As Speedvision The network originally launched as
Speedvision on December 31, 1995. The network was one of two (the other being the
Outdoor Life Network) formed out of a partnership of
Cox Cable and
Times Mirror which had combined their cable systems operations in 1994. In July 1995, Times Mirror decided to reassess its media holdings and reduced its stake in the two planned networks to 10%.
Comcast and
Continental Cablevision were brought on as new partners. Speedvision was planned by former
ESPN executive
Roger L. Werner, E. Roger Williams and Robert Scanlon. The network offered a mix of automotive, boating, and aviation programming. Speedvision's 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 respectively syndicated from
PBS member stations in
Maryland and
Detroit. Speedvision also carried coverage of various minor and professional auto racing series, including the
Sports Car Club of America's
World Challenge series (of which it also acquired
title sponsorship of in 1999, becoming the
Speedvision World Challenge),
American Le Mans Series,
NASCAR Winston West Series,
ARCA Racing Series,
Formula One, and the
Pep Boys Indy Racing League.
Fox acquisition and NASCAR push In 1998, the
Fox Entertainment Group (then a subsidiary of
News Corporation) purchased a 30% ownership interest in Speedvision. In May 2001, Fox negotiated a deal to acquire the stakes held by Cox and
Comcast, thus giving them majority control of the network. Since
Fox Sports had recently acquired
broadcast rights to the first half of the
NASCAR Busch and
Winston Cup Series in a six-year deal, Fox planned to leverage Speedvision as an outlet for supplemental NASCAR programming. 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 continued to maintain 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. By the mid 2000s, 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). By 2008, Speed was carried in over 73 million households. In 2011, Speed began carrying Australia's
V8 Supercars series; it also aired live coverage of the
Gold Coast 600 (where major international drivers competed in teams alongside Australian drivers) and the
Bathurst 1000 featuring
Darrell Waltrip,
Mike Joy,
Leigh Diffey, and Calvin Fish 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—the series would also add a U.S. event at
Austin's
Circuit of the Americas for the 2013 season. On October 12, 2012, Fox Sports announced that it would not 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. Three days later, Fox Sports reached an agreement with NASCAR to extend the network's broadcasting contract through the 2022 season (maintaining its rights to the first half of the Cup Series and the full NASCAR Truck Series), along with the addition of online streaming rights beginning in 2013.
International expansion Speed became available in
Canada shortly after its U.S. launch. As Speedvision, Speed was approved by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to be added to its list of foreign cable networks approved for carriage on Canadian cable and satellite providers in 1997. As such, Speed was carried by most Canadian television service providers. Prior to August 2013, Canadian viewers saw a largely identical schedule as the U.S. channel, although some programming, particularly live Formula 1 events, were
blacked out to protect
TSN, which holds domestic broadcast rights to F1 events (under CRTC rules, foreign services must own Canadian broadcast rights to the content they air). However, this point became moot when NBC Sports Network obtained rights to F1 events beginning with the 2013 season, as that network is not available in Canada. The Latin American version of Speed was launched on November 5, 2005 with a Brazilian version following in July 2006, carrying live coverage of the NASCAR Cup, Nationwide Series, and Truck Series,
Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series (including 24 Hours of Le Mans), and the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. It also aired delayed coverage of the
World Series by Renault and
NASCAR Mexico. Other programming included highlights shows including
British Formula Three Championship, the Argentine
TC 2000 and
Turismo Carretera, and the Colombian T.C. 2000 and delayed highlights of Australia's V8 Supercars,
FIA GT (airing on a few months delay),
AMA Supercross and
Monster Jam, as well as non-motorsport programs such as
Grand Prix on Track,
Grand Prix Story,
Unique Whips,
Tuner Mania and
Pinks. Speed launched in Australia on November 1, 2010 on
Foxtel in both
standard and
high definition. After months of negotiations and controversy, on March 25, 2011, Speed and Speed HD launched on subscription television provider
Austar. Among other racing events, the Australian network aired NASCAR Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series, V8 Supercars and Superbike World Championship with the network also having its own version of
Speed News. Unlike the U.S. version, it was owned by
Fox Sports Pty Limited, a subsidiary of
News Corp Australia – which no longer was directly connected to 21st Century Fox due to its inclusion in the
split of News Corporation. On February 5, 2012, the Latin American channel was replaced in
Brazil by a domestic version of
Fox Sports. Beginning in 2012, the network broadcast
Formula 1 free practices and live and delayed qualifying events and races, as well as live races from the GP2 Series and GP3 Series. On November 5, 2012, Speed Latin America was relaunched as
Fox Sports 3, whose programming remained focused on motorsports the following years. On November 2, 2014, the Australian version of Speed closed and was replaced by
Fox Sports 5.
