Speed Channel RIP - December 31st, 1995 to August 16th, 2013

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Speed Channel RIP - December 31st, 1995 to August 16th, 2013


Speed_Channel_Logo_01.jpg


Today marks the end of an era with the end of Speed Channel.

RIP
Speed Channel
December 31st, 1995
August 16th, 2013​


Starting tomorrow, Saturday, August 17th, 2013 Fox Sports 1 will replace Speed Channel. A lot of your favorite "Car Guy" TV shows have moved to Velocity Channel like, My Classic Car with Dennis Gage and Car Crazy with Barry Meguiar.

Some shows like Truck U with Bruno Massel and Matt Steele and Two Guys Garage with Kevin Byrd and Willie B have moved over to GAC or Great American Country channel.


Speed Channel started out as Speedvision but then in 2002 it changed to Speed Channel. The change in content is due to Fox deciding to compete directly against ESPN for the loyal and strong sports enthusiasts audience.

I personally have been a long time viewer and fan of Speed Channel being a "Car Guy" and of course during it's run I had good fortune and blessing of being on a number of Speed Channel TV Shows.

A pretty good selection of these shows can be viewed here,

Autogeek As Seen On TV


Or clicking on the As Seen On TV icon at the top of each webpage.




Kind of sad to see her go but sometimes change is a good thing...

Anyone else have an opinion about the end of Speed Channel and the start of Fox Sports 1?

:)
 
I don't care much for sports in general so the last thing I need is another ESPN like channel. You go where the money is though so if the ratings justify the change, that I guess brings about that change.

I liked having a channel like Speed Channel to turn on and watch car stuff. I guess it'll just be a little more complicated to find the cool car shows now. I used to like to watch Pinks All Out while winding the day down before bed. Don't even know if that show is still going. Liked Pass Time too.
 
I hate that it's going away but boy I can't stop staring at the fox sports southwest girls... Liddy and Kaime. drooooollll
 
:cry:

I will miss Speed a lot as motorsports and automotive related programming are one of my primary interests. The new Fox Sports 1 has very little interest to me.
 
I'll miss Pinks. I like Fox Sports 1 as I am a UFC fan.
 
I'll miss SPEED. I've been watching since it was Speed Vision, long before the FOX ownership days.

I always enjoyed a wide variety of the car programing, but I must admit I watched SPEED less when they stoped or limited their coverage of race series like Le Mans, DTM, WRC, GT2 and other SCCA classes. They used to have great Dakar and Baja 1000 coverage too.

It's good to see that some of the better programming is moving to Velocity. I like some of what they put on now, but you can tell they need more content to fill up their schedule in order to make it a "true" auto/motor sports channel.
 
Barrett-Jackson coverage is changing. I saw their Las Vegas auction schedule and they will be bouncing around from Fox Sports 1, Sports 2 and National Geographic.
 
Yep, it's too bad it's getting swallowed up and neutered to become an ESPN clone.

Durign the Barrett Jackson auctions on Speed last week, as they announced the end of Speed, I noticed that the big day of the next auction in Las Vegas next month will be televised on the National Geographic channel.

You read that right...that National Geographic channel.

Meanwhile, the Velocity channel, which was supposed to be a "man vs machine" oriented network, seems to now have about a third or more of its programming that would actually be a better fit on the National Geographic channel.

It's really sad to look back 10-15 years at the programming each of the major cable networks used to provide, versus the stuff they now air which has no resemblance to their original mission.
 
SR99 said:
It's really sad to look back 10-15 years at the programming each of the major cable networks used to provide, versus the stuff they now air which has no resemblance to their original mission.
Click to expand...

So very true. I think the Discovery family are some of the worst offenders.

I'm really hoping the whole reality TV craze runs it's course soon.
 
Speed Vision was excellent and very diverse. They had a little bit of something for every type of speed freak. Hi-Po Planes, Cars, Boats and Motorcycles! Pre Fox was the best! Early Speed was good too. Who remembers the WRC New Years day marathons! What a great way to nurse a hangover and catch up on the whole season. What I find most inconvenient is that now I have to watch way to many different channels to get my car guy fix. This also leads to missing many good shows that at times I didn't even know were on. Can't remember how many times I missed Victory by design because of that. Hey my DVR only holds so much. This year was a pain following F1, pre and post race on one channel race on another. I say the time is right for a Speed Vision like channel. Lets get back to basics. Hope Velocity picks up the ball and runs with it!
 
I remember those WRC marathons, even though I watched the regular airings I would always watch it, they even carried BTCC too! I also remember a show called "Motorvision" as well, would cover cool Euro cars we didn't get here.

