There must be a ton of fans of the Speed Channel here, eh?
Anybody else noticing it steadily going downhill?
I know that question depends largely on when you starting watching Speed. If you were a Speedvision fan (2001 and earlier), the changes over the past 3-4 years are usually anything but welcome. Some of the 'niche' motorsports which used to get coverage either get very little nowadays .. or none at all. Someone who only started watching Speed a year or two ago might not notice anything drastic because the change has been incremental.
Speed failed to carry the Dakar this year. SCCA Pro-Rally is gone and WRC coverage is greatly diminished ... and on very late at night (11:00PM EST). The SCCA Run-Offs got reduced airtime last fall/winter and I'm sure others can cite additional examples ... especially the fans of motorcycle racing.
In the place of the racing we are not watching, we've gotten a bunch of flashy, gimmicky reality-type programs such as "Barrett Jackson Car Search," "I want to Date a Race Car Driver," "Build or Bust" and more recently, the wretched "Pinks" which falsely purports to be 'old school racing.' Search around the 'net on car forums and you'll find stories/testimony claiming that this show is a bunch of B.S. These people are not giving up their cars when they lose ... and the show as a whole is pure reality-TV garbage. It's all about fake arguing, empty attitude and posing, NOT real drag racing.
And the latest offering from Speed is easily the worst ... Texas Hardtales. Oh my gawd, low brow has hit a new low. It's a sitcom that is shot as thought it were a reality show ... not unlike American Chopper. Most of us think that this trashy show might be better off on Spike TV ... or possible Comedy Central (except that it isn't funny). Making things worse, they run ads for it constantly. If you watch a 2-hour race, you'll see the same Texas Hardtales commercial at least 5 or 6 times. You just can't get away from it
Meanwhile, there are periods where they've seemed to totally give up on promoting their racing programs ... the lastest WRC ads for the Rally of Finland are a noticeable exception.
If it weren't for the F1 coverage (which remains pretty strong) ... and Speed World Challenge, I'd cancel the extra sports package I pay for in order to recieve Speed. Most of the programming simply isn't worth paying $0.02 for and if the current trend continues, they will be 100% out of the autoracing business in 3-4 years time.
--- Bror Jace
Anybody else noticing it steadily going downhill?
I know that question depends largely on when you starting watching Speed. If you were a Speedvision fan (2001 and earlier), the changes over the past 3-4 years are usually anything but welcome. Some of the 'niche' motorsports which used to get coverage either get very little nowadays .. or none at all. Someone who only started watching Speed a year or two ago might not notice anything drastic because the change has been incremental.
Speed failed to carry the Dakar this year. SCCA Pro-Rally is gone and WRC coverage is greatly diminished ... and on very late at night (11:00PM EST). The SCCA Run-Offs got reduced airtime last fall/winter and I'm sure others can cite additional examples ... especially the fans of motorcycle racing.
In the place of the racing we are not watching, we've gotten a bunch of flashy, gimmicky reality-type programs such as "Barrett Jackson Car Search," "I want to Date a Race Car Driver," "Build or Bust" and more recently, the wretched "Pinks" which falsely purports to be 'old school racing.' Search around the 'net on car forums and you'll find stories/testimony claiming that this show is a bunch of B.S. These people are not giving up their cars when they lose ... and the show as a whole is pure reality-TV garbage. It's all about fake arguing, empty attitude and posing, NOT real drag racing.
And the latest offering from Speed is easily the worst ... Texas Hardtales. Oh my gawd, low brow has hit a new low. It's a sitcom that is shot as thought it were a reality show ... not unlike American Chopper. Most of us think that this trashy show might be better off on Spike TV ... or possible Comedy Central (except that it isn't funny). Making things worse, they run ads for it constantly. If you watch a 2-hour race, you'll see the same Texas Hardtales commercial at least 5 or 6 times. You just can't get away from it
Meanwhile, there are periods where they've seemed to totally give up on promoting their racing programs ... the lastest WRC ads for the Rally of Finland are a noticeable exception.
If it weren't for the F1 coverage (which remains pretty strong) ... and Speed World Challenge, I'd cancel the extra sports package I pay for in order to recieve Speed. Most of the programming simply isn't worth paying $0.02 for and if the current trend continues, they will be 100% out of the autoracing business in 3-4 years time.
--- Bror Jace