We are nearing in on the final few telecasts of SPEED Channel. The Twitter handles have moved to one, the Facebook pages are on their way out, and very soon the reborn version of the country's first all motorsports network will come to an end in favor of the nation's biggest draw: ball sports.
Many pessimists view SPEED channel's demise as the failure of attracting enough audience to watch a 24 hour motorsport channel. I however, view this as a guide of what NOT to do when given a niche channel.
Let's take a popular network that closed up this year. G4. Last times I was watching G4 it seemed as if all they ever broadcasted was re runs of Cops. Sometimes there would be news about video games, but normally, just Cops and Cheaters re runs. Not exactly what I want to watch. Now let's look at SPEED. A channel for gearheads and motorsport fans. What did we get? Re runs of car based shows, terrible reality shows, and motorsports only on the weekends.
Sure there were re runs of Monster Jam and plenty of Lucas Oil based programming. But why was SPEED Center (which unfortunately has been cancelled beginning August 17th) not a daily show? Why was Race Hub the only daily show? If ESPN can ramble on about the same nonsense every single day on SportsCenter, who's to say SPEED couldn't have incorporated some elements of Wind Tunnel, Race Hub, SPEED Center, their failed NASCAR Nation, and SportsCenter to create a morning or afternoon news show?
SPEED had some great shows and it had some bad ones. Some of the good, Stacy David's Gearz, Hot Rod TV, Pass Time, and TruckU. The bad shows on the other hand, were much more obvious. R U Faster Than A RedNeck was and is an abomination to motorsport fans trying to not come across as hicks, Hard Parts: South Bronx had no general plotline at all, Wrecked: Life in the Crash Lane was cool for a few episodes but quickly lost appeal, Dumbest Stuff on Wheels was the absolute worst idea ever conceived, and few remember the awful Texas Hardtails. These terrible reality shows are exactly where Fox went wrong when creating programming for SPEED. It all began to go downhill quickly in 2005 with Texas Hardtails. SPEED should have stuck to programming about cars and re airing of classic races.
With all that said, all of us motorsports fans will still bid a somber goodbye as the channel created for us, whether we enjoyed it or not, airs for the final time on August 16th.
I feel like I've rambled on about this in my blog forever. But even with the aforementioned ramblings, there is some positive news looking our way. NBC Sports has been quick to get their hands on any motorsport contract up for grabs. They outbid Fox for Formula 1, they apparently took TORC and USAC races away from Fox, they want ARCA badly, and now they're in the hunt to grab up a NASCAR contract. So, NBC Sports alone will soon own the rights to Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, ARCA, Stadium Super Trucks, Motocross, Pirelli World Challenge, and the list will grow. If all Fox cares about is ball sports, NBC will be our saving grace providing us with premium coverage of every motorsport they find.
Now, will NBC rebrand Universal Sports or create a new all motorsports channel? That is unlikely seeing SPEED's fate. But, the ultimate hope for me at least is that we see the V8 Supercars and United Sports Car Racing on NBC Sports in the near future. It has already been made clear that most SPEED employee's, one big one being Bob Varsha, are riding out their contracts at Fox to soon join NBC Sports. Where Varsha will land is unknown at this point seeing as Leigh Diffey is doing a great job with IndyCar and Formula 1 coverage.
The only problem we face as of now is the endurance races. Fox is making it very clear that they plan on ignoring most of us motorsport fans when it comes to these. It is highly doubtful that we will see the full 24 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans be broadcasted. Even less likely is that there will be quality announcers on tap as they all leave for NBC. We could end up seeing a short highlight package be played late at night and headed by Darrell Waltrip for Daytona and Le Mans. They are stuck with the contract and must fulfill it. But I do guarantee you that once that contract is up, NBC Sports and their new NBC Sports Extra will be flooded to heavily for their coverage of the endurance races.
But what about the big dog, ESPN? I've talked a lot about Fox and praised NBC, but what about the network all the 'casual fans' and ball sport fans watch? They seem like they'll be transitioning to Fox Sports 1 come August for what they think will be 'better programming' when they'll get NASCAR and Danica shoved down their throats. ESPN has failed to recognize motorsport as a legitimate athletic sport since losing NASCAR, CART, Formula 1, and pretty much all of their original motorsport coverage many years ago. But it appears as if they want out of NASCAR. They don't treat NASCAR Now like it is a legitimate program, airing it at 1:30 in the morning. But their coverage is still some of the absolute best. They have good camera crews at their hand, a very appealing graphics package, and some of the best commentators in the business. Yet, they might either cut back on NASCAR, or cease broadcasting it at all. Yes, it is much more economical if ESPN covers the companion races and in the fall to have something to show instead of 7 hours of football pre, during, and post game, while they have but one NFL game...on Monday, but ESPN having motorsports at all is exactly what motorsports needs to gain traction and fans in the US. Fans flock to every NBA, NFL, and MLB game. Yet the average motorsport event fails to sell out. Albeit, most tracks are built to accommodate way more than they ever will, but ratings still take a hit.
ESPN gains publicity. If Danica changes her shoes, and ESPN has the right to cover it, it'll be the headline on SportsCenter. And even then, the SportsCenter anchors will always treat NASCAR and other motorsport like it is nothing more than fools turning left.
To wrap this post up, even with SPEED's future, there is still hope. As long as ESPN keeps NASCAR and NBC remains hungry for motorsport, SPEED won't be as massive of a loss as once projected.
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