RIP Motorsports on TV

If the title caught your eye, do not worry. It's not all gone. But, looks like FOX will be killing off SPEED to make way for something unbelievably unnecessary. In the last 10 years, interest in racing has dwindled and it appears now that more people care about what Tim Tebow had for breakfast this morning than what got Kurt Busch in trouble this time. ESPN has stepped up it's coverage recently, but I still struggle to find mention of any motorsports on SportsCenter. NBC Sports Network has done a fantastic job with it's IndyCar coverage, and NASCAR and Formula 1 and all motorsports fans have SPEED. I might be just 17 years old, but my fondest memories as a kid come from watching SPEED. SPEED used to be the home of NASCAR. Many people disliked the network after the FOX buy out, but you can't deny that getting guaranteed NASCAR Cup, Nationwide, and Truck practice and qualifying, along with Formula 1 practice and qualifying, plus Grand-Am races, V8 Supercars, and a ton of other fantastic motorsports is pretty good. Heck, I'll even watch Monster Jam and AMA races. But with this recent bit of news here, looks like all that might be gone in the next few years.

FOX is planning to rebrand SPEED as FOX Sports 1 in the coming years. Why? They want to broadcast more baseball. Even if a state's specific FSN network is on basic cable, FOX seems to think that's not enough and they need to take away our only source of motorsports coverage. Now, rumor has it, we'll still have NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, possibly some practice and qualifying sessions, and maybe RaceHub and RaceDay. Who knows? No one knows what will become of the F1 coverage. Some sources claim a possible move back to ESPN. But I don't think anyone wants to see that the way ESPN treats their NASCAR and IndyCar coverage. (Albeit, it has gotten substantially better in the last couple of years.) I've also read that most programming could be moved to Fuel TV. A network even LESS people have. It's not a good business move by FOX. It's not good for NASCAR. It's not good for motorsports at all. FOX has some of the best people on staff. It is arguably one of the best teams in motorsports broadcasting history, but what they're about to do, will not only ruin their reputation as a network, but also possibly even further damage the reputation and interest level of motorsports as a whole.