Just what we need, another sports channel with retired jocks and some bimbette's, terrible. I hope Velocity trms the fat and gives us the good stuff, love Wheeler Dealers!

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online
 
I'm a UFC fan and I look forward to the new channel. I rarely watched speed channel as it is. Anything car related I watch on velocity. The only thing I watched on speed is west coast customs and that will be shown on fox sports.
 
A dollar and cents explanation for the demise of speed from car and driver.

The driving force to create Fox Sports 1 (FS1) from the ashes of Speed was “subscriber revenue.” Sports channels like FS1 can be big moneymakers. In 2012, Speed was reportedly collected $0.22 per month per subscriber, while ESPN was commanding $5.04 per month, according to SNL Kagan. FS1 is projected to charge $0.80 per month against 90 million subscribers (ESPN has 100 million). Forecasting out several years, this is the difference between Speed garnering $350 million from subscribers to FS1 amassing $1 billion from the same people, through rebranding and simply mixing up the programming.
 
Sorry but this whole deal sucks. Hate to be so negative but I'm not a stick and ball sports fan. I have been a gear head as far back as I can remember. Now with Speed Channel just a memory I watch Velocity while in the house but when I venture out to the shop I'm screwed. Velocity is a HD channel and requires another box which I don't have nor do I want to purchase. If this is considered progress then so be it but I think I'll pass and find something more constructive to spend my spare time doing. Now I'll get off my soap box. :(
 
2old2change said:
Sorry but this whole deal sucks. Hate to be so negative but I'm not a stick and ball sports fan. I have been a gear head as far back as I can remember. Now with Speed Channel just a memory I watch Velocity while in the house but when I venture out to the shop I'm screwed. Velocity is a HD channel and requires another box which I don't have nor do I want to purchase. If this is considered progress then so be it but I think I'll pass and find something more constructive to spend my spare time doing. Now I'll get off my soap box. :(
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Velocity also doesn't seem to carry a lot of the racing you'd see on Speed, or even better, back when it was SpeedVision.

I do watch some Football, Baseball, and Hockey, but still want my auto fix. I have to admit that once Speed when heavy on the NASCAR content, my viewership went WAY down.
 
2old2change said:
Sorry but this whole deal sucks.
Click to expand...

Ditto :mad: (without the "sorry" part)

Even though Mike Joy will be with the new crappy network, he doesn't sound very enthusiastic either!

More football, soccer and UFC ;puke:

[video=youtube_share;VhFvIJJDDwY"]SPEED TV Transition to Fox Sports 1 - YouTube[/video]
 
mchess1 said:
A dollar and cents explanation for the demise of speed from car and driver.

The driving force to create Fox Sports 1 (FS1) from the ashes of Speed was “subscriber revenue.” Sports channels like FS1 can be big moneymakers. In 2012, Speed was reportedly collected $0.22 per month per subscriber, while ESPN was commanding $5.04 per month, according to SNL Kagan. FS1 is projected to charge $0.80 per month against 90 million subscribers (ESPN has 100 million). Forecasting out several years, this is the difference between Speed garnering $350 million from subscribers to FS1 amassing $1 billion from the same people, through rebranding and simply mixing up the programming.
Click to expand...

ESPN has ALWAYS charged WAY more ($/subscriber/month) than any other cable network. The next closest ones are in the $1-$1.75/sub/month range and there are only a few of those (TNT for example). The vast majority of cable networks are charging cable operators under 50 cents/sub/month. We all pay for hundreds of channels we never watch, but allegedly the cable industry would crumble if people only paid for the channels they wanted (a la carte subscription, as it's called)

Besides, all this means is either our cable rates will go up for a channel with little interesting content for most people (or just redundant with ESPN), or it will be moved to a new premium tier.

It's not like there's a scarcity of available cable channels and they had to swallow Speed because there were no spaces available.
 
2old2change said:
Sorry but this whole deal sucks. Hate to be so negative but I'm not a stick and ball sports fan. I have been a gear head as far back as I can remember. Now with Speed Channel just a memory I watch Velocity while in the house but when I venture out to the shop I'm screwed. Velocity is a HD channel and requires another box which I don't have nor do I want to purchase. If this is considered progress then so be it but I think I'll pass and find something more constructive to spend my spare time doing. Now I'll get off my soap box. :(
Click to expand...
I'm with you too, the whole thing just blows. First I lose Versus to NBC for their stupid sports network, now Fox decides it needs to get in on it too. ABC/ESPN is probably laughing their a***s off.
 
To many channels of crap, comcast sucks I hate it, I will miss speed.
 
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