Shutdown of Speed and relaunch as Fox Sports 1, 2 and Fox Sports Racing On March 5, 2013, Fox Sports announced that Speed would be shut down and replaced by a new mainstream sports channel known as
Fox Sports 1; the network was to inherit Speed's NASCAR coverage (which would be expanded under a new television deal in 2015 to add coverage of selected
Sprint Cup Series and
Nationwide Series events), but joined by new or recently acquired sports rights, including
college basketball and
football,
Major League Soccer,
UFC, and new studio programming. Sister channel Fuel TV was also being re-launched as a companion,
Fox Sports 2. The last program to be broadcast by Speed in the United States was a replay of qualifying for that weekend's Sprint Cup event, the
Pure Michigan 400, which was soon followed by a statement from Fox NASCAR play-by-play announcer
Mike Joy marking the end of Speed's operations in the United States: Although Fox marketed the transition to Fox Sports 1 as a re-launch of Speed, Fox was required to re-negotiate carriage deals with providers for Fox Sports 1 due to the change of its nature of service. There was uncertainty over whether Fox Sports 1 would have sufficient carriage at launch, as it had not yet reached deals with three of the four largest pay television providers in the United States (these being
DirecTV,
Dish Network and
Time Warner Cable) with only a month before its launch. However, all three finally agreed to terms to carry Fox Sports 1 three days before the scheduled launch. For any remaining television providers that did not reach a deal, Fox offered a "watered-down" version of Speed (which consisted of a loop of the network's reality programming and no live events) to fulfill existing carriage contracts until they reached a deal to carry Fox Sports 1. In international markets such as Canada, a Speed-branded service was maintained running an automated loop of Speed's previous non-event programming, and simulcasts of motorsports programming carried by Fox Sports 1 or
2. commentators record a panel discussion at the 2006
United States Grand Prix at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (left to right –
Derek Daly,
Peter Windsor,
Bob Varsha,
David Hobbs,
Sam Posey,
Steve Matchett). Despite the channel’s shutdown, the Speed brand would be briefly used on Fox Sports’ social media platforms for coverage of
AMA Supercross, the
NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, the
ARCA Racing Series,
IMSA, and other non-NASCAR motorsports. Some of these Speed-branded accounts were later converted for
IndyCar Series on Fox use. In Canada, as well as the
Caribbean and
Puerto Rico, Speed was not converted to Fox Sports 1 with the exact reasons for this not being confirmed, although in the case of Canada, it was not clear whether Fox would have had the ability to make such a change given that Speed's Canadian authorization was based on it being a motorsports-based network with that version of Speed still being available in these areas despite its U.S. shutdown. It would continue to carry various NASCAR and other motorsports events, as well as related studio programming, mostly simulcast with their U.S. broadcasts on Fox Sports 1 or Fox Sports 2, but did not otherwise originate any new programming of its own. During hours when the network was not simulcasting FS1 or FS2 coverage, it carried repeats of past events and Speed's previous reality and documentary programming without carrying commercial advertising: commercial breaks consist solely of promos for its programming, with no outside advertising aside from
public service announcements and promotions inserted by local providers. In early 2014, major Canadian service providers including
Rogers Cable and
Bell Satellite TV began to drop the service upon the expiration of their carriage contracts.
Cogeco dropped the Speed Channel on July 15, 2014.
Shaw later announced they would drop Speed on April 1, 2015 within their cable and satellite system (a.k.a. Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct). Reports indicate that Fox had attempted to raise the channel's carriage fees significantly, despite the major reductions in original programming for international viewers, and Rogers suggests Fox was unwilling to allow Speed to be moved to a more specialized package in light of the programming and cost changes. On February 19, 2015, Fox announced that the international feed of Speed would be re-branded as
Fox Sports Racing, and announced that Rogers had reached a deal to add the rebranded network back to its lineup.
Streaming and podcast revivals On October 12, 2022, it was announced that Speed co-founder Robert Scanlon was collaborating with
Rick Hendrick,
Bill Goldberg and advertising industry sales executive Joe Abruzzese to revive the Speedvision brand as a linear channel on FAST (
free
ad-
supported
television) services. In addition to the relaunch, Boss One Media, LLC, a company owned by Brian Bossone, had also acquired the Speed intellectual property, social media handles, and the website domain from
Fox Corporation, the successor company to 21st Century Fox whose assets were sold to
The Walt Disney Company in 2019. The Scanlon-led channel was relaunched on November 17, 2022 and features original and archival automotive programming on its daily schedule while the Bossone-led version is also streaming on YouTube ==Programming==