't have the ridiculous six hour time delay that we got when they put the European races on FOX.

McDuck · Post by **McDuck** » 15 Oct 2012, 14:20

JeremyMcClean wrote:ESPN?

They're owned by Disney.

The Associated Press wrote:All 20 races will be live streamed on NBC Sports Group's live-stream platform.

Most excellent. :mrgreen:

EDIT:

livestream.nbcsports.com wrote:The NBC Sports player uses Microsoft Silverlight which can be installed by clicking the button below. It takes less than a minute, and you won't need to restart your computer.

Uggggggh...

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 16 Oct 2012, 18:06

Oh dear lord this is not starting off on the right foot at all...

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 17 Oct 2012, 14:07

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 13935.html

Over 100 hours of F1, and both Montreal and Austin on free NBC (hopefully live). This is a great start.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 17 Oct 2012, 16:35

so yeah it's NBC. NBC's motorsports coverage has been good for whoever signed the contract

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 18 Oct 2012, 23:50

The live streaming thing looks very promising; hopefully I won't have to scramble around for a stream like I did with all the European races on FOX last year...

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 29 Oct 2012, 02:11

For what its worth, NBCSN just acquired exclusive rights to the EPL starting in August. Those rights can't be cheap. Just more proof of NBC's big push with this network.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 29 Oct 2012, 03:13

Wallio wrote:For what its worth, NBCSN just acquired exclusive rights to the EPL starting in August. Those rights can't be cheap. Just more proof of NBC's big push with this network.

Exclusive? Indeed, that will be extremely pricey. If they are going to be high-brow then I presume NBC aren't going to touch NASCAR with a 10 foot pole?

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 29 Oct 2012, 21:10

Well exclusive over here anyway. And I can't see them broadcasting NASCAR if fo no other reason than Fox and ESPN have re-upped their deals. Now the truck and arca series used to be on Speed, so who knows where that will go when it folds.

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 27 Nov 2012, 05:05

Fairly emotional sign-off for the SPEEDTV crew.The end is nigh. Thanks for the memories, guys.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 27 Nov 2012, 05:39

damn near cried when i first saw this. i've grown up with Speedvision/channel. being born in '94 my first f1 race i remember watching was Monaco in '97.
Bob Varsha is one of, if not THE greatest announcer i've ever had the privilege to listen to during a race.
also Sam Posey's narrated intros and highlights really are one of my favorite parts of watching the telecasts on Speed. ... *sniff*
it's a real shame Bob and Sam aren't following Matchett, Hobbs, and Diffey to NBC next year.
i'm gonna miss those guys. Bob's only job now is comment on that boring car auction thing.(i talk down to it to help curb my gambling issues. i've tried many many times to win an ipad lol)
ALSO:: will WEC/24h of LeMans coverage be moved to NBC?

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 27 Nov 2012, 06:02

It was truly sad to watch the final minutes of the SPEED broadcast, it was abundantly clear Varsha was doing everything he could to keep his composure. FOX owns his soul, and if he were not legally bound to them, then he would be off to NBC Sports without question. He's gone, for now - motorsport means more to him than anything else, we will see him again.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 27 Nov 2012, 20:03

i just remembered something.
I don't expect any improvement in coverage on NBC. Going by how poor the coverage of the Olympics was, it's going to be pretty bad actually.
NBC only seems to care about the NFL and copying ABC's and FOX's non-sports programming. Motorsports have not had a good run on this network i've noticed.
Prepare for a an ITV/Sky Sports style run in the USA.

macherone · Post by **macherone** » 27 Nov 2012, 20:21

nome66 wrote:i just remembered something.
I don't expect any improvement in coverage on NBC. Going by how poor the coverage of the Olympics was, it's going to be pretty bad actually.
NBC only seems to care about the NFL and copying ABC's and FOX's non-sports programming. Motorsports have not had a good run on this network i've noticed.
Prepare for a an ITV/Sky Sports style run in the USA.

NBC's NASCAR broadcasts used to be good before they went to TNT.

Sad thing here in Latin America is we lost Speed too. There we could see NASCAR, Nationwide, NCWTS, BTCC, V8 Supercars, LMS, ALMS, Grand-Am live (they pass a highlight show at ESPN like, a month later...), Brit F3, some Argentinian highlights... Damn, even that Pinks "reality" and Monster Jam were entertaining.

Now we have Fox Sports 3, that means soccer, soccer, soccer, F1 practices, soccer, maybe Sprint Cup and soccer. There are days when you can do zapping and find that the 7 (yes, SEVEN) sports channels on my Claro TV deal have soccer.